A while back I wrote up a few articles as well as made a couple of videos about the Ascension deck building game, specifically a "how to play" video as well as articles and videos about a few of the expansions. Recently Ultra Pro sent me a copy of their newest deck building game Shards of Infinity for review, so I decided to fire up the camcorder once again to check it out.
In short, the game itself is pretty good. If you've played either Ascension or another deck building game called Star Realms, you'll have a pretty good idea of how Shards of Infinity plays. The game can be played with two to four players and the goal is to reduce your opponents' health to zero and be the last person standing. This is done by using gems to acquire Allies and Champions from the center row, use power to reduce your opponent's health, and gain mastery to improve the effects of the cards you play. Overall the game itself is pretty enjoyable, again especially if you enjoy games like Ascension. My only real nitpick is that the four character cards are all pretty much the same as each one has the same ability: pay one gem and exhaust (turn sideways) the character to gain one mastery. Hopefully future sets will include more characters with different abilities so choosing a character will be part of the strategy of how you play.
