Gen Con was full of both collectable card games and
electronic offerings, and a few games that bridged that gap. Chaotic
is one of the latest titles to make the leap between tabletop and online play,
this time targeted at the 6-to-14-year-old audience.
As a card game, Chaotic
is pretty solid. It’s not terribly deep,
but there seems to be plenty of room for creative deck building. Those familiar with CCGs in general will have
no problem dropping right in, since Chaotic
features the usual menagerie of monsters and magic (or “mugic”, in this
case). Players set up their creatures to
batter their opponents, trying to break through the enemy armies with tactics
and various special cards. Creatures
have elemental alliances and a simple set of stats. One thing that sets Chaotic apart from most games I’ve seen is the fact that few
creatures, even of the same name, have the exact same stats. So even if I and my opponent have the exact
same deck build, card for card we may have enough differences to keep things
interesting.
Where Chaotic
leaps to the electronic front is through a code on the bottom of each
card. This card can be entered into the
online portion of the game to generate an exact virtual copy of the card for use
against online foes. So players can have
mirror copies of both cardboard and virtual decks, allowing them to play with
friends next door or opponents across the globe. The online portion is a straightforward
virtual game table, with the requisite chat rooms, ranking system, and
match-finding areas. The interface
looked clean, and it was quite simple to call out a challenge and dive into a
quick match. They’re still working on
spiffing up portions of the game, as they had just implemented some new graphics
and sound effects to heighten the game a bit.
All in all, it looks like a neat little CCG.
In addition, Chaotic
also sports a weekend animated TV show to entertain and educate the kiddies
about the new cards and some possible strategies. I haven’t had a chance to check out the show
itself, so I don’t know if there’s any quality there or if it’s just a
half-hour infomercial in disguise.
Regardless, Chaotic looks to
be an interesting CCG for the younger set,
who probably already know much more about this title than I ever will.
For more details, head over to www.chaoticgame.com