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Gen Con 2008: Chaotic impressions

by: Tyler -
More On: Blog
Gen Con was full of both collectable card games and electronic offerings, and a few games that bridged that gap.  Chaotic is one of the latest titles to make the leap between tabletop and online play, this time targeted at the 6-to-14-year-old audience.

As a card game, Chaotic is pretty solid.  It’s not terribly deep, but there seems to be plenty of room for creative deck building.  Those familiar with CCGs in general will have no problem dropping right in, since Chaotic features the usual menagerie of monsters and magic (or “mugic”, in this case).  Players set up their creatures to batter their opponents, trying to break through the enemy armies with tactics and various special cards.  Creatures have elemental alliances and a simple set of stats.  One thing that sets Chaotic apart from most games I’ve seen is the fact that few creatures, even of the same name, have the exact same stats.  So even if I and my opponent have the exact same deck build, card for card we may have enough differences to keep things interesting.

Where Chaotic leaps to the electronic front is through a code on the bottom of each card.  This card can be entered into the online portion of the game to generate an exact virtual copy of the card for use against online foes.  So players can have mirror copies of both cardboard and virtual decks, allowing them to play with friends next door or opponents across the globe.  The online portion is a straightforward virtual game table, with the requisite chat rooms, ranking system, and match-finding areas.  The interface looked clean, and it was quite simple to call out a challenge and dive into a quick match.  They’re still working on spiffing up portions of the game, as they had just implemented some new graphics and sound effects to heighten the game a bit.  All in all, it looks like a neat little CCG.

In addition, Chaotic also sports a weekend animated TV show to entertain and educate the kiddies about the new cards and some possible strategies.  I haven’t had a chance to check out the show itself, so I don’t know if there’s any quality there or if it’s just a half-hour infomercial in disguise.  Regardless, Chaotic looks to be an interesting CCG for the younger set, who probably already know much more about this title than I ever will.

For more details, head over to www.chaoticgame.com

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