It's a clone of Hearthstone's Battlegrounds mode, but it's still really fun and worth playing

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Tavern Brawl doesn’t really hide anything; it’s a clone of Hearthstone’s game mode called Battlegrounds. Tavern Brawl is an auto battler card game that doesn’t feature anything majorly creative or innovative to make it unique, but that doesn’t mean it’s terrible. Despite being a clone, Tavern Brawl is still a lot of fun and worth playing. Why? Because it’s basically Battlegrounds!

As someone that’s spent hundreds of hours playing Battlegrounds, I’m not upset or angry that Tavern Brawl is a clone. I’m actually pleased that it hasn’t managed to be boring or unenjoyable after an hour into the game, but instead, it feels fresh and thrilling. I mean, how terrible would it be to copy a fantastic game, only for that clone to be absolutely horrendous? Now that’s a nightmare I don’t want to experience.

Tavern Brawl takes a lot of inspiration from Battlegrounds with the only slight differences being no real-time battles, heroes locked behind progression walls, and visuals. Besides that, the mechanics and core gameplay are pretty much identical to Battlegrounds. Heck, even the card abilities and some descriptions are the same too, so it’s pretty easy to get the hang of Tavern Brawl if you’ve even slightly dabbled in Battlegrounds.

I think the only slightly disappointing aspect of Tavern Brawl that it hasn’t managed to nail down yet is the gameplay experience itself. Because I had to go against computer-controlled player accounts, there wasn’t a sense of challenge or competitiveness. Playing matches felt weightless after a while and there wasn’t anything else at stake beyond my rank or progression. I enjoyed Battlegrounds because I could lose in the game against better players and this loss fueled my passion to become better. But in Tavern Brawl, I didn't feel that sense of competitiveness or drive since there weren't any real-time battles which was a little bit of a letdown.

Beyond this gameplay experience, Tavern Brawl was still pretty fun. I liked that most of the heroes were locked behind levels and rewards which gave me a reason to play longer. It might've been the result of my undying love for Battlegrounds, but Tavern Brawl was a blast. I enjoyed every single bit of it, even if it wasn't original.