Nothing crazy, but doesn't insult you or you're wallet while you play. Sure the system's a little basic, sure some of the mechanics are a little goofy, sure the UI is obviously made for your nan's nokia but honestly, it's fluid, clean, interesting, and I can have a lot of fun poking around in the system and just messing with it without being punished for not dropping $500 on the damn thing. It's not interesting enough to really keep my attention, but it is definitely worth a go. Sucks that it's dying out.

I had played this before coming back to it, and I still have very similar opinions of the game today. When it comes to DTCGs I think Arena may simultaneously be one of the worst and best choices around. While the card game is easily one of the most enjoyable card games, it's integration as a digital format is by far one of the weakest I've ever seen. The crafting of cards and the deckbuilding in this is much worse than many of the other DTCGs, comparing to Master Duel and Hearthstone specifically.

While I can appreciate any of the DTCGs for what they do, this game purely rides on the fact "It's MAGIC" and nothing else about it is remotely rewarding. The lack of spectating games and basic features after five-ish years is also a clear miss that they have never fixed. The UI is the worst of any of the DTCGs, has the most consistent buggy features in any DTCG i've played in the last year or two, and generally just feels incredibly unrewarding. While I can still play Master Duel and enjoy the game digitally because the solo modes and the overly generous premium currency they give. This game constitutes as me throwing myself at a wall over and over until I play enough matches to open a single pack of cards. Overall just really disappointing, play Magic IRL instead.

I'm not a big fan of how predatory the game feels either with it's business model, but that's an issue with all of these games.

What a fun little addition to the base game, fun stories with fun characters, cool references, and inventive ideas. I will say there was clearly repurposed and reused assets all over this, feeling more like a mini-collage of ideas that Remedy had but couldn't manifest put into more of a mini-series of addon stories to the main game that exist outside (and inside?) the reality of Alan Wake and Remedy's multiverse.

Overall fun time, really goofy mini-dlc, just wished there was a bit more to chew on here.