Blizzard’s vastly successful strategy card game – boasting over 50 million registered players – goes disco for its latest adventure, a groovy mix of Warcraft in-jokes, so-bad-they’re-good puns and carpet-burning dance moves.
The fourth story-based expansion, after 2014’s Naxxramas, 2015’s Blackrock Mountain and The League Of Explorers, Karazhan serves up 13 bosses and 45 new cards with such cocktail-chinking elan that you’ll find yourself actually laughing out loud. No, really. Perhaps it’s the ever-brilliant voicework or the sheer bonkersness of having a '70s-themed party in a magical tower as your setting – whatever the reason, it’s a lot of fun, and often very funny.
This _Saturday Night Fever_ish sense of humour marks the welcome return of Blizzard’s comedic side, after Whispers Of The Old Gods (2016’s previous cards-only expansion) leaned heavily on Lovecraftian lore – all tentacles and purple ooze – and left the lols by the wayside. The trouble is, while Karazhan is a good laugh, it’s also far too easy.
As an adventure, it’s a blast to play, albeit one you could finish in literally One Night.
Hearthstone must increase its playerbase to survive, and the ease of this adventure feels like the result of a board meeting that double underlined in bold script that it couldn't be too tricky, lest newcomers be scared off. Sensible business, perhaps, but if you’re a veteran looking for a real challenge, even the 'harder' Heroic mode is just a bit of a nuisance, not a genuine test.
That said, the stand-out battle – the chess encounter – is well worth championing, a rare moment of difficulty that’s sorely welcome. In Heroic mode, meanwhile, it becomes a table-flipping headscratcher that forces players to actually, really think, and perhaps even take up real chess in frustration, which can only be a good thing.
And though its accompanying cards haven’t solved Hearthstone’s problems in its other modes – arena balance, the weak state of the Priest class, Shaman’s dominance in Ranked play – as an adventure, it’s one of the best, up there with the similarly silly League Of Explorers: a blast to play, albeit one you could finish in literally One Night.