Joystiq impressions: Eye of Judgement
When Sony first showed off its camera-based collectible card game Eye of Judgement at last year's E3, it was less a game and more a proof of concept for what eventually became the PlayStation Eye. Now that we're closer to the game's planned fall release, a pre-beta version of Eye of Judgment is looking more like an actual card game that just happens to use a camera and PS3.
The basic goal of Eye of Judgement is to control five of the nine areas on a 3x3 cloth mat by placing creature cards on them. Your opponent can challenge you for control of those spaces by placing other creature cards nearby and sending them into battle. Usually the outcome of these battles is a simple comparison of power levels (a la Dragon Ball Z), but special abilities and boosting spells can affect the outcome.
So if it's just a card game, why do we need the somewhat ungainly camera and game console setup?
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Well, the PS3 keeps track of a variety of field conditions and statistics that would be laborious to calculate on your own. For example, each square on the board is aligned with a different elemental, which can boost creatures of a matching alignment or damage competing creatures. The game automatically detects where you play your creatures (using a clever coded ink system) and keeps track of all these environmental status effects for you. The camera ran into problems a couple of times during the demo, but in general the game had no problem identifying cards easily, even in the low light of the meeting room.
The PS3 also tracks other basic information like creature life totals, cards in hand, and spell-casting mana available. What's more, the game eliminates the need for basic math skills by automatically determining the outcome of battles, accompanying each one with a thrilling animation (see above video). Being on the PS3 also allows for some options not available in most card games, like single player matches against a computer-controlled opponent and online play (the computer gives you a random hand of pre-registered cards to prevent cheating).
Those features are nice, but they don't t matter if the card game they're aiding isn't any fun? Unfortunately, it's a bit hard to determine the quality of the actual game from such a brief sit-down. Like most collectible card games, most of the fun in Eye of Judgement will come in amassing cards, slowly learning their interactions, and building a carefully-crafted deck that takes the best advantage of the available power. A 30-minute demo can't really determine how interesting these things will be, though there was enough complexity shown off to give us hope.
In addition to the game mat and a special PlayStation Eye stand, the Eye of Judgement retail package will come with a standard 30-card starter deck and a booster pack that has eight cards randomly selected from the initial set of 110. No pricing has been announced for the starter set or additional boosters, which will be available at game stores across the country.
