Hearthstone Rise of the Shadows Is Fun for Regulars but Near Inaccessible for Newbies

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Hearthstone is a great example of Blizzard making free-to-play online games with an excellent monetisation plan and supporting them for long periods. For the uninitiated, Hearthstone is a card game that released back in 2014 and the launch of the latest expansion — Rise of Shadows — brought me back to the game once more.

With each new expansion of Hearthstone the metagame changes quite a bit. This is necessary to keep experienced players engaged and offer them a fresh challenge. However for players who haven't played Hearthstone for some time, there's a steep learning curve. This is why I prefer exploring the single-player part of Hearthstone's expansions over multiplayer.

Blizzard's strategy is to release the new cards in multiplayer first and release single-player later and I'll be sure to write about Rise of Shadows' single-player mode when it's out in May. This time around the single-player content looks exciting because it's said to be a story told over three expansions, which gives new players a big reason to try Hearthstone.

However, the Hearthstone multiplayer scene can be quite intimidating if you haven't been playing regularly. I used to play Hearthstone regularly in 2014 and early in 2015, but after that I stopped playing it for quite some time. I returned to Hearthstone recently to explore The Boomsday Project, particularly for the Puzzle Lab single-player content. Even then I felt the same thing that I do now — the multiplayer has changed a lot and is difficult to get into once more.

Hearthstone constantly keeps changing its list of cards to keep the game fresh. This works by retiring really old cards when new ones are introduced. If you missed a couple of expansions and returned to the game, you'll be behind other players and that makes the entry barrier a bit steep.

Let's make one thing clear here — you don't really have to pay to win in Hearthstone. There are plenty of players who keep playing for free but it does require quite a bit of grinding to