Magic: The Gathering (Shandalar) is a unique and quirky gem from the past that combines the basic game with several role-playing elements together. The adventure mode lets you explore an overworld of sorts battling random NPCs (who pursue you) and visiting towns to buy cards. The game has many quirks such as bonuses and maluses from completing battles. Winning and losing cards from duels. Random powers and abilities you can use in the overworld. Trading and quests, and all matter of mutators or randomizations. The game AI is also somewhat decent (but not infallible, and I played it on wizard) the interface and UI is okay but looks a bit dated. Building a proper deck is a bit problematic as you don't have access to the guards and must slowly buy and earn them. This was an enjoyable challenge to make a half-assed deck but In the end many aspects of this game just feel quite dated, and it seems the goal is to prevent the other wizards from conquering too many towns to grow in power while simultaneously clearing out dungeons that appear. I gave up on the game after finally building my competent deck and then entered a dungeon... which is basically a stripped down and ultra condensed version of the overworld on hard mode consisting of duelist fights with a consistent persistent mutator that generally screws everything up or makes it really hard. (10-20 consecutive battles with Power Struggle? No thanks)

Clearly, the game feels inspired from Heroes of Might and Magic, but plays like something quite different. While the deck building and card collecting is quite strong it overall just hasn't aged well enough for me to recommend it for any discernible reason. There are better CCG type experiences to be had, and too many to pick from to justify playing this for entertainment purposes. but it was still a fascinating thing to explore for a day, as the world, sound, aesthetic was pretty absorbing. Even the 200 page manual is quite a trip with lore-laden introduction, and a breakdown of the rules (much of which has been changed since and terms that are now obsolete)