Cortyn is excited about the current adventure in Hearthstone. Why “The Big Heist” is so convincing is revealed by Cortyn in this article.
When Blizzard announced a few weeks ago that Hearthstone adventures would now have to be purchased again (either with gold or real money), I was admittedly very skeptical.
My first thought was that it surely had to be the “evil investors” responsible, who want to scrape even more profit from previously free content. And maybe that’s true. However, that does not change the fact that “The Big Heist” in Hearthstone was worth every euro and offers much more content than previous adventures.
A significantly better balance
The first thing I noticed while playing the two chapters of “The Big Heist” is the better balance.
In the adventure “The Nightmare Forest,” it was still the case that – depending on the character – you suddenly run into an almost insurmountable wall against bosses number 7 or 8. If all previous enemies were just fodder and were rolled over, the last two bosses were extremely tough, and if you had the wrong cards or treasures to choose from, you could basically give up right away.
This is not the case with “The Big Heist.” It feels like a real curve that gradually increases from opponent to opponent. The first three battles are in most cases “given” and can only be lost with very bad luck. After that, the level of difficulty steadily increases.
Even after the 20th run, some of which I have not completed successfully, I never had the impression that it suddenly became “unfair.” The matches were always exciting, and the feeling of complete helplessness, as I often felt in the other “Dungeon” expansions, is completely absent here.
Meaningful innovations and more atmosphere
The Big Heist expands the well-known dungeon principle with meaningful innovations. Above all, the regular tavern visits are a highlight. Here you can adjust your deck in different ways.
- Unwanted cards can be removed
- New minions can be recruited
- Existing minions can be copied or enhanced
- The cost of cards can be permanently reduced
- You can determine which minion should always be in your starting hand
This is not done through a boring menu, but through a “combat” encounter with the tavern keeper, during which you can play special effects that the tavern keeper then comments on.
The battles in the various locations of Dalaran are also extremely fitting. Anyone who is a long-time fan of World of Warcraft will recognize many characters and think, “Oh, that’s the barber I always went to!” or “That’s the quest giver for the Violet Hold.” These little moments are wonderful and are only enhanced by the various remarks of the characters.
When the barbers with their scissors in hand say that I should “not cause them any trouble,” I have to smile. When Moon Priestess Nici shouts slightly altered quotes from “Sailor Moon” and the “Power of the Moon” in the best excited anime girl voice, my smile gets even wider.
Basically, the “flair” of the Dalaran expansion, although it is a casual, silly villain adventure, is quite intense. The atmosphere is incredibly fitting, and the voice lines of the characters are (even in German) simply grand, the wit is brilliant.
More content than ever before
Especially cool is that the amount of content increases almost exponentially. With each week that brings new chapters of the adventure, there are not only the respective chapter but also new heroes with which you can play the old chapters again.
As a small calculation example of how the number of playable content increases:
If you only own the first, free chapter, you only have one hero and just the first chapter. You can thus play the first chapter in normal and heroic mode with one hero. The number of “different” dungeon runs is thus 2.
Anyone who owns the first two chapters already has three heroes to choose from and two chapters. They can thus play the first two chapters with three heroes at two difficulty levels. This results in 2 (chapters) x 3 (heroes) x 2 (Heroic/Normal) = 12 “different” runs!
However, if someone owns all 5 chapters, they have a lot of content ahead of them if they (like me) enjoy playing things “completely.” That means you have 9 (heroes) x 5 (chapters) x 2 (Heroic/Normal) runs ahead of you – that’s a whopping 90. And that’s the minimum value if you are immediately successful in each run, which is likely not the case, especially in heroic mode.
Hero abilities and new decks must also be unlocked through certain “achievements.” This is usually accomplished “along the way” while playing normally but can also take some time.
Even if you achieve all of this, you can still add the “anomaly” mode to activate a new passive effect in the current run that changes the game again.
And on top of all that, every dungeon run is slightly different from the previous one due to various treasures, different bosses, and other random factors.
No matter how you look at it: for €20, “The Big Heist” offers a lot if you enjoy solo content that isn’t necessarily rewarded with card packs. Only those who seek pure “value” in the form of new cards for their collection will likely be disappointed.
Conclusion – The best solo content since the release of Hearthstone
For a long, long time, it has been a while since I played Hearthstone not just as a “filler” when I want to bridge some time and I’m bored. I’m really looking forward to Hearthstone and am deliberately making time for it – and much more than I thought before.
For me, “The Big Heist” is already the best Hearthstone innovation in 2019. If the upcoming expansions are similarly extensive and interesting, I am happy to spend money again.
How do you like the current Hearthstone expansion and especially the solo content? Have your expectations been met? Or have you not tried it yet?
Our author Schuhmann has also played the new adventure – what he thinks about it, you can find out here:
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