Valve unveiled Artifact, a new digital card game based on the popular DOTA franchise that players are already criticizing because it is not the long-awaited Half-Life 3.
Half-Life 3 may never happen though, but Artifact is set to launch next year. Should players stop hoping for the continuation of the Half-Life franchise and give Artifact a chance?
Valve Unveils 'Artifact,' Not 'Half-Life 3'
Despite reports that there is no such thing as Half-Life 3 and Valve employees trolling gamers with Half-Life 3 hoaxes, gamers are still hoping that Valve will release the next iteration in the massively popular franchise soon.
When Valve told attendees at The International, the premier tournament for DOTA 2, that it will be announcing a new game, the suspense became unbearable. Players were hoping that the time of Half-Life 3 had come, but when the lights were turned down and a trailer was played, the new game was Artifact, a DOTA-based digital card game.
The disappointment was evident in the reaction of the crowd when Artifact was unveiled, as captured by Twitter user Nickisnixed. The online reaction to the new Valve game was ruthless, just because it is not Half-Life 3.
What We Know So Far About 'Artifact'
However, it might not be fair to judge Valve and Artifact just because most players were let down by the fact that the new game did not turn out to be Half-Life 3.
From what we know so far about Artifact, it could prove to be an entertaining card game, at the very least. It will look to recreate the DOTA 2 experience in a 1v1 card game and will include all the elements currently found in the multiplayer online battle arena title.
Artifact will feature similarities as other digital card games in terms of cards representing creatures and spells. However, in Artifact, players control five heroes and deploy them to three boards, representing the teams of DOTA 2 and its three lanes. The heroes have different abilities and can be moved between the boards. Also, like in DOTA 2, the heroes can earn gold by killing enemies, with the gold able to be spent on items to make the heroes more powerful.
Everything else about Artifact, however, remains unclear, including the other gameplay elements, the platforms it will be available on, how its graphics would look like, and if it would use Valve's Steam marketplace.
It remains to be seen whether Artifact will be able to pry players away from the premier digital card game, Blizzard's Hearthstone, but maybe we should give it a chance. More details will be revealed as we move closer to its 2018 launch date.
