Valve posted the news on the game’s Steam page. There are a number of other interesting features, including changed initiative rules, a change to the Mana pool, and “more robust progression systems.”

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Artifact received mixed reviews, and many fans were unhappy with the game when it released in 2018. Valve seems to be focused on rebooting the game completely in the form of Artifact 2.0, rather than making any large-scale changes to the original game. Earlier this month Valve announced one of the biggest changes coming in the sequel would be that players would no longer be able to buy or sell cards, in hopes this will make the game more newcomer-friendly.

Artifact’s very low player base hasn’t just meant bad news for Valve as a developer, but has also stirred up some controversy. After losing almost the entire player base, some streamers started using the Artifact Twitch directory to stream violent, pornographic, and copyrighted content. This led to Twitch filing a lawsuit against the unidentified streamers, which can’t have looked good for the Artifact franchise. Even though Valve was not involved in the illegal streaming, it can’t have looked good for a company’s failed video game to get that kind of press association.

According to Valve, the single-player campaign is meant to tell “stories about the DOTA world through Artifact,” and to help new players learn the game better. Unlike Artifact, Dota 2 has been hugely successful, although its player count has dropped significantly this year. The Artifact reboot could be a move on Valve’s part to try and get new players back for Dota 2, as well as bringing in players new to the franchise with its focus on newcomers in Artifact 2.o.

As of January this year, Artifact had gone an entire year without any updates. To some, it looked like Valve had given up on the game entirely. Both fans and critics of the original game now have something to look forward to in the franchise with the rebooted sequel. While Valve hasn’t announced a release date yet, the new features have potential. Players will just have to wait and form their own opinions about the reboot when it comes out.

Artifact is playable now for Linux, Microsoft Windows, and macOS.

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Source: Game Informer