The game itself is based around campaigns, which Luke from Fantasy Flight Interactive has said they plan on releasing on a three month cycle starting with early access. This will add to the replay-ability of each quest for sure. One aspect I really like is that each quest isnt necessarily a linear story, and has different paths you can take after certain rounds. This is not quite a mechanic I fully understand yet and will need to see more gameplay to fully grasp the concept. With that said, you’re essentially playing against Sauron himself who is looming over the battlefield.
Your progress continues forward with each round as do any recruited characters or played cards. After you’ve completed one scenario, you move onto the next with interluding text describing your continuing adventure. While it plays very similarly to Hearthstone with a finite resource to play cards, dragging your attackers to their enemy and managing character health, this game is much more about the long term adventure than beating the opponent in front of you. This is first and foremost an adventure game with a card mechanic. Ultimately Hearthstone wasn’t the game for me so I’ve been looking for a replacement and being a huge Lord of the Rings fan, this has potential. I played Hearthstone for several years but always found the adventure modes more appealing and was disappointed when Blizzard announced last year that they were moving away from that format and adjusting their approach.