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The much-anticipated "solo adventure" expansion for Blizzard's card battle game went live yesterday, and the Curse of Naxxramas may very well have pushed Hearthstone into pay-to-win territory.

The expansion consists of four wings, with the first released yesterday and the remaining wings being released one each week over the course of the next three weeks. Each wing consists of a 'Normal' mode, which contains three boss battles, a 'Class Challenge', which puts you in a rematch against two of those bosses using special decks, and a 'Heroic' mode, which pits you against a super-charged version of the bosses.

The difficulty level is pretty low for the Normal and Class Challenge modes. I was able to beat both within a couple of hours and with only two deaths, both given to me by Grand Widow Faerlina. Funny enough, she's the middle boss, but I found her more difficult than Maexxna, who is the last boss you'll face in Normal mode.

One fun aspect of the expansion is the different strategies employed by both the Curse of Naxxramas cards and the heroic abilities of the bosses. Each boss has a special ability, with the entry-level Anub'Rekhan gaining the ability to summon a 3/1 spider, Grand Widow Faerlina with her ability to fire a missile for each card in your hand, and Maexxna, whose ability to return a random minion back to your hand was made a little more bearable by the random nature of the power. Each boss grants a special Curse of Naxxramas card upon their defeat.

After defeating the bosses in Normal mode, Class Challenges lets you wield a deck with special Curse of Naxxramas cards as you take on Grand Widow Faerlina with a Druid and Maexxna with a Rogue.

Each win will give you a class-based cards.

Overall, the cards you gain from the expansion are the coolest part. They definitely add a new set of strategies to the game. For example, the Nerubian Egg is a 2 mana 0/2 creature that summons a 4/4 Nerubian in its death rattle. This can create some neat new strategies for deck building.  

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Does Curse of Naxxramas Make Hearthstone Pay-to-Win?

This is a tricky statement considering the card-collecting nature of Hearthstone definitely gives a leg up to those who spend a chunk of change on card packs. But I've never felt forced into buying packs. Blizzard did a great job of providing enough starting quests (and thus easy gold) to get new players started. And the steady stream of daily quests means you can buy a new pack every day or two, depending on how much you play, or visit the arena for a chance to win more gold and rare cards.

The expansion, which costs $6.99 per wing after the first (free) one, is basically an exchange of $21 for 18 cards, 3 of which will no doubt be legendary cards. Yes, you can unlock the expansion wings for 700 gold each, but that basically means most people who want quick access to the expansion without spending real-world money will need to save all of their gold over the course of the next few weeks. That means no extra card packs and no trips to arena.

Perhaps I would feel differently if the expansion wasn't so easy to beat. I won 4 of the 5 boss battles (3 in Normal and 2 in Class Challenge) on my first try and won my first Heroic battle without a death as well. And I think many players will face the same (lack of) challenge from the expansion as well. As for those Heroic battles, there aren't any card rewards, which saps a lot of fun out of them.

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Overall, I felt that the short amount of play time offered by the expansion combined with the lack of challenge and the cool strategy-changing nature of the bonus cards will push people towards opening their wallets to get at the cards earlier. The first time someone goes into a Ranked battle and finds themselves up against those Nerubian Eggs being cracked open by a gleeful Cleric throwing down Holy Smite... well, let's just say you don't want to lose to a card that you don't have access to yet.

You can download the Curse of Naxxramas expansion by updating Hearthstone in the App Store. If you have automatic app updates turned on, it should be installed within the Hearthstone app the next time you play.

Beat the Curse of Naxxramas: Plague Quarter | Military Quarter | Construct Quarter | Frostwyrm Lair 

Note: After defeating the Frostwyrm Lair and completing the entire expansion, my original review stands. The Hearthstone expansion provides some good fun, but considering the cards, it does seem more like a pay-to-win expansion. Hearthstone players will definitely want to get their hands on these cards, some of which are verging on overpowered.

Want to win more? Read our Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Tips