by Cody
“Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor




Since the introduction of the modern collectable card game in 1993,
hundreds of companies have been vying to produce the most popular
iteration on the market. Magic:
The Gathering
– the founding product behind the
trading card game revolution – still maintains a substantial
foothold in the physical space, but the digital realm has yet to be
thoroughly claimed by any one particular company. Although style="font-style: italic;">Magic has its own
online version, the war for digital supremacy has yet to be decided.


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style="font-style: italic;">Many cards in style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath: Forsworn
try to touch on the nostalgic feelings of old style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest players.

Sony Online Entertainment’s style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath
online trading card game is one of the up-and-comers for the crown of
the digital kingdom. Unlike many of its trading card cousins, style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath
(LoN) is played in a completely digital format, eschewing the table top
for a computer desktop. Users buy and trade cards via SOE’s
online marketplace and all the games are played through the LoN client
and an internet connection.



Released in the late summer of 2007, style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath
has been a relatively successful venture for SOE, if you  base
their success on the number of users online and playing. Each day the
chat room has lists available participants, and each tournament has had
a fair number of individuals that have been drawn to the competition.
In our review of Legends
of Norrath
a few weeks after its release, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/12633">we gave the
title a solid review, indicating that the cards were
nostalgically
EverQuest in their style and entertaining in their gameplay.



Yet releasing the game wasn’t enough for the SOE-Denver
developers, and they opted to release an expansion set for the game in
the few short months before the 2007 holiday season. Pushing
themselves, the development team put together a full blown 230+ card
expansion for the game that was available days before Christmas. Titled
Legends of Norrath:
Forsworn
, the expansion introduced a number of new
features to the original game, including raid scenarios, 2-on-2 combat,
more avatars, new unit and avatar types, and a variety of special
keywords. From a storyline standpoint, style="font-style: italic;">Forsworn focuses on
a number of characters that have forsaken their oaths to the Tribunal
and are fighting against the Oathbound (the player characters) for
control of Norrath.



With several months of tweaking under their belts, the developers at
SOE-Denver have firmly balanced the gameplay within style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath,
and the Forsworn
expansion set amplifies the specializations of each avatar archetype
without breaking any of the game mechanics. For example, each archetype
now includes another of the “classes” within the style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest games:
the Fighters received new Paladin cards, Mages earned Necromancer
abilities, Druid and Shaman cards were added to the Priest archetype,
and Scouts were bestowed more Ranger enhancements. LoN players who
enjoyed playing “theme-based” decks will find that
these new additions are great for their decks and make items like the
Necromantic Orb a workable card in the course of play.


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title="Terins-Battle-Axe"> src="/image/view/78292"
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style="font-style: italic;">Terin's Battle Axe
is one of the many powerful new cards in this expansion set.

While the game still suffers from the
“build-of-the-month” sort of situations, there
really is no one way to play in Legends of Norrath, especially now that
the “Power Elf” combo (a set of cards that allowed
for quick kills and absurd power increases) has been changed and
several other balancing factors have been added. Any player who sits
down to a full variety of cards will find that they can put together a
viable deck that will essentially counter any deck that was a
powerhouse only a few weeks ago. A Fiery Avenger deck that focuses on
avatar versus avatar combat may now feel some pressure from the
low-cost Necromancer unit deck with a few Disintegrates thrown into the
mix. The Forsworn expansion really amplifies the number of options
available to savvy players.



Along with the new cards a number of cooperative scenarios have been
added to the game, included a 2-on-2 multiplayer combat feature and a
raid deck competition. The 2-on-2 matches are self-explanatory: two
players face off against another two players to vie for the best tag
team combo. In the recent addition, the tag team combos are perhaps the
most unbalanced out of all the card assortments. It’s
incredibly easy for a pair of avatar-combat characters to decimate any
players that focus on unit or quest-building. Although the same can be
said for the one-on-one matches, it’s much more evident in
the 2-on-2 matches, especially if one of your teammates is not ready to
face avatar combatants.



Out of all the additions to the new set, the raid scenarios are the
most entertaining. Unlike the World
of Warcraft
trading card game, the raid deck scenarios are
incredibly easy to jump into and participate in. With a willing and
waiting set of players at hand, the first few days of the Forsworn
expansion release were full of player attempting to kill off both
Trakanon and the Goblin Dojo NPCs. To begin a raid, a group of 2-4
players (depending on the raid requirements) join together to form a
fighting force against the raid opponents. Then the group most complete
a series of objectives (typically defeat a series of enemies) to
complete the raid. It was great fun, especially for
those of us who stayed up into the late hours of the evening trying to
be the first few to take down the nasty dragon and the filthy goblins.



But this also brings up my biggest worry about the style="font-style: italic;">Forsworn expansion
set. In general, the raid decks are almost overbearingly difficult.
Even with a group of players that really have a solid assortment of
avatars and cards, the raids are some of the toughest opponents
you’ll face in the game. Over the course of a week, I beat
the Trakanon raid only once and just by the skin of my teeth. Although
I could now claim that I had defeated one of the hardest creatures in
the game, I was also concerned about those players that got burnt out
or happened to have poor partners in every single one of their matches.
It’s one thing to fail to defeat a creature in a one-on-one
battle (you have only yourself to blame), but when there are others
involved, finger-pointing becomes an issue. Perhaps some easier
raids/multiplayer quests should be implemented into the game to allow
players to learn tactics and find out how to interact in multiplayer
games.


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title="Fire-Goblin-Scout"> src="/image/view/78292"
width="150">

style="font-style: italic;">A variety of
goblins have also been added to Legends
of Norrath
.

For the most part, the cards in the style="font-style: italic;">Forsworn expansion
continue to follow the nostalgic feel of the original Oathbound set.
Familiar identities like Antonia Bayle and Lady Vox are now integrated
into the game, and the avatar pool has been expanded to include the
despicable Iksar and the haughty High Elves. Frogloks, Dark Elves,
Goblins and Wood Elves are now available as unit cards, so individuals
who wanted to create decks with a particular race of creature can now
engage in that activity.



The Forsworn
expansion set does bring one area of the game into question. Despite
all the tutorials and helpful players that are available at all hours
of the day, the complexity of the game may soon become a crutch rather
than a feature. Throughout my reviews of the style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath
card game, I’ve never once felt overwhelmed with the amount
of information that needs to be kept track of. However, with the
variety of new cards that have been developed for the two released sets
alone, I can’t help but feel that the future expansions may
begin to suffer from all of the nuances that are being integrated into
the game.



Rather than keeping the game simple and streamlined, the developers are
continuing to explore the depths of the style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest universe
and creating new rules to accommodate for the items they’ve
seen in the two MMOGs. In Forsworn alone, four keywords, two raids, a
single player scenario, and several new unit and avatar types were
added into the game. While I still feel that style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath
is a solid and incredibly fun game, I can’t help but wonder
if the forthcoming expansions will make the game too complex.



But for now, Legends of
Norrath
and the Forsworn
expansion continue to add fun and replayability to this epic card game.
As I said in my previous review of the original set, card game
aficionados and EverQuest lovers alike should look into this incredibly
deep and entertaining game. Legends
of Norrath: Forsworn
only adds another layer of depth to
this card-based adventure.



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(4.5 / 5 Hammers)

style="color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">Ten Ton
Recommendation:

style="font-style: italic;">Legends of Norrath: Forsworn continues
to improve upon the foundation laid by the original Oathbound card set.
The additional card vaireties really add a new layer of depth to a
sophisticated, adult gaming experience!

Do you enjoy Legends of Norrath? Have
you tried out the new expansion? Let us know on the forums!

Ten Ton Hammer is your unofficial source
for Legends of Norrath href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/396">news
and features!


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Legends of Norrath Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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