Posted in: Board Games, Games, Review | Tagged: game review, Lightseekers

Finding The Magic Inside The New Trading Card Game 'Lightseekers'

A friend of mine happens to work for a couple different geeky companies and was very kind enough to point me in the direction of a new app/trading card game called Lightseekers. The company was kind enough to send me some starter decks and booster packs to try out, which we're going to review for you today. We'll be breaking down the game to its basics for those of you who are interested in the trading card version, so this won't be for the app. The game operates a little bit like popular titles like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon, but with its own set of unique rules and building systems that make the game play well.

First and foremost, you have a choice of all six primary colors, which have their own abilities, creatures, and spells. The game has you choosing a single hero card (which determines your health in the lower right corner), who serves to give you three different types of power, as you can see from the Treanu card above. The symbols indicated are one claw, a golden tree which counts for two, and a human with a spiral. In the middle of the top part of each card, you are shown the cost of what it takes to play that card. You have the ability to play two actions of any type, whether that be laying down a monster or using your hero's ability or even choosing to do nothing.

As you play cards in your hand, you'll see that some of them have extra tap options. Each time you have a turn, you'll tap the card around on another side to reveal what it does next and what it could do to benefit you. The upside to this is that you have possible combinations that can be spawned and help you defeat your enemy in quick succession, the downside is that there are times you genuinely can't do anything and have no recourse but to wait for things to come into your hand.

One of the biggest drawbacks to the game at the moment is that there's no mix and match of colors like you'd be able to do in other games. Right now, you're stuck with a single color and whatever specialty cards you can add to your deck that doesn't require specific symbols. This also puts some players at a disadvantage as there are clearly two colors that are powerful as hell, being the red and yellow decks. It reminded me of building burn and protecting decks in MTG, but with the added twist here of working with creatures you don't really have much say over once they go into play.

Overall, I enjoyed Lightseekers, but it's clearly a game that is in the infant stages of what it's trying to be. If you're looking for a new trading card game that's getting off the ground and want to try something a little more new than the endless series before it, this might be up your alley. But as a fair warning, there are a lot of mechanics you'll need to get used to on the individual cards and you'll need to pay attention to everything that's happening on your side on the board more than your opponent's side so that you can take advantage of everything possible to score a victory.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!