For a neophyte
trading-card gamer, jumping into a Yu-Gi-Oh game is much like learning to fire
walk over a mile-long stretch of fresh lava. You are going to get burned …
badly.
So along comes
Yu-Gi-Oh Tag Force 2, replete with characters from a fleshed-out universe, and a
gameplay mechanic that is a little daunting to start. Diving right in was the
wrong thing to do. Played a card and then waited eight minutes or so for the CPU
to finish its turn. By that time, the initial foray was long lost.
Part of the
problem is that there is no tutorial readily accessible (there is one, but you
have to hunt to find it and it is a bit of a time sink) to ease you into the
game. If you can’t find it you are thrust into the thick of the fray and once
in, it is either sink or swim (or any other cliché you care to dreg up).
There are
several ways to play this title. You can enter story mode (which follows the
story of a student at the duel academy), free duel (choose the number of players
– one or tag teams of 2v2 – and the number or duels, play one of six mini games,
or edit your deck. The database contains information that will be needed, which
includes the tutorial as well as the ability to USB to the PS2 for an
inter-console game (the PS2 title is Yu-Gi-Oh GZ The Beginning of Destiny).
Newcomers will
want to hit the tutorial in order to understand the way the game evolves, the
rules and what you can accomplish during your particular turn. Do not expect any
of that information in the manual. It is short and to the point. It details
things like connected gaming, but not how to actually play the game.
But here is the
lesson, albeit. First off, this is a card game, of sorts, and as such, you place
cards that have a certain value on a board. There are four rows total on the
board, each with five slots across. Two of the rows belong to you and two to
your opponent. Each of the rows have certain zones where you place cards, like
the Monster Card Zone (where summoned monsters are placed and it is the space
where they can battle from – this is the top row of your side of the board).
There is also a Spell & Trap Card Zone, the Graveyard (where cards that have
been defeated are placed), the Deck Zone (where you place your game deck, which
is comprised of 40-80 cards), the Removed Card Zone, the Field Spell Zone (think
of this as a card that has an affect on attributes on the field of play), and
Fusion Deck Zone (where you place Fusion Monster cards). There are three main
type of cards, the monster cards, spell cards and trap cards.
Each monster
card has an ATK (attack) rating. When in a fight, the monster with the lower ATK
loses – it is almost that simple.
The game begins
with a rock-paper-scissors mini game to decide order of play. Each player draws
five cards for their active hand to begin the game. A turn begins by drawing a
card. Then, if you have a monster card in your hand you want to play, it is
moved onto the Monster Card Zone. Only one monster may be summoned during a
turn. There are six total phases to each turn. After the initial draw, and
monster card phase, there is the standby phase, followed by the battle phase,
main phase 2 and then the end phase.
To battle, you
select a monster on your side of the board and then select a target to attack.
Destroy the monster and some residual damage will be charged to your opponent’s
health points. Each player begins a duel with 8,000 hit points. Reduce it to
zero and that player loses. (This is one condition of winning a duel; another
would be that if your turn comes up and you have no cards left in your deck to
draw, you lose.) As the tutorial so eloquently explains: if a monster with an ATK of 800 battles a monster with an ATK of 500, the difference is 300, which is
taken from the player’s life points.
And that is
essentially the way the game plays out. As easy as that may sound, there is a
lot more to the game and when you actually start dueling, whether in a 1v1 or
2v2 scenario, the battles take on a cerebral quality.
Graphically the
game uses the vantage point of what you might see if you were looking at the
board seated in a chair. The animations are minimal and the game just lacks
compelling visuals – which might be just fine for the TCG crowd. The music, on
the other hand, is annoying after 10 minutes and this is a game that can be
played silently so as to avoid that repetitious hum.
There are a
huge number of collectible cards available (the number 3,000 is mentioned), so
building a deck can be painstaking and involved. The game does allow for 2v2
WiFi tag-team battles, but no online mode is available.
In the end, GX
Tag Force 2 is a game that requires patience to learn and then a lot of team to
really get to know and excel at. This is not a game for the TCG newcomer. It is
a game for TCG gamers who have knowledge of the Yu-Gi-Oh universe and don’t mind
playing with minimal graphics and sound that will grate on you after a short
time.
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Gameplay: 5.5
A newcomer to the
TCG genre, then this is not the game for you. The interface is convoluted and
there is a steep learning curve. The game looks like it could be made for
children, but only if those kids are experience trading card gamers.
Graphics: 6.5
It’s a card game, so
what do you expect? You have to look close at times for the numbers on your
cards, and then the effects of combat are basic at best.
Sound: 4.0
Turn it off. The
music is predominant and annoying in this game.
Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Even if you think
you understand the basics, this game is more complex in latter phases than
“basics” will prepare you for.
Concept: 5.8
This seems like a
notion that was half-baked. WiFi but no online, and the simplest of graphics
with a learning curve that is not overly friendly to newcomers.
Multiplayer: 6.2
WiFi connectivity,
but that’s it for the 2v2 component.
Overall: 6.2
This is a decent and
deep TCG game that could have been much better. If you don’t have much
experience with this type of game, you will have to work through the tutorial to
understand the root concepts, but even that can’t prepare you for taking on
another player that knows the game, or the CPU when it decides to decimate you.
The game is behind the times in terms of graphics and sound, but that is more
than made up for with the depth of the game itself. Be prepared for a steep
learning curve, though. This is a game that could have been a great card game
that challenged the experienced and gave an entry point for newcomers, but it
just falls short.
