This is cyberpunk right here. The analogue future of analogue yesterday, but with a bit of grit in it. A handicam with a busted viewing screen. A space-taxi dropping off stale pizza.
City Wars: Tokyo ReignPublisher: Mojo BonesDeveloper: Mojo BonesPlatform: Played on PCAvailability: TBD on PC
City Wars: Tokyo Reign gets cyberpunk. Gets it right in its chunky, villainous, brutal heart. This is a collectible card game and a roguelike, but deep down, in its heart? It’s cyberpunk – eternal night, eternal scrabbling to get by. Never enough to go around. Never enough to get a real break.
It’s complicated to learn – that said I am quite dim – but when it clicks it’s already a dream. You select a faction, a load-out of cards, a weapon and a charm, and then you pick your way through the city, moving from district to district, one node at a time. Opening presents, hopefully. But more often facing a dilemma. And much more often getting into a battle.
There are so many moving parts to City Wars I’m just going to focus on the battling today. It’s the centre of the game and, a few hours in, it’s blossomed into something really thrilling.
Battling in City Wars involves cards, but it also involves space. You play each battle facing an opponent with a battle track in between you. The battle track is divided into segments and is also split into two horizontal rows – one row for you, one for your foe.
Most simply stated, you place cards on the battle track to damage your enemy. But nothing here is that simple. Cards have a damage number – the higher the better – in blue. But they also have a duration, which is the number of segments on the battle track they will take up. So placement matters. And placement matters because cards also have an accuracy number in yellow, which can be seen as the card’s strength when facing other cards.
So let’s pretend. I place a card: fifteen damage and twenty accuracy. That means that when this card-placing phase is done, after a few turns, you will take fifteen points of damage from this card.
But you place a card opposite with fourteen damage and twenty-one accuracy. The damage is lower, but the accuracy is higher, and it’s the accuracy that counts when it’s card against card. So my card is shattered and its damage is forgotten. Now when the card-placing phase is done, I will take fourteen points of damage from your card. Gah.