The best PC games of 2018: Artifact

If there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I’m awful at card games. Hearthstone struggled to get my juices flowing, and The Elder Scrolls: Legends just isn’t for me, so you’re probably wondering why on Earth I’m writing about the arguably even more complex Dota 2 card game spin-off Artifact. After plugging away for seven hours to learn the basics, and then subsequently losing all but one of my bot games, I was weirdly hooked. With everyone in the office laughing at my inability, Artifact was there, enticing me to prove that I could, in fact, win games and appease my little Imp, who had only come to know that gutting ‘Defeat’ screen. At ten hours, I began to notice intricacies in the cards I had glossed over before, and started playing more proactively. At 15 hours in, I was able to pinpoint the exact moments that were costing me the game, or the plays that I could have pulled off better. And finally, at 20 hours in, I was implementing thought-out strategies with the Blue-Black Control and Red-Green Brawler decks. I’m still really bad at Artifact, but surprisingly, I’m still playing it.