The game is enjoyable on the surface for any TCG players out there. However, the game is clearly a desperate hail Mary from Valve to find a The game is enjoyable on the surface for any TCG players out there. However, the game is clearly a desperate hail Mary from Valve to find a foot in a market by spinning off one of their most popular IPs at the moment.

I think somewhere along the development pipeline, Gaben saw the game and said, "I'm not paying to promote this." Because this game really, super quieltly eeked out of the woodwork. I didn't know the release date until it was out. They added an update to Dota just to show the release trailer for artifact.

Other reviewers have touched on why the pay to win model is dumb, but let me add something, I genuinely can't comprehend why someone would pay for digital cards. Physical cards, sure. I can physically trade those in a few years and they may increase in value because they're physical. But digital TCG, I can only trade Steam Wallet dollars. Which is about as useful as trading Dave N Buster's bucks at the Car Dealership. So, you're paying as much as you would for other TCG, you get less, and the experience is only online. I shouldn't have to explain why that's dumb.

The game has cool features at first, until you realize that outside of the most basic matchmaking features, the game requires you to buy tickets to play the other features.

The game as is, is the polar oppostie of Dota. It's absolute horse **** that they attatched Dota's name to this game. The art design is the same, but outside of that, they're nothing alike.



Lastly, the consequences of this game directly impact Dota 2, the game that we actually give a **** about. Many of the changes to heroes in Artifact recently showed up in the 7.20 update for Dota. Expect to see hero buffs and nerfs take place purely based on how Valve wants to inflate or deflate the value of Artifact cards. If you think that supporting this game is all's well that ends well, peep how complacency empowers lazy, fearful, greedy companies like Activision, Bethesda and EA pays out.

Pro tip: You get **** games in the future.



To all those who are saying this game is good for trying something new, keep in mind that new ideas aren't always the best. And all the pro Dota players or Dotacasters that are sucking this game off are totally biased. They're paid by Valve to promote the game. And being able to stream a game before everyone else gets their hands on it will guarantee you views/donations. That's just the law of averages.



AVOID if you can. … Expand