Top 10 Best Games of 2014

2. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hearthstone is a free to play online collectible card game that caused quite a buzz when it was released earlier this year. Hearthstone is kind of like Magic the Gathering but simpler and easier to learn. The gameplay mechanics are very different from MtG but Hearthstone is every bit as addictive. It's one of those games where you will find yourself saying “eh just one more match” and then play five more matches without realizing it.

Lots of game developers try their hand at making the next big card game and fail. Hearthstone succeeded in part because it was made by Blizzard Entertainment and they have a history of creating some of the most epic game franchises of all time such as StarCraft, World of Warcraft, and Diablo.

Without going into the actual rules of the game, I'll just say Hearthstone is more inviting to play than a lot of other card games out there with pages of rules and complex card interactions that can overwhelm new players trying to learn the ropes. One important mechanic is that there's pretty much no mana screw in Hearthstone. You passively gain an additional mana every turn so you don't have to worry about not drawing a land when you most need it.

That's another reason Hearthstone is so great is that pretty much anybody can get the hang of it right away. You don't have to be a strategic genius to have fun online. Casual players love Hearthstone just as much as the most competitive ones. And it does get competitive. Even the highest levels of competitive gaming circuits like Major League Gaming regularly host Hearthstone tournaments.

One of the best parts of Hearthstone is, as mentioned previously, the game is free to play (though you can pay money to buy booster packs via the micro-transaction model all the free to play games nowadays are so fond of). You can also buy card packs with in-game gold earned by winning games and doing daily quests so if you want to, you never have to actually spend any money.

According to Blizzard, there were over 20 million accounts on the game as of last September so clearly Hearthstone was one of the most successful games of 2014.

Posted: 31st Dec 2014 by Alexander Hinkley
Tags:
Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3,