Jagex Reveals Hearthstone Competitor in Chronicles: RuneScape Legends

I don’t think anyone’s surprised to find out there are companies looking to copy the success of Blizzards digital TCG Hearthstone.   But there might be some surprise in finding out who is behind the most recent high-profile attempt: Jagex, the people responsible for RuneScape, are working on their own Hearthstone-style TCG called Chronicle: RuneScape Legends,  and it’s coming out for PC, Mac, iOS and Android next year.

And you know what?  It don’t look bad at all.

While aesthetically it looks similar to Hearthstone, and the idea of taking creatures, bosses, locations and character and turning them into cards is certainly a borrowed element, the gameplay itself is actually a world apart from Blizzard’s Game.  Rather than a competitive battle game, Chronicles is a quest-building game, where you use cards to construct miniature role-playing adventures and force your enemy to go through it.   You don’t even play on a board: you play on a “living book” whose pages you flip as the game progresses.

Following Runefest this weekend in London where the game was officially revealed, Chronicles lead designer James Sweatman had this to say:

"We've been quietly developing Chronicle: RuneScape Legends since the start of the year to ensure that it's not only a fun and compelling player experience, but one still very much interwoven into the rich lore of RuneScape.  We're looking forward to sharing more information on the game over the coming months, especially in regards to Chronicle's debut on tablet and mobile!"

I’m intrigued.  Runescape has something of a bad reputation among gamers, especially PC gamers, as “baby’s first MMO”,  and I have to admit even in my several years playing it way back in 2006 I had no idea it had a “lore”.  But the gameplay looks fun and Hearthstone could certainly use the competition, so I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.  I hope it’s namesake doesn’t drag it down, but then, while Runescape may be a joke to some PC gamers, it still has a massive base of players, both casual and hardcore, so… it’ll probably be alright.