The Eye of Judgment

The Eye of Judgment is a trading card game based on combining a players ability to build a deck and use their developed strategy against gamers in offline or online modes.  Developed by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, The Eye of Judgment is packaged with a play mat, starter deck, booster pack, PlayStation Eye camera, stand, game disc, and manual.

Gameplay

The Eye of Judgment is the struggle between two players to dominate five out of nine different field on a three by three play mat.  Using a deck of thirty cards, you must combine monster and spell cards to develop a better strategy then their opponent.  Along with varied abilities, monster cards can receive bonuses and penalties based on the element that it is summoned on.  For instance, a creature with quickness will attack first when summoned.

Use of the PlayStation Eye and PS3

You're probably asking yourself, "Why is this a video game and not just a card game?" EoJ makes use of the PlayStation Eye camera it's bundled with in crazy, new-age ways. The game uses the camera to scan cards played and display them, along with all their properties, on the game screen. It's a lot more useful and a lot less-gimmicky than it sounds. The information taken from the cards is added to the game so that the PS3 acts as a real time rulebook and logs the players' actions, taking care of all the calculations and stat tracking usually associated with card games.
There are four function cards that come with any EoJ deck:

• The Status Card - holding this card over any other card on the field will cause the game to give detailed information about the selected card. This information includes all of the card's stats, (including status alterations induced over the course of the battle) where the card is located on the field, and what direction it's facing.
• The Action Card - activates a card on the field (i.e. makes a creature attack) when held over the desired creature card. The Action Card also designates the target of a spell or action. This can be done with the controller as well but that way isn't as cool.
• The Cancel Card - ...cancels events and closes windows like the one that comes up when the Status Card is used.
• The Turn End Card - ends your turn when help underneath the camera.

The game can be played without a PS3 but doing so would require manual stat tracking and lot of memorization on the part of the players. The room for error is dramatically increased this way. Playing with a PS3 also gives the players access to the battle animations and other features such as the invaluable tutorial.

Play Modes

The Eye of Judgment features offline and online gameplay.  In offline mode, players can play against friends or against a computer opponent. Against an AI opponent the player can choose which deck the computer uses. The choices range from preconstructed decks to any deck the player has saved in the game. In online mode, you select an element or region to align with, and your selected region becomes the different elements on the field.  Players can communicate in online mode by using voice chat or text chat. To prevent cheating in online matches, a deck used online must be completely scanned into the game beforehand. The game will tell each player which card (decided at random)  they will draw anytime they draw a card. 

Cards

The cards themselves have quite a bit of information. Each creature card has Hit Points, attack power, rarity, the creature's element, summoning cost, attack zones, defense zones, race, abilities, and sensors. As is normal in Trading Card Games, EoJ cards are sold in most comic book/game stores. They come in boosters, starter and preconstructed decks, and "fatpacks". One of the major advantages to playing The Eye of Judgment is that there aren't any of those cards that must be played to allow the play of other cards. There are no "Lands" as in Magic the Gathering or "Energies" as in the Pokemon TCG. Every single card is either a creature or a spell and that ensures every card in your 30-card deck is something you wanted the deck to have, not something your deck required.

Elements

Depending on the element that you see on the screen, a monster will gain or lose 2 health.  The list of elements can be found in the instruction booklet.  Like most card games, these elements make sense in a real world scenario.  If a forest creature is summoned on forest square, then that creature gains the bonus health, but if a water creature is summoned on a fire square the creature will lose the bonus health.

Additional Information

Despite efforts to eliminate bootleg replication of the official card packs, it seems as if the cards' CyberCode copy protection technology is fairly easy to duplicate effectively. There have been frequent reports of players using simple monochrome photocopies and even hand-drawn tracings to play the game without problems. This represents a significant issue with the successful establishment of a merchandising campaign based around retail card packs.