Review: The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game – Definitive Edition (Steam)

Build a deck of iconic heroes and challenge the forces of Sauron in this thrilling tactical card game. Travel through famous locations, complete story-driven quests, and forge a new legend of Middle-earth on your own or with a friend in cooperative mode. But beware: the Eye of Sauron is searching for you.

Pros:

• Beautiful graphics.
• 5029mb Download size.
• Steam achievements.
• Graphics-quality preset, resolution, fullscreen, and AA.
• Two modes-Single player and multiplayer.
• Tow additional campaigns- The shadows Fall and The Witch Kings grasp.
• Decks-for creating and editing decks.
• Vault-customization options like avatars, frames, and card backs.
• Opening tutorial fights.
• Fully voiced.
• Card battler gameplay.
• Resources- This goes up each round and any unused resources are kept. You use resources to play cards so saving up will allow stronger better cards to be played.
• World map level select with campaign missions and optional side quests and encounters.
• Can be played with just a mouse.
• Can Mulligan at the start of a game.
• Game is split into phases-upkeep and action. This has an effect on what cards can be played.
• Rounds-the match is split into these but the actual playing of actions/cards is a take turns affair so you go then they go then you and so on.
• Travel-once you do your quest in a match (usually killing a certain card) you can then travel to the next part of the quest. The kicker is you can travel whenever you want but the enemy can still play their cards as you travel.
• You can only play a card once per combat phase.
• Play how you want.
• Quest challenges-complete the bonus quests for extra rewards.
• Excellent animations and overall presentation.
• Multiplayer–find a game or host public/private game.
• Multiplayer is Co-op against the campaign story.
• Fellowship-in game currency to buy new avatars/borders/emotes.
• Villans and Heroes are stronger cards and the ones you usually need to take out.
• The core gameplay is easy to grasp.
• 3 difficulties-narrative/adventure/challenge.
• Mirror of Galadriel is a quest on the map that gives you a random match every time.
• Strong story and lore at play.
• The full cast of characters is in it.
• Battles always take place with you against Sauron in the campaign.
• Event cards can be played which mix it up.
• Cards all have different activation requirements like only activates in the upkeep phase or only activates in retaliation.

Cons:

• The tutorial is very basic and misses out a few important bits like how to read cards efficiently.
• No help with deck building.
• Initially, the game is slow as you take it all in.
• AI can feel a bit cheap at times.
• Basic graphic settings.
• The story is forced onto you and you can only skip loading screen musings.
• No online battle modes.
• The act of playing and reacting to cards is very low level and basic.
• Level selection is just a cold open map with icons.
• Little variety in the actual quest line objectives.
• A lot to take on in regards to learning the cards.
• Little options to spend your fellowship credits on and eventually, you will exhaust all purchasable items.