TheAllyKat
12-21-2012, 04:58 AM
The art work going into this project was beyond fabulous. I started looking into comics for the first time in over a decade with the introduction of the New 52. Its been impressive. So, it comes with no surprise that the art for the game looks fabulous. It would be hard for that to be ruined.
The game is boasting this "Cerberus Engine: Heroes". Based upon reviews the mechanics for the Lord of the Rings variant it is obvious that these system types are designed for mergers. I have a suspicion that when you licensed DC Comics for the rights or when they contacted you it was with the knowledge that Upper Deck was granted with the Marvel Comics franchise. The system is obviously designed for the mix-n-match of franchises. This being said DC Entertainment's current animated Young Justice would be an obvious choice for the first expansion to the game.
The system seems heavily focused on rewarding players power to hinder other players. The heroes the players choose from are the members of the Justice League. This instantly creates the vibe that all the players will be working together. Victory and bragging rights to whomever can leave there mark as the best hero by having the high score. This concept of teamwork is further extended by having it so that when all players defeat all the Super Villains the game is over. So, the Justice League teams up to take down all the villains but wait the game rewards a player by providing them with cards that refer to those other heroes as their foes??? This might have worked with the Watchmen series being the focus of the same but not the Justice League.
I am not even going to look at the rules before making this post because there are already some key concerns that I was not expecting from an established company.
Female Discrimination
The regular Villain cards in the game feature mechanics that hinder the other players. In a Deck Building Game with a free-for-all theme, this component makes sense. Here less so. This is not my concern. There is a common issue that I am seeing again in the Cryptozoic line. I recently acquired the Epic Spell Wars game. I was willing to let this issue slide since it was an independent release. The DC Deck-Building Game is a licensed game from one of the largest literature publishers in the world. There is no need for discrimination here. As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure once DC Comics receives my letter they will agree that you are no properly representing their product. After all, there was this issue surrounding the Women's Rights Movement back a while ago in which the company did not fare so well.
At the age of 29, I am not only a game but I am a female game. If I had a daughter in her teens, I would want to share this game with her. It seems that Cryptozoic disagrees. According to the trend in your games, girls do not play games or rather you would prefer that they do not play your game. If we look at the games both of the games mentioned refer to players of the game using male pronouns. I cannot begin to describe how insulting that this is.
You might want to take a look at this as a company. Just maybe! It only took me a whole minute skimming through random cards of my game to notice that every player specific reference used a male pronoun: "his hand", "his deck", "his discard", etc. This continued on to cards that referred to all the other Villain cards has being male because we all know that "Cheetah" and Poison Ivy are male. This is so obviously clear with their C-Cup or larger developed chests that the art for these cards feature.
In the future: Is it so hard for people to read the cards before they go to print? Cryptozoic must have beta tests of the game which would imply people are reading the cards to play test the game. I am only assuming the Cryptozoic was not intentionally sexually discriminating its potential customers by having all-male testing groups.
Card Storage
In the world of card-based games it is vital for the store of the game to fit into the box it came in. It seems to be expecting a lot of any company to allow for protection against wear and tear with protective card sleeves but that is another issue all together. The rounding of the indent in the plastic mold for storing the cards actually pushes at the cards causing wear and tear to store them. The logical solution would be to sleeve cards but considering the cards do not fit properly without the increase in the dimensions of the cards that is impossible.
The only space that was not too small was the only remaining space. One would be forced to assume that space is for the Super Hero cards. This is result of it being the only unmarked spot and those being the only type of cards left unmarked. Of course, its way too deep as it is capable of storing hundreds of over-sized cards. I would like to say it works except the indents created for a person sliding their fingers in does not go down deep enough.
This was a disappointment because this far from Cryptozoic's first card-based game.
Size of "Super Hero" Cards
Lets talk about these "over-sized" cards. I would have to agree with that description. These definitely are "over-sized" for every single protective card sleeve on the market. As a matter of fact, a rather strong up-and-company in the industry (Fantasy Flight Games) took it upon themselves to release card sleeves of all the major types of card sizes. This was because most companies use established guidelines for releasing a product onto the market. So, if 80%+ of the industry is saying cards should be certain dimensions that's what they go with.
The release of a Deck-Building Game is an acknowledgement that your product is being sold to serious gamers. These are consumers who buy protective accessories to enhance the durability and lifespan of the games in their collection.
Which brings me to the "over-sized" Super Hero cards that are larger than the largest established card size by industry standards (the Tarot Card size.) The art alone in this game makes it a collectible treasure which targets the comic reading audience. Just to be clear to any staff member of Cryptozoic, if you go into any comic shop and look at the old comics in the shop. You will see that all these comics are on protective plastic covers.
The worst part of it is that there is no actual reason for these cards to be so large. 26 is the number of words on the Super Hero card with the most amount of words on the card. This represents only two sentences. Both of which I have already far exceeded in this current paragraph. Most of the non-"over-sized" (or should "Standard Card Size" as Fantasy Flight Games calls them), have more text on the cards and it is clearly visible at the smaller print.
I am aware that protective measures against wear and tear does not represent every customer. Considering that Fantasy Flight Games seems to be having troubles keeping stores supplied with protective sleeves in the Standard Card Size format, I can say with concept that it is a large percentage of the market who like myself purchases enough protective sleeves with each new card-based game purchase.
No Game Board
I think I will keep this direct and to the point. For the price of this game, where is the game board?
Availability of the Promotional Card
I live in a greater metropolis. It is not uncommon for some of the key larger stores to receive direct from the distributors promotional material to ensure their customers are not at a disadvantage of having someone else pay for the postage costs. To my surprise, I was not able to find a single store in the Great Vancouver area that received any copies of the promotional cards. I discovered the promotional card after watching various online videos from reviewers bragging about the free promo card that came with the game.
Its disappointing as a customer knowing that people that are being giving free copies of the game are also being given the "limited quantities" promotional materials. Yes, I checked the Crytozoic store to see if I could get a copy of the game to increase the chances of acquiring one of the Martian Manhunter cards. I say increase because the disclaimer made it clear that ordering online would not guarantee one of the promo cards. Unfortunately, the store was sold out.
Normally, as a customer, I enjoy the sound advice of online (or otherwise) reviews of a product. I do not enjoy knowing that the reason that I was unable to acquire a special bonus with my game because they are being given away without purchase of the game to people who may only play it enough times to do their review and never touch it again.
http://www.cryptozoic.com/demo/dc
This is a bit more of a pet peeve than anything else. Cryptozoic, if you are going to post a website URL in the rulebook, it should not go to a page that is listed as "Coming Soon".
The game is boasting this "Cerberus Engine: Heroes". Based upon reviews the mechanics for the Lord of the Rings variant it is obvious that these system types are designed for mergers. I have a suspicion that when you licensed DC Comics for the rights or when they contacted you it was with the knowledge that Upper Deck was granted with the Marvel Comics franchise. The system is obviously designed for the mix-n-match of franchises. This being said DC Entertainment's current animated Young Justice would be an obvious choice for the first expansion to the game.
The system seems heavily focused on rewarding players power to hinder other players. The heroes the players choose from are the members of the Justice League. This instantly creates the vibe that all the players will be working together. Victory and bragging rights to whomever can leave there mark as the best hero by having the high score. This concept of teamwork is further extended by having it so that when all players defeat all the Super Villains the game is over. So, the Justice League teams up to take down all the villains but wait the game rewards a player by providing them with cards that refer to those other heroes as their foes??? This might have worked with the Watchmen series being the focus of the same but not the Justice League.
I am not even going to look at the rules before making this post because there are already some key concerns that I was not expecting from an established company.
Female Discrimination
The regular Villain cards in the game feature mechanics that hinder the other players. In a Deck Building Game with a free-for-all theme, this component makes sense. Here less so. This is not my concern. There is a common issue that I am seeing again in the Cryptozoic line. I recently acquired the Epic Spell Wars game. I was willing to let this issue slide since it was an independent release. The DC Deck-Building Game is a licensed game from one of the largest literature publishers in the world. There is no need for discrimination here. As a matter of fact, I am pretty sure once DC Comics receives my letter they will agree that you are no properly representing their product. After all, there was this issue surrounding the Women's Rights Movement back a while ago in which the company did not fare so well.
At the age of 29, I am not only a game but I am a female game. If I had a daughter in her teens, I would want to share this game with her. It seems that Cryptozoic disagrees. According to the trend in your games, girls do not play games or rather you would prefer that they do not play your game. If we look at the games both of the games mentioned refer to players of the game using male pronouns. I cannot begin to describe how insulting that this is.
You might want to take a look at this as a company. Just maybe! It only took me a whole minute skimming through random cards of my game to notice that every player specific reference used a male pronoun: "his hand", "his deck", "his discard", etc. This continued on to cards that referred to all the other Villain cards has being male because we all know that "Cheetah" and Poison Ivy are male. This is so obviously clear with their C-Cup or larger developed chests that the art for these cards feature.
In the future: Is it so hard for people to read the cards before they go to print? Cryptozoic must have beta tests of the game which would imply people are reading the cards to play test the game. I am only assuming the Cryptozoic was not intentionally sexually discriminating its potential customers by having all-male testing groups.
Card Storage
In the world of card-based games it is vital for the store of the game to fit into the box it came in. It seems to be expecting a lot of any company to allow for protection against wear and tear with protective card sleeves but that is another issue all together. The rounding of the indent in the plastic mold for storing the cards actually pushes at the cards causing wear and tear to store them. The logical solution would be to sleeve cards but considering the cards do not fit properly without the increase in the dimensions of the cards that is impossible.
The only space that was not too small was the only remaining space. One would be forced to assume that space is for the Super Hero cards. This is result of it being the only unmarked spot and those being the only type of cards left unmarked. Of course, its way too deep as it is capable of storing hundreds of over-sized cards. I would like to say it works except the indents created for a person sliding their fingers in does not go down deep enough.
This was a disappointment because this far from Cryptozoic's first card-based game.
Size of "Super Hero" Cards
Lets talk about these "over-sized" cards. I would have to agree with that description. These definitely are "over-sized" for every single protective card sleeve on the market. As a matter of fact, a rather strong up-and-company in the industry (Fantasy Flight Games) took it upon themselves to release card sleeves of all the major types of card sizes. This was because most companies use established guidelines for releasing a product onto the market. So, if 80%+ of the industry is saying cards should be certain dimensions that's what they go with.
The release of a Deck-Building Game is an acknowledgement that your product is being sold to serious gamers. These are consumers who buy protective accessories to enhance the durability and lifespan of the games in their collection.
Which brings me to the "over-sized" Super Hero cards that are larger than the largest established card size by industry standards (the Tarot Card size.) The art alone in this game makes it a collectible treasure which targets the comic reading audience. Just to be clear to any staff member of Cryptozoic, if you go into any comic shop and look at the old comics in the shop. You will see that all these comics are on protective plastic covers.
The worst part of it is that there is no actual reason for these cards to be so large. 26 is the number of words on the Super Hero card with the most amount of words on the card. This represents only two sentences. Both of which I have already far exceeded in this current paragraph. Most of the non-"over-sized" (or should "Standard Card Size" as Fantasy Flight Games calls them), have more text on the cards and it is clearly visible at the smaller print.
I am aware that protective measures against wear and tear does not represent every customer. Considering that Fantasy Flight Games seems to be having troubles keeping stores supplied with protective sleeves in the Standard Card Size format, I can say with concept that it is a large percentage of the market who like myself purchases enough protective sleeves with each new card-based game purchase.
No Game Board
I think I will keep this direct and to the point. For the price of this game, where is the game board?
Availability of the Promotional Card
I live in a greater metropolis. It is not uncommon for some of the key larger stores to receive direct from the distributors promotional material to ensure their customers are not at a disadvantage of having someone else pay for the postage costs. To my surprise, I was not able to find a single store in the Great Vancouver area that received any copies of the promotional cards. I discovered the promotional card after watching various online videos from reviewers bragging about the free promo card that came with the game.
Its disappointing as a customer knowing that people that are being giving free copies of the game are also being given the "limited quantities" promotional materials. Yes, I checked the Crytozoic store to see if I could get a copy of the game to increase the chances of acquiring one of the Martian Manhunter cards. I say increase because the disclaimer made it clear that ordering online would not guarantee one of the promo cards. Unfortunately, the store was sold out.
Normally, as a customer, I enjoy the sound advice of online (or otherwise) reviews of a product. I do not enjoy knowing that the reason that I was unable to acquire a special bonus with my game because they are being given away without purchase of the game to people who may only play it enough times to do their review and never touch it again.
http://www.cryptozoic.com/demo/dc
This is a bit more of a pet peeve than anything else. Cryptozoic, if you are going to post a website URL in the rulebook, it should not go to a page that is listed as "Coming Soon".