IMO: Hearthstone on Tablet - Grease Up Android

Published: January 16, 2015 9:00 AM /

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Android-hearthstone

We already did a review of Hearthstone. You can find it here. Hearthstone is fun, a lot of fun. I have played many hours of it on the PC. I am here to tell you how it translates on an Android tablet, specifically my Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9. I have had this tablet now for a few months but have never found a reason to install games on it until a while ago, and then I found out Hearthstone was available on Kindle. How does it translate into tablet form? Very well. The installation process is a breeze. Just find it in the store and download it. Once installed, you will be prompted to log in with your batte.net account credentials and then, if you have one, a battle.net authenticator code. From then on, your account is linked across platforms, so you could be organizing your deck while watching TV in one room and then playing a few rounds on your computer afterward in another. I would very much recommend you keep yourself logged in on the tablet as having to log back in and out can be tedious, especially if you do have a battle.net authenticator code. Hearthstone was made for the tablet. Everything responds wonderfully to the touch of a finger. Press on a card and slide it onto the deck. Want to see the details of a card? Just press and hold that card and it will reveal its attributes or special abilities. Organizing your deck is also surprisingly intuitive. Just swipe a card you want in or swipe a card out. The whole interface feels fresh, inviting, and natural. There are few things more satisfying than lining up your cards and swiping your finger out one after the other to strike at your opponent. Plus you get a free pack just for playing it on a tablet! I can see my friends and I just spending hours in this format, and that is where I believe Hearthstone will shine even brighter on mobile. The face to face interaction between people means Hearthstone matches and discussions can start to look and feel like real life card games. Players can show off their decks to others. Tables can be set up where tablets are laid out against each other. Spontaneous matches can start out of fun, monetary gain, or silly grudge issues. Remember when we (or just me) would play our Pokemon cards at school during lunch or recess? I expect to see Hearthstone matches like that too, not only at school, but also coffee shops, workplaces and even parks. Whereas gaming is often deride for turning people inside, Hearthstone on Tablet can turn people out. There is one glaring issue in all of this though. The LAG. I do not know what is going on but there are times that Hearthstone plays smoothly and then all of a sudden it starts to get laggy. How laggy? I lose matches laggy. Suddenly, I would find myself racing against the burning rope of the end turn warning as my opponent had finished his turn prior and it was I who was lagging behind. Or just as bad, it is my turn and the game stops responding and then suddenly my opponent has finished his turn, having wiped out my played cards and leaving me wide open to his attacks. It is certainly not my internet connection as I have cable and a powerful modem and new router. I am assuming it is the in-game server as I have googled this issue and found similar instances as well. If I had to take a guess, it is the influx of users, which considering the history of Blizzard dealing with influxes of users, I would not be surprised. If lag however is the biggest gripe I can find with Hearthstone on tablet, then Blizzard has once again presented an otherwise polished and finely tuned product for the masses. Hearthstone on tablet is just a natural fit for the game and there is so much potential for it to grow on this platform. No, do not go out and buy a tablet just for Hearthstone. However, if you already have one and it is compatible, do not hesitate to pick up this gem.

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I am the current manager of the video game review page The Murfreesboro Pulse. You can check out my work over there. I enjoy PC games in general. I also… More about Nader