There’s nothing worse than being kicked in the balls. A white-hot fire erupts from within your testes, the pain rapidly flares throughout your entire body, while your voice temporarily takes on the high pitch of Theodore the chipmunk (the little one without glasses).

After being left reeling by the below-thebelt punch that was last month’s Lair we were somewhat wary that a similar tingling sensation would appear once we delved into The Eye Of Judgment.

Fortunately, Sony’s innovative new card game is nowhere near as disappointing as Factor 5’s draconian opus. It is, however, one of the most cynical game releases we’ve played for some time, and that hurts us greatly, mainly because the core concept of Eye Of Judgment is still as sound as the day we first encountered it.

So, for those who may have missed our last preview, let’s have a quick recap. Bundled with the PlayStation 3’s new EyeToy – in a glorious presentation box that would make Pandora green with envy – The Eye Of Judgment is a new collectible card game that actually uses real cards. These cards are read by the EyeToy and then projected on screen so that you can battle it out against a human or computer opponent. The cloth game board consists of nine squares made up of several different elements and each player must secure five squares in order to win a match. You start the game with five cards, each card requires a specific amount of mana to cast and activate, and every turn you’re given a new card and two pieces of mana.

It’s a wonderfully original concept and will no doubt have fans of Yu-Gi-Oh! frothing at the mouth with excitement, and yet Sony has dropped a clanger so large that, like The Great Wall of China, it can be seen from space.

Play any collectible card game and you quickly discover that collecting new cards is tremendously exciting. In fact, it’s somewhere between picking up a new console on launch day and the birth of your first child. The joy of finding a rare sought-after card, discovering how it interacts with your existing deck and working out how it will combo with others will only ever be really understood by like-minded individuals, but trust us when we say it’s something very special.

Due to the fact it uses real cards, Eye Of Judgment captures this feeling perfectly. You get to see cards you’ve just bought burst into life on your TV screen and, should you wish to, you can even interact with them.

Registering cards couldn’t be easier. You simply place them on your cloth mat and within seconds they’re stored on your PS3’s hard drive ready to be added to any new decks you want to make.

It’s here, though, where things begin to backfire. Rather spectacularly, in fact. To ensure that Hasbro sees plenty of booster pack purchases, no doubt, Sony has stingily given you just 30 cards to begin with. Therefore, the computer side of Eye Of Judgment is hamstrung massively, because the deck you’re supplied with is woefully inadequate against even the lowest difficulty computer opponent.

Whereas beating the computer in any other computerised collectible card game will reward you with new cards to improve your existing deck with, there are no such benefits with Eye Of Judgment. Beat the incredibly tough AI and your reward is an even better deck to play against, not with. Hardly a good incentive to keep you playing. Even a story mode may have made up for this huge flaw, but you don’t even get that. After all, that would just interrupt the buying of cards.

Of course, another problem with only having 30 cards to work with is that it’s impossible to play a friend offline, unless you – yeah, you’ve guessed it – buy more cards. This is a particularly cruel blow as the wellpresented tutorial constantly points out the joys of playing against a human opponent, so it’s somewhat unbelievable that you’re unable to do this straight out of the box.

But here’s the kicker. We still think Eye Of Judgment is a very clever game that would have easily scored in the high 80s if Sony had been brave enough to include a decent amount of cards – say 70 – to start you off with.

The actual mechanics, both of the core game and how the cards interact with each other are near flawless, the presentation throughout is utterly superb and the online mode promises hours of fun.

It’s just that you’re going to have to buy quite a few cards before any of this potential begins to actually materialise. Think of it like buying a deluxe toolbox, but it only contains a spanner, a hammer and a screwdriver. You’ve got the potential to build something great, but you’re going to have to buy a few more tools before you can do so. Of course, if this was just another CCG this would be completely acceptable, but it isn’t. By worrying so much about its collectible aspect, Sony has forgotten to focus on what makes Eye Of Judgment so exciting in the first place. What a pity.

Darran Jones