Altered TCG Review - A World Of Potential

With the stellar release of Disney Lorcana, the One Piece TCG, and Star Wars: Unlimited over the past few years - it feels like we're in something of a modern Renaissance for trading card games. So it's into a semi-crowded market that newcomer Altered emerges - promising to shake up the genre through what they call a "Phygital" gaming experience combining a tabletop game with digital card collecting. Asmodee Games sent me a copy of two of the game's starter decks to review, so let's jump head-first into the wild world of Altered and see what it's all about!

What Is the Altered TCG?

Produced by Equinox games out of France, and distributed by Asmodee, Altered is a trading card game with a digital collection aspect to it. Altered initially turned heads by being the highest grossing Kickstarter ever for a Trading Card Game, and is just now hitting store shelves after getting into the hands of some (if not all) backers. Perhaps inspired partly by the now-on-it's-way-out idea of NFT ownership, each card in Altered has a QR code on it, which you can scan to log your ownership of that specific card on the app. 

As a Trading Card Game, Altered is comprised of a set of cards which all fall into six different factions (each color coded like most other popular TCG's). Along with Starter Sets (which I used in the creation of this review), players can also obtain cards of varying rarity by opening booster packs.

How Do You Play Altered?

In Altered, two (or more - there are alternate play modes for 3 or 4 players) players face off against each other in a race of exploration. In an attempt to move away from the combat and conflict of most other modern Trading Card Games (even in Lorcana, Winnie the Pooh can deal significant damage to Aladdin), Altered is all about discovering new and magical lands.

To play the game, each player builds a deck (or uses a pre-built Starter Deck like I did for this review) of 40 cards, including one Hero card. Each player then takes a Hero marker and a Companion marker, and puts them on either end of an adventure track. To win the game, one player has to be the first to make their two markers meet.

You'll do this by playing cards from your deck that feature characters, and each character is played into an Expedition field either on the side of your hero or the side of your companion. If at the end of the phase, the players check the power of their characters in relation to where there marker is, and if they outpace their opponent, then advance their marker accordingly. So as not to get too lost in the details of the game here, I highly recommend curios gamers check out their How To Play page.

Altered TCG Review - Yzmir and Lyra Starter Decks

To test out the game, I was sent a batch of booster packs and two Starter Decks belonging to the Yzmir and Lyra factions. I've saved the boosters for future coverage, because I think focusing on just these Starters will be more useful and instructive. But what do I mean when I say Yzmir and Lyra starter decks?

There are six different factions in the game, and players must build a deck around one singular faction. Those factions include: Axiom, who are the mechanics and engineers of this world. They create machines and devices that help them achieve victory. Bravos are the athletic adventurers, who prioritize speed and gusto to win. Muna are the naturalistic promoters of balance and harmony, relying on nature to plants to acheive their goals. Ordis, the embodiment of the state, using diplomacy and rhetoric.

And then there are the two factions of which I received Starter Decks, Lyra and Yzmir.  Lyra are the wandering artists and creators, and they rely on chance and creativity to explore their world. They are full of painters, artists, gamblers, and risk takers, and their Starter Deck involves a lot of dice rolling and risk taking. The Lyra Hero Ability (each deck needs to have a hero card and a special ability you can use once per round) allows you to roll a die, with most rolls giving you some advantage, but a 1 effectively eliminating your card for the turn.

Yzmir, the mystical and magical faction, focuses on trickery and manipulation, with spells that can remove your opponent's cards. The Yzmir hero ability also allows you to pass priority to your opponent to wait and have as much information as possible. I'll speak to why this matters in a moment, but suffice it to say of the two Starter Decks this was certainly the more complicated (though nothing in this game is overly complicated, which makes it such a delight to play).

How Does Altered Gameplay Feel?

The gameplay in Altered feels unlike any other Trading Card Game I've ever played before. A game runs extremely fast, with each player racing to make their character and companion tokens meet in the middle of an adventure track. The game also has a "Do one thing, then your opponent does one thing, then you do one thing, etc." turn order in a phase, just like Star Wars: Unlimited, which adds to a sense of fun, light tension as you wait to see what your opponent is going to do.

Also like Star Wars: Unlimited's Space and Ground theaters of battle, the game takes place in two different expedition zones. Knowing when and where to play a card is essential to progressing your markers, because your opponent will quickly outrace you if you focus on just one section.

Also, as alluded to above, this is why Yzmir's special Hero ability (and cards that replicate it) is so potent, because you're essentially passing a turn to force your opponent to make a move (normally when you pass your turn, you end your turns for the entire phase).

Altered Artwork and World Building

The world and story of Altered seems to still be in the process of being fleshed out, but it is a world that - most exciting of all the game's aspects - is all about adventure and positivity. There's nothing violent in the game, and no one's fighting one another. You're simply out exploring both your world and the magical realm that's bleeding into it, and the gameplay feels like a friendly footrace between two explorers.

There's a joy that's felt throughout the cards and gameplay that I haven't seen in many other games, and hopefully that will translate to a pleasant, good-natured player base! With bright and evocative artwork throughout, and cards pulling in characters from mythology, history, and storytelling, this is a family friendly world of creativity and adventure.

Altered Digital Elements

The one area where I feel the game's currently lacking is in the digital aspect, but that's to be expected of a brand new game. They're billing this game as a "Phygital" card game (what a term, haha) where digital and physical cards and trading blend. And the ideas and promises they're making on that front are truly outside the box.

There's going to be a print-on-demand service, where you can use Foiler cards to turn cards in your collection into foils (and get them printed and sent to you). There's also going to be a marketplace, where you can trade cards with other players. Each card has a QR code on it, which you'll scan to mark yourself as the owner of the card. And you can currently try the game on Board Game Arena - I believe the idea is to eventually be able to import your collection into this or another online service, and play with your collection.

While I'm so excited to see where the tech progresses for Altered, right now it feels a little clunky. It can also take a long time to scan in each card, but I can't think of an easier way that they could do bulk imports. There's a ton of elements of the app marked as "Coming Soon," and I can't fairly judge the entire Digital element of the game until everything's up and running. So for now, mark me down as cautiously optimistic that this could be a really engaging aspect of the game, but right now it's not running at full capacity.

Altered TCG Review - Final Thoughts

Even though the digital aspects of the game aren't yet functioning at the level the designers have promised, this is a brand new game. Maybe I'll follow up with an additional review of the digital elements when I feel enough time has passed for them to be working properly (though one would hope they'd be good to go at launch).

But let's talk about what really matters to me: the gameplay. Altered is, hands-down, one of the most unique and engaging Trading Card Game experiences I've had in a long time. Gameplay is super simple to understand but rewards strategy, timing, and tactics. The artwork is bright, bold, and evocative. The setting is charming and non-violent. It's all like a breath of fresh air, and I hope it gains traction and excitement among TCG players.

This is something special, and definitely worth your time. If you're interested in trying out a new approach to TCG's, I highly recommend you pick up a few Starter Sets to see what it's all about.

The copies of Altered TCG products used in the creation of this review were provided by Asmodee USA.