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Like many of my peers and colleagues, the introduction of a tabletop card game built on the next-generation of the EyeToy for the PLAYSTATION 3 seemed like a stroke of genius. This blend of digital and real world visuals spawned memories of Chewie and Threepio playing the stop-motion animated space chess game that one whiles away time with on the Millennium Falcon. The Eye of Judgment was supposed to be fantasy meeting reality, with archers, demons, wizards and dozens of fantastical creatures solving whatever conflict they have with magic-filled violence on your kitchen table.
Unfortunately, The Eye of Judgment—admittedly, a very solid game at its core that might appeal very strongly to CCG fans—impressed upon me that it was a fantastic proof of concept that asks too much of the player in the name of selling some booster packs.
If you're not familiar with the concept of The Eye of Judgment, it involves pointing the PlayStation Eye at a cloth mat with a three by three grid. On this grid, you'll lay down physical cards. Thirty of those cards, as well as the camera, stand and mat are included in the base package (Sony reps did specify that there will be a package without the camera, for anyone who might have picked up one with Singstar). There will be 110 cards total, sold in random booster packs of 8.
The cards you'll place will perform actions like summoning warriors or casting spells with each card containing a number of attributes such as mana cost, elemental alignment, direction of attack, counter attack, potential blind spots and attack damage.
The object of the game is to control five of the nine squares on the grid. You'll take turns against the CPU or another human player laying down cards trying to dominate spots on the grid and attacking spots your opponent has already occupied.
The game's core elements are solid. There's little question about that. You'll have to strategically plan your moves based on the number of cards you have in your hand. Being a collectible card game newbie, it was a bit daunting at first, but the game's mechanics soon clicked.
What didn't resonate with me was the time and capital investment one will have to make simply to play a game that couldn't have been done—and done quite well—without the PlayStation Eye and card game gimmick. To play the game, one will have to set up the camera, align it with the mat, register your current deck by showing your cards to the camera (up to four at a time), then go through the currently slow process of laying down cards, waiting for the camera to read the card and watching the game's battle animations. These animations are currently somewhat lengthy and turning them off is not yet an option. They're pretty to look at but will soon become a chore to watch by veteran players. Interacting with the game's display—allowing you to hold monsters in your hand or flick already placed characters—felt like little more than a cool gimmick.
While The Eye of Judgment is a great concept, one that shows promise for the camera peripheral and thinks outside the bounds of traditional control schemes, it feels like a bear to play. There are some players who may be very interested in keeping a semi-permanent set up of their Judgment mats in place, as the peer-to-peer multiplayer may catch on with a niche crowd. Sony's development studio should be lauded for creating something genuinely interesting as a concept, but the game surely could have been accomplished using digital cards, even allowing for booster pack purchases via the PlayStation Store.
The game is scheduled for release this fall, so we'll soon now how well the concept clicks with PLAYSTATION 3 owners.
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