The Eye of Judgment is one of several games on the market that uses some unique technological innovations to open up a form of gaming to more than just the hardcore. While its gameplay may initially come off as overwhelming and difficult, a tiny bit of patience and some mentoring (of other players) can be rewarding. The game also does a good job of being accessible to all ages, as evident in the people I have played against and have been beaten by during the course of playing this game.

During the course of reviewing this game, I managed to get several members of my family to play against me that have never played a collectible trading card game in their lives. One was a 50 year old woman and the other was my seven year old son. There were several matches where I found myself beaten (to my own chagrin) because I was showing off with high level cards; when I first played the game my son beat me three times in a row. It was certainly a humbling experience for me (the seasoned gamer) but it also made a light bulb go off in my head. Eye of Judgment is a game, that if given a fair chance, really does offer the kind of gameplay that is accessible to everyone. It’s not just a game built to sell the PlayStation Eye – it’s a game that really takes advantage of it. Once you understand how the game works and what the cards do it is very easy to pick up and play.

For those who have never heard of this game Eye of Judgment is a collectible trading card game that use the PlayStation Eye USB camera to animate the cards into fully 3D, animated replicas. Players lay cards out on a 3 by 3 play field under the Eye, which scans them and puts them on the screen.

The goal of the game is to occupy five spaces on the grid before your opponent does. Combat is pretty interesting in Eye of Judgment because, especially in the early rounds of a match, you don’t have access to powerful cards. Every turn you earn two mana points, and for the first few rounds you may be restricted on what you can summon. You can be conservative and use very little mana if you have some decent cards, but chances are you’ll want to get as many warm bodies out on the play field as you can before your opponent does. There are different kinds of spaces that specific cards work best on, and placing those cards on those corresponding fields will give you a health bonus. These fields include fire, water, earth, wood and biolith. Some common sense is needed when placing cards on these special fields – for example, it should be obvious not to put fire cards onto water fields (or vice-versa).

Placement is key to winning the game as well. The Eye uses the top of the card to indicate which direction your unit is facing, so if you point your card to the left or right then that is the way it will face on the playfield. There are plenty of different kinds of cards, and while none are particularly unbeatable, there are a few that are tougher to kill than others.

There are also cards that offer different styles of attacks. Some cards can attack in two different directions, while others can attack from far away and one card in particular can hit the entire play field.

One other interesting thing to note is that when a unit is killed on the play field, your mana pool gets a return. This has ramifications because the more mana a player has, the more likely he or she is of being able to play some of the more expensive cards. So going on a killing spree against an opponent can have adverse affects down the road because you are basically enabling them to call into play more powerful units and spells.