Press Page: The Blacksburg Times

Ophidian 2350 Packs a Punch in Fleer's Card Game Debut
by Scott Baughman
November 19, 2003

Most gamers out there are so new to the Customizable Card Game market, they don't remember the summer of 1995. It was a heady time in the game world. The first ever Trading Card Game, Magic: the Gathering, had sold millions of cards worldwide, and suddenly everybody and their brother wanted in on the market.

As is often the case with a new idea that gets copied over and over, you had quite a few duds in the industry during that summer. But you had quite a few superstars emerge. Many of those games are gone now, but every time a company has a huge success, others try and follow it up.

Let us flash forward to 2003. Yu-Gi-Oh! has become a huge success in the TCG world, so this year's crop of new games is starting to plump up again. Sift through all the anime' chaff, and you might be lucky enough to come across a true rarity in today's gaming market - a quality, American made, original property game. That game is "Ophidian 2350," and if we're lucky, it is the future of card gaming.

If you've never heard of Ophidian, don't be concerned.

The game is played with trading cards, each player builds their own deck and they keep track of resources throughout the game. You may be saying to yourself, "I've seen this before" but believe me when I tell you, that is where the similarities end.

Ophidian prides itself on two things, the groundbreaking play mechanics and it's original story line. Set in the far flung future, 2350 to be exact, the game centers around the galaxy's most popular sport - gladiatorial combat in the Ophidian league.

Just who are the Ophidians? Well, that 's the question on everyone's minds, but unless they're not so careful it doesn't reach their lips. The Ophidians, an enigmatic race of reptiles, run the gladiator league with ruthless efficiency. And not too many citizens complain about it. Afterall, with the gladiator combats happening, actual war has all but ceased. And the advancements brought on by teams and individuals seeking some new advantage in the arenas have led to a huge increase in the level of comfort for the galaxy.

Players take on the role of a team manager and use their gladiators in death matches against other managers' teams.

Now, on to the mechanics. Ophidian starts out with several solid concepts from other games, but adds its own unique flavor to each of them. Gladiators are each skilled in different combinations of the six core disciplines in the game. These are Bio-tek (use of germ warfare and DNA manipulation to gain advantages), Portal (abilities to bring allies into the arena from alternate timelines, planets, dimensions, etc.), Cybernetics (melding biology and technology for lethal effect), Mystic (harnessing supernatural and preternatural powers), Psychic (the powers of the mind), and War (that ancient art of combat.)

Each team consists of varying characters with their own particular special abilities as well. The game is played simply enough with instant effect type cards, enhancements for you gladiators, and smaller servants of the team, called "minions" that come to do battle.

But you don't take turns. See, unlike every other card game in existence, Ophidian players have to actively manipulate "the Flow."

The Flow represents who has the momentum during the gladiator match. Each action you take, from attacking to firing a missile launcher to constructing an android, is denoted as either positive or negative. A positive action means you get to keep the Flow and therefore take another action. A negative action means you lose the Flow and it passes to your opponent. Through shrewd manipulation of the Flow, players have a whole other level of strategy to contend with.

Ophidian 2350 is certainly one of the more complicated games available on the market today, but the rewards of seeing your strategy come to fruition are well worth the investment. Any game you can win by whipping the crowd into a rioting frenzy to rush the field and tear your opponents limb from limb is worth trying at least once, right?