Carte is the latest free to play MMORPG game from the hugely popular publishers over at GamesCampus. Carte occupies the unique genre of the Trading Card Game, featuring only a handful of online games such as Sword Girls Online and Urban Rivals. If you’re not familiar with the Trading Card Game genre, it works in a similar way to popular Collectible Card Games such as Yugioh and the world famous Pokemon. Players are tasked with collecting cards and constructing their own decks to battle against other players and computer controlled enemies. If this is your first time reading a XMMORPG initial review, our first one always focuses on the new player experience of a game, reviewing certain aspects such as tutorial, character creation, combat and quests. Now that’s out of the way, lets dive into the world of the Trading Card Game with this Carte Review.

Carte takes a fresh approach to a tutorial, removing the common pointless beginning quests assigned by NPC characters in other free RPG games. Instead you’re given a colorful comic sketch to ease you into the initial stages of the game. Serya and Eron, a self confessed genius, walk you through the basics of the game to begin with, before you’re able to go into an actual tutorial match that explains the basics of combat.

As with all Trading Card Games, the main focus of Carte is the turn-based combat. Carte uses quite a complex system that involves several types of cards and mana points. At the beginning of a match you start with 0 mana and must move cards to your “Mana Graveyard” in order to increase your mana generation. Every card placed into the Mana Graveyard rewards a certain number of mana points at the start of each turn. This makes matches begin rather slowly but they soon pick up to an intense pace. Once your mana has increased enough you can summon your monsters, the backbone of your deck. Monsters can be placed into either offensive or defensive areas, with offensive being able to attack enemy monsters and leaders, while defensive stands in front of your main hero, vital if you want to survive a match. Other cards available include magic and item cards. Item cards add a huge amount of depth to the game, allowing players to place up to three unique item cards that can then be equipped to monsters. Correct deployment and usage of these cards can turn a weak monster into one powerful enough to defeat your opponents defensive line and begin to attack their main character.

Carte is home to a variety of other features that you won’t experience as a new player, such as the ability to combine and create cards, as well as tournaments and other competitions. Overall, Carte provides players with arguably the best Trading Card Game experience available in an online title. The in-depth card and combat mechanics provides endless possibilities in terms of deck construction and combat variations, a must play title for TCG fans everywhere.

Rating: 9.0

by Blaine Smith