My first thought was to write a review that would take as long to read as it took to finish the Opera, Karazhan’s second wing, but if you got this far already then I fear I’ve already taken up too much of your time. In fact, a four-year old child probably beat the entire wing twice while you read this paragraph. I’m just guessing, but I wouldn’t be surprised.
My next thought was to spend as much time writing this review as it took to beat all five uninspired bosses of the Opera, class challenges included. But alas dear reader we are once again out of time already, not even two hundred words into this casual review.
The Opera was incredibly disappointing. Some of the cards you get for completing it are pretty good, don’t get me wrong, but the actual challenges were really, really not challenging at all. I’m not even going to bother sharing deck lists because you can easily have hearthstone auto-create a deck from your collection and it should be just fine.
All three fights are inspired by famous stories and they’re being performed for you at Medivh’s Opera. The flavor is fantastic. This is the best thing the Opera wing has going for it. Battling through Romeo and Juliet, Little Red Riding Hood, and the Wizard of Oz are all a lot of fun, in theory. But they’re not challenging.
Even as a casual player there’s an expectation of challenge and difficulty. Sure, the vast majority of casual players are not going to put the time into figuring out Heroic mode. For the most part they’ll either skip it or they’ll look up a video to guide them along the way. Nothing wrong with that.
But, the Normal and Class Challenge modes should present some kind of challenge other than “spend 15 minutes clicking in exchange for these 10 cards!” Casual players are players who generally don’t have the time or money to play regularly. They aren’t idiots that need to be coddled like infants.
Karazhan continues to impress me with the deeply flavorful challenges from playing chess to fighting the Wicked Witch of the West. But I am also very concerned about the enjoyment level. While there are certainly plenty of players who would be more than happy to just hand over 2800 gold (or the cash equivalent) in exchange for the full 45-card set, I think the majority of players, myself included, are looking to play some kind of, what do you call it, game.
Wing number three, the Menagerie, should be available tomorrow (for those of us in North America at least). When it does, I hope the flavor is just as strong as in the Opera and the Parlor but that the gameplay challenge is closer to something actually resembling a game.
Rich has been playing Hearthstone on and off since the closed beta and has a golden E.T.C. to prove it. He enjoys playing Zoolock on the ladder and wishes he could figure out how to get more than five wins in the Arena. He’s really looking forward to playing Silence-Aggro Priest once Karazhan is live.