If you are reading this, you are probably a dork. You are almost certainly a video game dork, but dorky pursuits love company, so there is some chance that you are, or at one point were, a collectible card game dork as well. You know--Magic: The Gathering, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Collectible Card Game, those Pokemon cards.

If you do happen to be a gamer of both the video and card varieties, Sony would very much like you to invest in The Eye of Judgment, an unusual hybrid of video games and card games. Using scanning technology via the new EyeToy-like PlayStation Eye camera, you play the fantasy-themed Eye of Judgment using real collectible cards, but mediated through a PlayStation 3, allowing for both face-to-face play as well as online competition.

It sounds like a bulky premise--and it is--but what's more surprising is how well it works. This is a genuinely fun, and rather addictive, game. For a variety of reasons, it also gives the impression it will be able to appeal not just to that distinguished combination of video and card gamers, but to those who are just one or the other.

Overview of the Eye
At its core, The Eye of Judgment is actually a small-scale tactical game in which two players vie for control of a three-by-three playing field and attempt to be the first to control more than half of it. But let's start at the beginning. The Eye of Judgment takes a bit of effort to get going. After purchasing the game's starter set, which includes the game disc itself, the PlayStation Eye, a playing mat, a 30-card starter deck and eight-card booster pack--in the end, not bad for the slightly-more-than-standard $69.99, considering the Eye alone goes for $39.99--you must set up the mat and Eye on a level playing surface and prepare your deck.

Decks consist of 30 cards each, meaning you have a little bit of freedom to swap out some of the cards that come in the included starter deck with some of the other randomly-selected cards in the included booster. Like any CCG, cards will be sold in card game stores (though, to be sure both dorky audiences are targeted, Sony and collaborator Wizards of the Coast promise availability in video game stores as well). Once you've gotten everything assembled and decided what deck to use, you can begin.

You don't need this review to know that The Eye of Judgment demands more initial effort than most individual video games or card games--a simple glance at a product shot will allow you to make that inference. It's a good thing, then, that it's so fun and otherwise accessible.

Acessible Depth
The Eye of Judgment's core strength is that it is firmly grounded in its strategic elements. The game field is always the same size, and your goal is not to annihilate your opponent but to dominate that field. This both adds a more overtly tactical component to the game than most CCGs have, as well as provides a fairly easily comprehensible and visually identifiable core gameplay mechanic and structure. The PlayStation 3 handles all calculations and conflict resolution, leaving the players to focus on actually playing the game; when you play a card, the Eye scans it and carries out the appropriate action on-screen.

Essentially, the combination of tactics, a fairly complex ruleset, and PS3-based automation results in a brilliant fusion of genuine accessibility and genuine depth. "Why do you need the PS3 at all?" one might ask, and it is a fair question--one that still persists in the back of my mind, if only just barely--but it is one with a worthwhile answer.

The PS3 is what allows The Eye of Judgment to be such a digestible experience, one that allows you to enjoy the game without feeling mired in numbers and exceptions and sub-exceptions. After all, most of us are video gamers, not card gamers. We're used to controlling the input and getting the output, not worrying about the stuff in between. All of that stuff in between is still there, though, right on the screen and printed on the cards. You'll have to come to terms with it if you actually want to be a good player, but the impressive thing about The Eye of Judgment is how easy it is to figure everything out as you go along. You can figure things out on the fly without having a more experienced friend tirelessly reiterate clarifications.

The flip side of this is that it can be occasionally difficult to figure out how specific rules work or why certain things occur in certain situations, since it all just happens automatically, but in practical terms after you play enough games you'll figure everything out. Being able to play against the computer AI as well as against other players online is a great way to learn the rules as well as develop a good sense of strategy. With a substantial number of difficulty levels, the AI provides quite a range of challenge. I have played a great many games against the AI and find it continues to hold up in challenge and fun.

Down to Brass Tacks
For those curious about some of the deeper mechanics of The Eye of Judgment, each square of the board and nearly every summonable creature is associated with an alignment--standard fantasy fare Fire, Water, Earth, and Wood, as well as the neutral mechanical Biolith. These interact in ways you might expect; Fire creatures summoned to Fire spaces get a bonus, but are harmed when summoned to Water, for example. Certain cards flip a space's alignment, allowing you to give one of your own creatures a boost, or providing a clever way to damage an enemy that may be out of reach of physical damage.

Every card in The Eye of Judgment is either a summonable creature or a one-use spell action, which works towards the game's existing accessibility. It should also simplify deck-building to a certain extent, though the distribution of different board alignments will keep players from making simple one-alignment power decks; you'll always have to ensure your deck is versatile enough to survive if the opponent starts to flip the board's elements.

Most actions in the game cost mana, which is gained every turn as well as in certain other situaions, and tracked by the game. Summoning a creature is the last action you may peform in a turn, and immediately passes control to the other player. Because of this, and because the winner is the first player to have five creatures on the board, "check" situations where one player attempts to keep four creatures alive without his or her opponent destroying one and moving out of "check" are often the most strategically frantic parts of the game, and are where you start to wrack your brain for particularly clever strategies that you can then start applying to all parts of the game on a regular basis.

Wonderfully deep layers of strategy begin to emerge as you realize, for example, it is quite often better to leave enemy alive but low on health rather than destroy them completely. You will go through the game's overall learning curve as you fight the sometimes frustratingly competent AI, then enjoy carrying out the lessons you have learned on random online opponents.

Continue to the second page for details on the game's online mode as well as some of its presentational flaws.