Lamoine Williams
Hearthstone
is a battle card game from Blizzard/Activision that originally was not
accessible, until now. Other card games have tried going the accessibility
route, but none have done it as well as the hearthstone accessibility patch.
This patch, which can be found on gethub, makes Hearthstone one of the most
accessible main stream card battlers as of late. With great music, game sounds,
and very good game mechanics, Hearthstone will keep the attention of even the
most easily fatigued gamers, like myself.
The
biggest thing that draws me to Hearthstone is the simple navigation of the
game. There are no odd keyboard commands that don’t make sense. One thing I can’t
stand when playing a game is when the commands are useless and easy to forget.
While playing through the tutorial, the commands and strategies of the game are
well explained for new players as they should be. The patch was tested with
NVDA, but should work for most any screen reader on Windows 10.
Another
aspect of Hearthstone that I enjoyed was the challenge of the A.I. opponents.
After being defeated on my first playthrough of the last tutorial mission, I
noticed that the A.I. had a few different cards the second time around than the
first. I like that collecting cards is something that can be done and players
even have the option to purchase cards if they so choose. However, purchasing
cards is not needed since you collect cards with each win. I’m interested to
see more of the card packs that will be made available.
Overall,
I like Hearthstone and will play it for a good while to come, I’m sure. I want
to see what other play styles are available and what other cards and strategies
can be learned. I also would like to play against other opponents which I think
will be an awesome way of playing with my sighted friends and family. Hearthstone
is available on iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows 10.
The
accessible patch is only available on the Windows 10 platform as of right now.
If you would like more information about Hearthstone then check out the review
video that accompanies this article on the Blind Ohio Gamer YouTube channel at
the link that can be found below along with the site where you can find the
hearthstone accessible patch.
Review video:
https://youtu.be/CdT6GRhCbXw
Hearthstone Accessibility site:
https://hearthstoneaccess.github.io/?fbclid=IwAR0tsjVpvXeJEWRdk0RzObhp2d1COybVe4O-8UU0rReloTUhBaAsVBDtXIc
©2021 Lamoine Williams
