The good news is Valve are still working to fix Artifact. The bad news is there’s still no exact date when that will happen, so we’ll just have to show a bit more patience along the roadmap.
Valve Corporation is a major player in the gaming industry with outstanding titles like Half-Life, CS:GO, Dota 2, Left 4 Dead and Portal. Artifact was supposed to join this list of successful games, but instead, it flopped. It flopped hard. You could say the game came out at the wrong moment when nobody really wanted another digital card game since the market was already flooded with enough of those.
Gabe Newell’s company put a lot of effort into the game’s development as they hired Magic the Gathering creator Richard Garfield but after the game’s failure, the famous designer left the project. Valve was left to fix the issues alone.
So what were Artifact’s problems?
We’ve already covered most of them already, but let’s sum it up here:
- The game wasn’t free to play and to this day, this is the most popular and successful model in the card game genre. Hearthstone, Gwent and others are using it to a huge degree of success.
- Artifact was too complex. In a card game, you usually have cards, duh, and their effects. With Artifact, it wasn’t that simple as each player had to choose three heroes, each with dedicated spells. Items were also on the menu and allowed you to customize heroes even further. There are also deck types and not every spell works with every type so that’s something to consider.
- Terrible RNG – sometimes you’ll win or lose the game based on random unit placement that you had no control over.
- To put the cherry on top, the game has three lanes instead of one, making it even more confusing for players new to card games and/or MOBAs.
READ MORE:
The roadmap for Artifact 2.0
Looking at what Valve changed, Artifact might be back on its feet this time:
We’ve been focusing on gameplay changes first. The biggest change is zooming out to allow players access to all three lanes at once. We’ve also focused on making the game easier to pick up. We aren’t selling cards, so you won’t face an opponent with a stacked deck. Q. I played the original, will I have access to my stats, cards, decks, etc. from the original game?A. In the new version cards are unlocked through play. Individual cards are likely to have been changed, removed, or brand new; so old decks and stats wouldn’t be valid.Q. Can I buy cards/packs in the Beta?A. We have some ideas about what we’d like to sell, but none of them are cards/packs.
It seems that Valve’s development team is addressing the biggest problem of them all and taking the title to a free-to-play format. Since cards won’t be sold on the market or through packs, the only determining factor remains how much progress you make in-game. Whether the complexity that put many people off in the past will be reduced remains to be seen. Artifact is getting a separate executable for the beta 2.0 version and only individual accounts will be invited to participate. It’s important to note that only players who purchased the original version of Artifact will be eligible to join in. If you were one of them, there’s a chance you’ll get an invitation.Here’s also the roadmap:
- Test boring stuff <- We are here
- Trickle out invites, starting with players of the original release (ramping up similar to Dota 2)
- Work on the Beta, eventually transitioning to an open beta
- Leave Beta (hopefully quicker than Dota 2)
You can always check the official announcement of the beta. By the looks of it. we’ll be hearing more about Artifact in the near future, so stay tuned for more updates. In the meantime, check out our Gaming section!
