Yesterday evening, the new solo adventure “The Big Heist” went live in Hearthstone . Our author Schuhmann indulged in the €20 adventure and says: It’s really good, but it makes Hearthstone even more expensive. Is it worth buying?
What the new adventure brings: Since last night, “The Big Heist” is live:
- The 1st chapter is free for everyone
- the 2nd chapter costs 700 gold coins
- chapters 3-5 are still locked and will open in the coming weeks
Since I keep losing gold in Hearthstone, I bought the complete adventure for €20 yesterday, so I could play the first 2 chapters and will tackle the next 3 in the coming weeks.
Shenanigans in Hearthstone
This is how a chapter plays out: Hearthstone players know the process of solo adventures from previous expansions.
You start with a weak deck and can choose from 3 options each round to expand your deck with 3 cards. There are also regular “treasures”: these are either special cards or passive effects.
A decision regarding a treasure significantly influences the course of the next matches because these cards are “against the rules” and change the game drastically. It feels a bit like cheating.
So I had cards and passive effects:
- that dealt 20 damage split among all opponents for 4 mana
- that grant a minion +2/+2 and summon 2 copies
- that doubled my health points at the start of a match
- or that reduced the mana cost of the leftmost card in my hand by 2
In a chapter, you face 8 increasingly stronger bosses that use special cards or unique hero powers. However, the player’s deck also improves if they have a somewhat reasonable plan when assembling the deck.
More RPG elements in Hearthstone
What’s new: In “The Big Heist,” you have the option to “customize” your henchman at the beginning, but you need to have played it first. This adds more RPG elements, as you can unlock advanced abilities and decks if you’ve been through previous runs with the henchman.
Additionally, there are now “interludes” in the tavern during a round, where you can specifically strengthen, swap, or add new cards. This is relatively luck-dependent but presents another strategic decision.
This is how I liked the adventure: I really enjoyed it yesterday, I played the first 2 chapters – the first went smoothly, but I failed against the final boss in the second.
Through the secrets and the deck configurations, Hearthstone in the adventure becomes a kind of bizarre version of the game, and very quirky decks and combinations arise. In the second deck, I had 4 Ragnaros and could play the leftmost card for 2 less mana.
The deck became extremely powerful in certain situations because I could flood the board early with additional “draw” cards, and the Ragnaros spread fear and terror.
In the final battle against a nasty rogue, I hit a wall because their mechanics worked excellently against such “big opponents,” and the extra card draw killed me.
What about the price? Hearthstone has been accused of becoming increasingly expensive for a while now. In the past, there would be two expansions and two adventures per year – today it’s three expansions with integrated solo content. Blizzard initially wanted to counter this by making the adventures free, which previously cost money, but also brought many strong new cards.
The later adventures, while free, no longer felt worth it from a card perspective – it was just a card back to earn, occasionally also a temporary quest.
With the current adventure, players at least get three card packs per chapter and a special card that looks really cool.
Is it worth it? For me, it was worth it after just the first 2 chapters. I received 6 card packs, will get another 9, and I have the special card that I will definitely try out. The adventures bring me a lot of joy because they provide a different kind of Hearthstone that I find very entertaining.
Nevertheless, Hearthstone has become an expensive affair if you want to keep up, as I notice from my own shopping behavior. I haven’t spent as much money on Hearthstone in previous years as I did in 2019 and 2018.
Perhaps the expansion is also a step in the right direction for Blizzard and Hearthstone:
