With “The Dark Conspiracy”, Blizzard has done a lot right and solved a major problem. There is practically no boredom in Hearthstone.
Although the release of “The Dark Conspiracy” for Hearthstone has been quite a while ago, the player base seems pretty satisfied. This is mainly because Blizzard has drastically adjusted its schedule for Hearthstone, thereby nearly eliminating one of its biggest problems – the lack of content between expansions.
In the Hearthstone subreddit, there is currently a heated discussion about how satisfied players are with the current expansion “The Dark Conspiracy” and the associated solo campaign “The Big Coup”. Players are quite unanimous (94% agreement in this thread), that Blizzard has done much right and is on the right track.
Extended solo content is acceptable: At first, players were skeptical and critical that the solo content “The Big Coup” was being released weekly with its 5 chapters. They found the waiting time incomprehensible and far too long. However, due to the sheer size and variety of options that “The Big Coup” offers, the mood has since changed.
Since there were new heroes, bosses, and mechanics every week, the mode provided plenty of variety and exciting matches against NPC opponents for everyone who could engage with it. Those who like to “complete” content will even remain busy for a while – because it takes 90 successful runs.
Revenge of the Mechs was successful: Even the smaller “Revenge of the Mechs” event was well received. The total of 18 adjustments to class cards brought fresh ideas and new deck concepts. Almost every class has greatly benefited from the changes and can now use new decks. Formerly unloved cards are suddenly very strong and allow for new deck variations.
This is a novelty, because normally the meta of Hearthstone is set just a few weeks after the release of an expansion and only changes again 3-4 months later when new cards are introduced.
New arena rotation was a success: With the Revenge of the Mechs, the available cards in the arena were also changed. Some sets have been removed, while others can now be played in the arena. This allowed fans of a certain mode to experience innovations and felt “fresh wind” in their content.
This criticism remains: Nonetheless, not everything is perfect in Hearthstone right now. There is still criticism regarding some of the changes to the cards, especially the Robohopper of the rogue is a problem. It is considered far too strong and causes many players to leave a match immediately.
There is also criticism on the individual chapters of the solo adventure “The Big Coup”, as many bosses repeat in all chapters. Players would have preferred more variety, with each chapter featuring only unique bosses. More rewards, such as the “new heroes” as skins for the regular game, would have also been desirable.
But fundamentally, a large part of the players seems to be satisfied that Hearthstone stretches its content and also brings larger innovations between expansions. This keeps fans engaged and entertained until the cycle of a new expansion begins.
If Blizzard maintains its rhythm, the next expansion should be announced as early as July, before the weeks of card reveals follow.
How are you currently experiencing Hearthstone? Are you still enjoying Blizzard’s card game and do you appreciate the numerous small releases? Or would you prefer all content at once?
