Solo Just Isn’t Fun

by stormraige23 - 4 years ago     show comments

I love solo content. It’s my favorite way to play Hearthstone. I’ve easily put in hundreds of hours into all of the different solo content. From dungeon run, to Descent of Dragons, I love it all. I’ve completed every book of mercenary and every book of hero… except for Malfurian, because I’m done. I’m beyond exhausted. It just isn’t fun anymore. Who the hell is this for anyway? And why is it so freaking hard?!

It sounds all doom and gloom, but stay with me. There is a LOT to love about the solo content. Let’s start with the book of heroes. It is attempting the utterly impossible and doing its best. It is trying to pack decades of lore into a brief eight mission adventure. The story and writing are both excellent (But please never have Thrall say “Yes Master” ever again I’m still having nightmares about it). Even if I think they are trying to cover too much (which I do) they are still doing the best they can. They do a great job at introducing newer players to interesting core mechanics of different classes.

The Book of Mercenaries is even better. They’ve created a wonderful world that is very reminiscent of early World of Warcraft. Guff in particular is an absolute delight from start to finish from a story perspective. I would die for Guff. I would kill for Guff. I would eat vegetables for Guff. He might be my favorite character that Hearthstone has ever created.

And yet…

After losing to the final boss in the Malfurian Book of Heroes for the second time I slammed my head into my keyboard. I played to every possible out and finally found a way to win only for the enemy to heal to full, get a brand new hand and deck, and for me to take 15 damage killing me. I had just wasted another forty minutes. I don’t get it. Why make these a challenge at all? Who are these for exactly?

If these are for newer players… it isn’t. I have a number of friends who all play very casually. They range from consistent platinum five players, to people who never get out of bronze. They all agree that they have no interest in completing any of these book’s because of the difficulty. If I (someone who has hit legend multiple times) can’t finish these fights on the first time… why would I expect anyone who plays casually to ever win? You have to have an advanced understanding of different strategies, card interactions, and knowledge of card pool… and guess what that still isn’t always enough. You also have to get lucky with RNG and sometimes lucky by the computer making a straight up bad play.

If these are for hardcore players… why? These are fairly difficult fights that can certainly test people’s ability to adapt to constantly shifting circumstances, but I don’t know how many hardcore players care at all about solo adventure. Most people that I know who are high legend players… just play high legend. Why bother catering to them? If the goal is to create interesting and difficult puzzles for players on the highest caliber… why try to have the core story of the game tied to it? It seems like it should be its own thing.

If this is for people who loved Boomsday Labs… then make it Boomsday 2.0. Completely script the fights. Make it so there is an absolutely correct and consistent way to win. At one point in the Malfurian fight (late in the fight) I drew an innervate… innervate… solar eclipse. Three dead draws when I was already at ten mana? That isn’t fun. It happens in Hearthstone because it must. You can’t always draw the perfect card on ladder. But why not draw the perfect card every time in Solo Adventure? Who is gonna feel bad? The computer? GOOD! LET US RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!

If it is one thing I’ve learned about criticism it’s to give ways to fix things rather than just complain about them. So here is how you fix everything (easily and perfectly) in Solo Adventure.

1. Make things easier. Give the hero player more health. Cut the amount of health on enemies. Make their specific hero powers less powerful. There’s no reason Mutanus needs to give a +2/+2 over a +1/+1. Make it a breeze to play through. Make it so if people are bronze 10 and have never won a game they can win this. Why not? What’s wrong with it? If the story is good enough (and it is) let the story be the important thing.
2. Create an alternate hard mode. With most of the previous solo content there has always been a “heroic” mode. Love it. Bring it back. Why not? This allows you to help both people who have wanted to play and people who have wanted a challenge.
3. Every time someone loses a fight give them an additional casts when drawn cards that do something very powerful. Something like “Guff stumbles” which gave your hero five attack, five armor, cleave, and attacked a random enemy minion. This way if you lose enough times you will successfully get a win.
4. Return the “restart” button. PLEASE give me a restart button. While we’re at it please also let me skip the dialogue before hitting the “start” button. It’s great the first time. It’s exhausting the fifth.
5. Let the “heroes” that join be either more powerful or come back every turn. Why does Illidan take four turns to come back when his effect isn’t that good? Make Illidan a 6/9 that fills your board with demons if he’s only coming around once every four turns.

Let me be clear again. I love solo modes. It is my favorite way to play Hearthstone. Please… let me play it again without slamming my head into my keyboard. I’m exhausted and for the first time ever not going to finish a Book of Heroes chapter.

To me this comes down to an issue of accessibility. Many people who have disagreed with my take on twitter have come back to tell me that lower difficulty fights don’t interest them as much. Then the problem becomes how much engagement is worth accessibility? When it comes to certain modes I think engagement is key. Not everyone can be a high legend player. Everyone should be able to experience this story. Accessibility should be the name of the game. Newer players? Returning players? Bad players? Let them all experience it. If Hearthstone is going to have an overarching story then that story needs to be available to everyone.