Hearthstone Naxxramas first impressions: excellent and difficult

Hearthstone fans your dreams—or perhaps nightmares—have come true. Blizzard’s first expansion to its free-to-play collectible card game is here, and it’s called The Curse of Naxxramas. You can grab it right now via Battle.net, and the first section of the expansion, the Arachnid Quarter is free-to-play for the time being. The following four sections will be unlockable at a rate of one per week for 700 gold or $6.99.

(See: Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas prices for English-speaking Asia will follow US)

But is it worth your time and money? I just finished the first two bosses on a normal level of the Arachnid Quarter, and I’d have to say yes. The AI of bosses is pretty good; they respond well to your moves and use the logical card combinations. Plus, some of their cards and powers are completely overpowered! If you like a challenge, Naxxramas has got you covered.

The second boss, in particular, dealt insane an amount of damage to me every turn with its hero power (which deals damage based on the number of cards in your hand, split randomly). But I still had a ton of fun! It was unpredictable, I had to check the cards, re-arrange my deck and constantly play around all those new effects. I was thrilled.

Of course, as is typical with Blizzard launches, my joy was short-lived and the servers crapped out, ending my playthrough for the time being. But if history is any indication, the issues should be fixed relatively soon.

In the meantime, if you want a taste of Naxxramas but can’t connect, countless streamers are trying to beat the Naxxramas expansion right now on their channels. It is extremely amusing to watch professional players get completely wrecked by AI bosses! Check out Hong Kong’s Amaz stream, for example.

All things considered, what little I got to play of Naxxramas has led me to believe it’s a bullseye. It looks like it will completely turn the game around, both on the entertainment and competitive sides! Personally, I’m going tosave gold like a madman so I can afford the upcoming levels as they unlock, and I suggest you do the same. Or just buy them with real money; whichever approach you choose, I feel confident it’ll be worth it.