It's hard to be a geek these days.

It seems that with every passing year another precious cornerstone of nerdiness is being sacrificed to the population at large. We lost videogames to the masses a long time ago, sadly followed by the 'Lord of the Rings' (why Peter Jackson, why??) and comic books (Stan Lee, how could you?).

Yes, it is a sad day indeed when your mother weighs in on you and your friends' feverish debates about whether Iron Man could kick Batman's ass (which is a silly example, I know, because of course he could!)

Indeed there are very few bastions of geekdom that are still standing, but one of them is certainly the trading card game. This proud (well, kind of) tradition has so far remained the unchallenged domain of the true nerd. That is, until now.

All right, it's not really being challenged now either. I was just trying to be dramatic.

In fact, 'BattleForge' does not undermine the geeky credentials of the trading card tradition. It actually strengthens it by combining it with the still somewhat uncool genre of the real-time-strategy game.

The result is a game in which the concentration of nerdiness is so high that if two copies of 'BattleForge' are brought close to one another they might actually cause a rip in the space-time continuum. It is also rather good.

But the game does not make a great first impression.

Getting the thing running is a mission in itself and requires activating an account and downloading some shockingly large patches. This is not optional either, since you must log onto the game's servers in order to play. For everyone in the US this is obviously no problem at all, but for us here in South Africa it is a considerable annoyance and will consume a large chunk of your monthly data cap.

Still, once everything is up and running things do get better. The menu system and user interface are very well designed and make navigating the hub a pleasant experience. Which is a good thing as you'll be spending a lot of time with it if you plan on interacting with the community at all.

Since the multiplayer component makes up such a big part of the game, this is something that you will surely be doing. Multiplayer is frantic and fast-paced, and for the ultra-competitive there is a leader board to try and get onto, though the people you'll find in the ranked battles (you can play friendly matches too) can be a little trying, and tend to take the whole exercise a little too seriously.

If you prefer to steer clear of all that, you can always opt to play only the solo missions. The single player campaign tells the story of Nyn, a world which is in great danger and can only survive if the Skylords blah blah blah dippity dippity doo. That's about as much of the story as I followed and I doubt whether you will want to know more either. It's boring, clichéd, badly told and you have to read through all of it, since the developers didn't think it necessary to include too many cut scenes.

Luckily the story doesn't affect the gameplay at all. The game plays much like almost any other RTS, though it leans more towards the 'Dawn of War' school of thought than the 'Command and Conquer' variety. There isn't really any base-building as such, though you can still build walls and small defensive structures.

Where 'Battleforge' really differs from the abovementioned games is in the variety of units and powers that are deployed. You have to build up your own deck of 20 cards, which will consist of a combination of the four elemental powers in the game: Fire, Frost, Nature and Shadow. Your choice of cards determines what the battlefield will look like.

The retail version of 'BattleForge' ships with a decent spread of cards to choose from, as well as 3000 points with which to buy new cards and upgrade old ones. Once you run out of points you have to buy more, and it is here that 'BattleForge' runs into some tricky terrain.

Once you have forked out the full price for a new game, it seems pretty damn cheeky of the developers to expect you to continue paying them to properly play the game you already own. Of course this is how most MMOs work, but they justify the monthly fee you pay them with a truly huge world and constant content updates. 'BattleForge' has been receiving the odd new map, but it simply is not anywhere near enough to justify this micro transaction model.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that a couple of months after release — when most people had already bought the retail version — EA released a FREE version of the game, which includes all the game content and requires only the purchase of a couple of booster packs to place the player on the same level as someone who paid full price.

This is irksome, to say the least, and a cheap shot from EA to make some extra cash. The move will cost them in the long run, since it will definitely create a lot of ill will amongst its consumers.

'BattleForge' is a really fun game though. It looks good, has low system requirements and offers a refreshing new take on the RTS genre. However, the lack of content and cheeky extra charges are likely to put a lot of people off.

Still, if you are interested in trading card games you should definitely check it out. Seeing the battles unfold in front of your eyes instead of in your imagination is quite an experience and you might soon find your actual trading card decks gathering dust.

7.2/10

Buy this game: PC