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This one plays its cards right in our review.

Culdcept Saga is a fitting second chance for the PS2's beloved obscurity Culdcept, even if it doesn't make the most of its 360 debut... to put it lightly. It sets a bit of an odd precedent, really; it's not quite an expansion, not really a remake, and a bit thin for a full-fledged sequel. It's about the same price new as the original is used ($40), and doesn't add any significant functionality outside of online play. Thankfully, it's still a very good game regardless of which crowd you fall into: Fans of the original will be slobbering to sink their teeth into the new content it does offer and excited over the prospect of an infinite pool of challengers, while Culdcept virgins will finally have the chance to get addicted to the fantasy board game battler they didn't even know they wanted.

For those who did miss out on the first game (and that's most everyone), turn the words "monster Monopoly" around in your head for a bit, throw in an addictive card-battling element, and you're probably not too far off. Playing on a variety of different boards, you'll use Magic Power (money) to summon creatures (houses and hotels) to different land elements (properties), and pay a toll (rent) when landing on an opponent's creature and not being able to defeat it with one of your own. You can drag out the Monopoly metaphor indefinitely, but the similarities are the easiest way to wrap your head around the concept. The cards add a ridiculous amount of depth, and can be favorably compared to the base ideas behind the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering: a host of creatures, items to augment them during battle, and spells that do everything from making sure the opponent rolls a 1 to being able to rifle through the next five cards in your deck and choose one to draw. Combined with the perpetual decision of how best to spend the MP you gain from rounding the board and collecting tolls -- Level up your existing land? Summon as many creatures as possible? Save up to use that fancy-pants item? -- and the layers of choice and strategy start unfurling like a giant, nerdy onion.

Collecting new cards postbattle (win or lose) and tweaking your 50-card deck is quietly engaging, and the matches themselves -- while lengthy -- furnish all the excitement and unlikely victories you could hope for, providing you put in the time to learn the ruling minutiae (nothing is worse than plotting your grand plan only to be foiled by a 10-point item augmentation effect you forgot about). The stat specifics, land chaining, and support effects can all feel overwhelming at first, but the deeper you go the more you'll appreciate the depth.

Unfortunately, the simplistic presentation just doesn't feel as at home on the 360 as it did on the PS2. The crisp, colorful character sprites have been swapped out for ho-hum 3D models, and while the menu navigation is more sensible, the loading times are just slightly too long for comfort throughout. The card art is still beautiful, but after watching the fanciful battles play out in the PS3's own card/board battler The Eye of Judgment, Saga's stagnant battles seem laughable. We're all for functionality over flair, but if ever there was a wasted opportunity for a fully-realized 2D new-gen game, this is it. The abhorrent story still interferes far too often as well, with cut-scenes, character designs, and voiceover straight from the bowels of the Dreamcast. Being able to visually customize your character is nice, but when your skin color choices are white or tan, there's only so much variety you can muster.

Online play is the perfect companion to such a multiplayer-reliant experience though; up to four Cepters (Culdcept's term for the card players) can compete, with any mix of human and A.I. characters, in alliances or not, online or locally. Playing -- and getting thwomped by -- the A.I. is a great way to build up your card library, but the true test of your mettle lies in the libraries and skills of other Cepters. It's a little disappointing having no option to not see your opponent's cards (apparently this was done to encourage playing with people's minds, like Japanese Chess...we'll have to take their word on that one, as we don't know what that is), but you can always play a (perhaps confusingly-named) Blind Match to truly level the field, where both players are given a fresh deck of randomly chosen cards to compete with. Just keep in mind that once you start a game you're in it for the long run: You can't leave the game without quitting to the dashboard (to curb early dropouts, though a negative mark against them would seem more sensible), and unlike in the single-player story, you can't suspend and resume games later.

Culdcept Saga is ultimately only as good as the core game behind it all, and with new levels, 200 new cards (for a total of 487), and a very sensible price point, the host of smaller problems is thankfully superseded. It doesn't do anything you haven't seen before in an Xbox Live Arcade title, but that doesn't mean you won't get your money's worth in content and downright clever, addictive design. In reality it's a second chance for an unreceptive Western audience, but card nerds know it for what it really is: a second coming.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 May 2013 08:48