Following its success on PC with 1 million players and recent release on Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, Indie publisher Versus Evil and developer Abrakam Entertainment finally release digital collectible card and turn-based strategy game Faeria for the PlayStation 4...

Fans of collectable card games are certain to get a blast out of Faeria. Don't for one minute think this is yet another clone that treads where others have been. Sure there are a lot of similarities to what has come before, but this is very much a game that can hold its own.

With its living board, Faeria challenges the gamer with strategic card battles. Craft your deck, shape the battlefield, and fight for victory. Raise mountains, build forests, fill lakes, or harness the sands of the deserts as you choose your own path to victory.

The game contains over 100+ hours of solo content, co-operative missions, and puzzles. Journey through the Oversky and defeat devious World Bosses - or even play enemy AI by entering Pandora - Faeria's unique draft mode - where your deck-building skills are put to the ultimate test. Choose to play against the AI or put your deck to the ultimate test in PVP as you compete with online rivals via crossplay.

While it's easy to get to grips with fairly quickly, the fun comes with building decks and mastering the strategy to bring your opponents down.

If I had one complaint it's the the way the game attempts to fleece its fans by charging a quite ridiculous amount for additional content via its DLC. To my mind no game, let alone a digital card game, should ever set you back £74. But if you buy the game and (current) complete DLC bundle, that's exactly how much you'll have to part with. I know it's not unique in this respect, but I can't help feeling that that's a little too pricey for most households.

The launch on PlayStation 4 brings a whole new community of players into the fray with full cross-play support, and means that gamers on PlayStation 4, PC, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One can all go head to head.

It's not a case of waiting for the fanbase to grow - it's already well established. The question is whether you want or need another collectable digital card game in your life. If the answer is "yes", then you'll have a blast.

7

Nick Smithson