Yes. The demo is what hooked me to find and buy the game. IMO, if your buying the game, you'll know what your getting...It's very simple to understand.
It's a must-try game if you like board games or trading card games.
The game is very simple to understand (a quick synopsis of what you do in the X360 version):
You start off with a pre-set deck of 50 cards to start with, that are very basic (demo is basically the first level).
Each card has a few very basic set of stats: Strength, Hit Points, and it's native Element (or Neutral, or All), and some have special abilities (such as always attacks first, extra attack under certain circumstances, ect).
To win a level, you must reach a certain "wealth" level - or Total Magic which consists of your territory values + Gold onhand. Some are preset for a number of rounds, and the highest value wins.
The turn phase is magic>movement>battle. The cards from your book are randomly given to you at a rate of 1 card per turn, and start with 4 + 1 card(s) at the beginning of the battle. Magic can be offensive (like a bolt attack), or defensive (curing, healing), or movement-oriented (haste, slow, force a certain number of moves next turn for friend/nemey).
When you deploy cards to territories, use magic, or upgrade land, you consume gold. Gold is replinished by going around the board fully (like monopoly's "Go") as well as pre-set fortresses around the map that give you a small fraction of what the main fortress gives (the main fortress gives you a base value + territory value).
Combat occurs when your character moves onto an enemy occupied territory. You can either pay a toll (which is determined by land value, which consists of # of element spaces owned, and level of land). If you win the battle while on enemy occupied land, you won't pay the toll, and will take the land + any upgrades to the land.
It's very, very, very strategic - finding the right combination of good cards, tactical fighting on spaces, proper upgrades of territories. Very neat.
