G4TV

Translating collectable card games (or CCGs as the geeks in the know call them) to the video game medium has been a hit and miss affair. A few get it right (some of the Magic the Gathering games, for instance), but mostly CCG fans end up with boring, uninspired, mediocre messes. Warhammer: Battle for Atluma is a virtual version of the popular Sabertooth Games’ CCG, and while Warhammer: Battle for Atluma is better than the endlessly painful parade of Yu-Gi-Oh! games, it’s still not very good.

True to Life

Admittedly, the flaws in Warhammer: Battle for Atluma might be significantly less pronounced if you are a fan of the CCG version. To most other gamers, however, CCGs are a snoozefest of dull gameplay, bad graphics, and monotony. Warhammer: Battle for Atluma isn’t much different, but fans can at least rest assured that the developers spent a lot of time focusing on getting the mechanics of the CCG right.

The backdrop is as deep and historic as most Warhammer: Battle for Atluma games, although the plot certainly isn’t. You must battle your way through either the evil hordes of darkness, or the grand alliance using your wits and mighty deck of cards. Newcomers to this sort of game will appreciate the video tutorials and decent manual, and the game is easy to learn.

Essentially, you use a deck of cards to battle by placing troop cards strategically on the battlefield. Like an advanced version of Rock-Scissors-Paper, each card has specific strengths, tactics, and powers, and the object is to overpower your opponent’s card choices. You can sort, swap, and earn new cards, but once the deck is made you lose most of your customization options.

Fuzzy Logic

Even worse is the presentation. The cards are hard to read on the PSP screen, and the various landscapes you’ll battle on are bland and lifeless. There is also very little set-up to tie the card battles together in the single player game. If all you want to do is play out card battles, this might not be a problem, but the game could have offered a much better wrapper for the card battles—something that felt more like a real RPG instead of a basic tabletop game.

Warhammer: Battle for Atluma supports battles and card swapping through the PSP’s ad hoc wireless mode. Playing head-to-head gives the game a much more appealing feel, although Internet play would have made a lot more sense. Overall, Warhammer: Battle for Atluma deserves kudos for being such a meticulous translation of the card game. Unfortunately, there is little else to attract anyone other than the hard core fan base.

Article by: Jason D'Aprile
Video produced by: Michael Benson