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Taffer Reviews Hearthstone for iPad

by - 10 years ago

I remember when smart phones started to become popular and people loaded them up with SNES and GBA roms of games to play and I never understood why on earth they would want to play those games with touch screen controls, in fact I was so behind the times that any game on a touch screen didn’t make much sense to me. Slowly over time I have grown an appreciation for the touch screen, even while you don’t get the nice physical feel of the keys, you are able to design and utilize all that extra space that you now have. Games started coming out that took advantage of this case and devices with a touch screens evolved into a gaming console of its own with a market for things such as roms, indie and now Blizzard.

Emoting is simple as a tap.

Emoting is simple as a tap.

Right off the bat, everything is exactly the same and that as intended. Blizzard wanted to make a UI that people would be familiar with going from device to device and they delivered in the realm of tablets. There are no annoying hoops to jump through. The touch feel of doing actions in the game such as dragging cards or simply rhythming out actions with your hero ability and ending your turn just simply feel fantastic.

Farming boots with my fat fingers is still really easy to do on the iPad

Farming boots with my fat fingers is still really easy to do on the iPad

Those high prone to stressing out while playing should bring a stress ball as part of their tablet kit as those times you got angry playing on the sturdy home system such as a desktop computer or a laptop were against really resilient hardware. The iPad is not made cheap, but you really don’t want to use it as a frisbee.

Battlecry is a 2-step process on the iPad

Battlecry is a 2-step process on the iPad

With the ability to use your same account you use on your PC makes this perfect for building decks while laying down on the couch with netflix on or laying horizontal in bed ranking up when you should be sleeping. It would of been really unfortunate to have to rebuild an entire library of cards to play via touchscreen. Frankly, it wouldn’t of made sense. With this system, it means your cards you have now you will always have even when we are in flying cars and all our current devices are obsolete.

Watching Star Trek while managing my Paladin Control Deck

Watching Star Trek while managing my Paladin Control Deck

I am a bit worried about how well Hearthstone will play on mini tablets, otherwise known as smart phones. With a severe lack of screen space on some devices makes me ponder if they will have a special UI cooked up for them. I would be ok with losing the fluffy stuff that you get to click and break, but I would be happy to simply use my phone for deck building when I am bored. With the ability to chat with all the people on your friends-list, it’s not very far fetched to simply use Hearthstone as a chatting device.

Playing on the iPad doesn't make you better at math.

Playing on the iPad doesn’t make you better at math.

I know everyone doesn’t have an iPad and I am not going to say that you should go out and buy one solely for Hearthstone but consider how gaming consoles work, when you buy a console you don’t just buy it for one game. Sure you may buy a console because you really want a single game, but in your mind you should be ok with playing other titles on that said device, in fact you should plan for it. With Hearthstone already out on windows and able to be played on a surface pro, it coming out in waves across the globe for the iPad and out for Android devices SoonTM; It’s not very far fetched to get or have a device that is basically your touch screen console. But what would you play other than Hearthstone? Hearthstone is lyfe.

All while watching Star Trek on the couch

All while watching Star Trek on the couch

Here are some options for you. I know some of these games are multi-platform but will only list once to not be redundant

Windows Surface Pro
-Your entire steam/windows library (within touchscreen/hardware reason)

Games like Civilization 5 now come with options built for touch screens and the great thing is, if you already own these games then you own them for the tablet version as well. The Surface Pro uses the same operating system that your desktop does so it’s really simple to have things the way you want them. The Surface also comes with USB ports which work perfectly for plug and play controllers such as the 360 controller for windows that most games are already designed around.

iPad
-Hearthstone (Duh)
FTL (Faster Than Light)
X-com

I’m sure there are a ton of great games on the iPad, but these 3 are enough for me to justify to get one if I was to pick a quality tablet. All 3 games have unlimited replayability.

Android (Blizzard has not announced which Android products Hearthstone will work on so shop at your own risk)
Spacechem
Classic Final Fantasy
-Tons of games from the Android Humble Bundles (there is one going currently) which give you PC keys as well.

I am happy we live in the Star Trek era of touch screens, but it makes me wonder how much work they would of actually got done if they had Hearthstone at their fingertips.


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


0 responses to “Taffer Reviews Hearthstone for iPad”

  1. Gregory Weiss says:

    Hi Taffer,

    sounds great. I already had fun with it on my computer and I really looking forward for the iPad version. I mean, this game is perfect for tablets, and while I find it a bit boring on a computer where you can play tone of very good 3d games, Hearthstone should be addictive and perfect on ipad and mobile devices.

    One question, what kind of iPad did you use to test the game?
    I currently own an iPad2 and I’m wondering if it would be powerfull enough.

    Thanks.

    • Stephen Stewart says:

      You’ll be fine on the iPad 2. In an interview that Taffer did with the developers a couple of weeks ago, they noted that it wouldn’t work with the original iPad unfortunately.

    • Taffer says:

      Sorry for the late response. I used an iPad air. Since the game is out, how does it perform?

      • Gregory Weiss says:

        First launch was a disaster, very important laggy game, almost impossible to move cards.
        But after cleaning apps from the dock, normal reboot and hard reboot when on Apple launch logo, everything back to normal.
        I still experience little lags but it’s nothing, the game is fun to play. iPad2 becomes quite old now so that’s fine.
        Apparently this issue is known from Blizz, and few friends got the same problem with their iPad2 as well.
        But at the end, very good development for the ipad platform 🙂

  2. Vlash says:

    now release it to the superior platform blizzard, android