Marvel SNAP Review
Marvel SNAP was released on 18 October 2022, at first, I was not interested at all in the game. However, I quickly changed my mind when I saw a few of my mates constantly play it for hours on end on steam. I decided, Marvel SNAP must be worth playing, or at the very least, a fair chance. I was quite absorbed in the game on the first few days of playing, playing for hours. It wasn’t even the card collecting but the core game play itself was a very different experience to normal card games I have played before, like MAGIC Gathering or one of my all-time favourites Yu-Gi-Oh series. While I do admit, the gameplay itself does get repetitive after a while, I still highly recommend it.
Combat
Marvel SNAP is a card-based with a completely different twist as I mentioned briefly before to standard card-based games. There are three locations where you can place your cards and each location has a different type of effect. While each card may have different kind of effects or perks to them. Using that, you would counter the plays of your opponent round over round for a total of 6 rounds. Which may increase or decrease depending on the location’s effects. This is quite unique combat mode and quite easy to get started to and used to. Would totally recommend.
Elements
There are no elements in this game, unlike most card games. Although it does have a unique system which are divided into
- On Reveal Cards
- On Going Cards
- No Ability Cards
Which special effects whether it is location or cards may affect these types of cards.
PVP
There is no PVE in Marvel SNAP, the game is pure PVP, there is only one game mode; Battle Mode, and it is to match and complete against another player and beat them. There are no limits of how many games you can play a day, nor are there any limits to the amount of currency or battle pass points you collection level you may progress a day. While that may sound bad, but everything is pure cometic. Super Rare cards of type are no different in gameplay than a standard version. Everything is pure cometic to make your deck look super pretty and flashy.
Further, each game you play, you gain card EXP points (I am not sure what they are called) towards a random card in the deck you used during that match. Which means, every game win or loose, you will be progressing cosmetically.
Cash Shop
Marvel SNAP has a very expensive cash shop, but then again, what mobile game isn’t expensive. What you can purchase each day is very limited which is on rotation weekly and sometimes seasonal or monthly. The game is not pay2win at all as every purchase you make are cometic and will not help you gain any advantage in the game. However, if you are into maxing out your cards and gaining fancy variants, you can expect to be spending thousands of dollars without realizing.
Lastly, the game constantly gives out the paid currency, Gold Bars in the battle pass (both free and paid) and in weekly and seasonal quests. Meaning, at times, you may not even need to spend money to gain special cash shop variants. How nice is that?
State of Game
The game runs very smooth on both my Google Pixel 6 Pro and on Steam Games. The game is also very healthy, and at least on Steam Charts, it has a very stable average 6,900 players monthly. You are able to find a match within 10 seconds of queueing, if only PVP was this fast this in World of Warcraft Dragonflight, I maybe wouldn’t have started to play less. The game has constant weekly to monthly updates along with seasonal location affixes making the game very attractive and alive. Why not jump in and play some Marvel SNAP now while the population base is healthy? It’s always better early than late right?
Artwork
The artwork in Marvel SNAP is beautiful, they have many different styles of artwork, from the originals to pixel variants. Using the artwork itself as a variant, making all collectors want to collect the different artwork for each of their favourite superheroes. A real ingenious move if you ask me.
Fun
Marvel SNAP is very enjoyable, I already clocked in over 55 hours as of this review recorded on Steam which is already more than Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel which I started playing more regularly over Duel Links. Either way, Marvel SNAP is a fun superhero collectors game that can be played on both mobile and PC platforms and the best part it is free and not Pay2Win. I would recommend giving Marvel SNAP a try for 2023 if you are into collecting card games genre. Meanwhile, my main focus this year is still the highly anticipated Honkai Star Rail dropping in April 2023 for Mobile-style Games and Thrones and Liberty by Amazon Games Studio.
