September 11th, 2007
Pox Nora – Battlefield of the Immortals
Pox Nora is a free online strategy and card trading game brought to us by the Octopi developers in August 2006. All you need in order to play is having java installed since the game is web based and the client downloads itself really fast. If you’re a Magic the Gathering fan, then you’ll most likely enjoy Pox Nora since it features similar techniques and game concepts, along with an innovative twist. You can choose between eight races and each has its own cards, also called runes, with specific abilities suited to their background. Thus the K’Thir Forest elves, Ironfist Stronghold dwarfs, Foglar Swamp creatures, Savage Thundra barbarians, The Underdepths dark elves, Sundered Lands lizard men, Forsaken Wastes humans and the Shattered Peaks demons fight among each other for supremacy. Runes are common, uncommon or rare and belong to either of the presented factions. Before starting a game, you need to create a deck of runes, more like setting up an army out of your current runes. This brings together artifacts for boosting your creatures, combatants as well as destructive spells. Alliances are known to occur, since your 20-piece deck can have anywhere from one faction to all eight present. In order to dominate your opponents, there are pretty impressive bonuses to be attained should you use 10 or 20 runes belonging to the same kingdom. Taking advantage of these may provide the extra edge needed for victory in the Capture the Flag scenarios or the King of the Hill gameplay. You can always practice in the Training grounds and experiment to your heart's content.
Whenever you defeat an opponent in a rated game, you will gain experience points thus rising in level. Your greatness grows by improving your deck. It can be done either by getting Octopi’s virtual card packs, gaining additional runes by defeating opponents as well as trading runes with players in the Rune Market. The system seems self sufficient since you can set up auctions and either buy or automatically sell and rune for other similar material. The game is free to get and play by anyone who desires, but membership benefits as new booster packs are available for a price. Thus you must be really good and up to date with the latest releases if you want to stand a chance in the competitive rankings Octopi set up on the site. When you join a ranked game, you will be matched up against a random opponent with similar level and skill, thus fixed games are thrown out of the equation. Check out these ratings and see how popular Pox Nora is.
The great thing about a web based game is that you can indulge yourself in casual play from almost any location, be it a work, school, or even a laptop on the road. There is opportunity for some fast fun on the spot and you can save it all for later if you’re busy. Depending on the starting conditions, your game can last anywhere from 15 minutes to more than one hour. In addition, you can watch other people play in the observer mode and maybe learn a thing or two in the process. Octopi developers keep Pox Nora up to date and have already launched four expansions to the game in the past year. New content featured in the Skeezick Rebellion pack includes 96 new runes, an additional map and many new abilities.
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Published by: Kampfaren in Reviews
9 Comments on Pox Nora – Battlefield of the Immortals
Posted by Trading Cards 10/12/2007 3:06 pm
Hi, Just wanted to show some love in here!
Posted by Kampfaren 10/12/2007 3:40 pm
Always. What do you think about the Pox Nora community as a whole? I didn't have a chance to go that deep.
Posted by trashcan01 04/25/2008 11:32 am
You forgot to write that its not a completely FREE game. You cant level your runes if you dont spend real money. For free you get to play with starter packs (lame ones) and every guy who spent 10$ on the game will win every time.
Also game is really unbalanced and money dependant. If you spend alot of money youll be better ranked. Pox is 70%money, 20%skill and 10% luck.
Also there is problem balance between factions,bugs and very very poor customer support.
Octopi ( creators of the game) even made PDC (player design cometee) - best players advising Octopi on game problems. Few days before I quit Pox one of PDC guys told me that PDC is here just to make ordinary players think they have influence on game development. Go figure.
I played this game for about a year, and I regret every second and every cent I spent on this game. More and more players seem to quit the game also.
All in all, great game idea, and very bad company policy and lame customer support ruined my experience.
Posted by BasaltInforms 05/01/2008 4:54 pm
While trashcan has some decent points, I think the over-riding tone of bitterness inherent in his post weakens the potency of his reply. Money is a factor in any game, and truth be told you can have a highly competitive Shattered Peaks Voil deck for under 30 dollars- competitive enough to launch a competent player to far under sub-top 500 rank. Indeed, the current top player runs a deck of the same construction. A top-tier Magic: The Gathering deck would cost well over 100 dollars, some of them far more.
Pox has a great advantage for savy traders as well. The in-game trading system allows players acess to a large rune-pool, and many, many players run common and uncommon rune drives, to give newer players of their faction the runes they need. Some decks do require alot of exotics (usually valued at 5-30 dollars, though Lich King goes for about 60 right now), but not at the lower ranks. Ironfist and Forsaken Wastes are the most exotic dependent, but a good player can get sup-top 1000 using either without an exotic heavy deck. Kthir Forest is another great example of a competitiveness on a budget.
As for the PDC, nothing is perfect, but they are having more and more influence as time goes on. Octopi listens to their customers to a fault, but that is being worked on as well.
Anyway, no one is forcing you to buy it, but the sample battlegroups are free to use and hundreds of players use them in Training Grounds.
Good day!
Posted by dervon 06/03/2008 8:03 pm
*yawn*
it has no spaz
if u know wat i mean
Posted by matheusramos 09/23/2008 12:34 am
quero jogar esse jogo
Posted by j.junior 10/10/2008 4:42 pm
game is a legal
Posted by ekkas 05/02/2009 11:59 pm
hi every body
Posted by Babesi 09/29/2009 5:44 am
cool game...