I finally got my copy of Magic the Gathering Arena of the Planeswalkers (AotP). Although I will not get a chance to play it until the end of this month or early September, but I didn't want to wait that long to open it up and take a look at all the minis.
This will be my unboxing review of the components of the the game compared to Heroscape. First, the box is much sturdier, more like a typical board game box compared to the Heroscape master sets.
Once you open the box you will find a tray insert with the miniatures, spell cards, and dice. Underneath all of that you will find the game boards, 3-space hexs, and Planeswalker and creature cards.
Here we have the back sides of the game boards, showing off the 5 different Planeswalkers. Kind of cool, but would of rather had double sided game board with different terrain print.
Here is the unpunched wall sections. More on these later.
Time to take a closer look at some of the miniatures. Here is Nissa and one of each of here squad creatures. The paint apps on the Planeswalkers isn't that great. And the clear bases are cool but I will end up painting them to match my Heroscape units. Also the Planeswalkers don't look as good as the pre-production miniatures. Nissa's ears are huge, as you can see. Over all less detail on all of the Planeswalkers. Also, you get a close up of the game board and one of the 3-space hexes.
I know it has already been shown elsewhere but I want to confirm that the hexes are compatible with Heroscape hexes, and they are.
Now to look at the figures and see how they compare to Heroscape miniatures.The AotP figures appear to be more a a "true scale" miniature, closer to the D&D Heroscape minis. Original Heroscape minis are "heroic scale" meaning their proportions are larger and more bulky. All are 28mm so not a big deal in the differences. The bases of the minis are all the same size as original Heroscape bases, which is a big plus! I hate the D&D size bases.
Now back to the walls. They are bigger then the Herosacpe walls which is nice because a lot of huge figures can actually hide behind them, as pictured below with Zelrig. They are easier to store because they come apart into 2 flat pieces. However, I still prefer the Herosacpe wall ruins because they don't eliminate spaces and stay in place better on a Heroscape map.
Comparison of the dice. Combat dice are the same size but the AotP D-20 is bigger then a standard D-20. Also, you can see the damage markers for AotP are quiet small. I can see them getting lost very quickly.
Comparison of the glyphs. Wish they have made the AotP power sides look cooler.
Card comparison, as you can see they are very similar to Heroscape cards (not the shape), without things like class or personality. Obviously I prefer the Heroscape hex shaped cards, but the long AotP cards aren't bad and the art is pretty nice too.
Once I get the time to sit down and play the game I will try to have a review of game play. I plan on customizing this to fit into Heroscape so hopefully that will be sooner rather then later.
