Mi furst revoo - Urban Rivals
Platform - PC
Genre - Browser-based multiplayer card game
Storyline - As a MMOCCG (I?m aware this isn?t a ?real? game type, but I?m making it official now), Urban Rivals doesn?t have the best storyline, but it?s enough to give a bit of narrative to the game. In the near-future battleground of Clint City, twenty different factions, from the pirate crew Piranas to the super cops of Sentinel, have gathered to fight to control the streets.
There is an ongoing web comic that predominantly stars Sentinel fighting Nightmare, a clan of the undead and demons, and GHEIST, a group that are much like James Bond?s SPECTRE, only with superpowers. This is completely throwaway and doesn?t even really explain why the groups are fighting beyond ?because they can?.
Each faction and character has a short paragraph explaining it?s motivations, and some of them are actually quite funny, so I?ll give them that.
Graphics - Oddly enough, for a game where psychotic carnies can engage with intergalactic squid-monster missionaries (yes, that is actually a faction?) in a super-powered fight to the death, the graphics aren?t picture-perfect realism. The entire game has a comic book look to it, but it certainly works with the gameplay. This is reinforced with the attack animation each faction gets - some are quite cool, such as La Junta?s barrage of throwing knives, to the ridiculousness of Jungo?s half-peeled banana attack.
Special mention goes to the card art itself. As I?ll go onto with the gameplay, your cards level up and become more powerful the more often you play them which, in turn, improves their artwork, giving them better armour/weapons, more obvious supernatural abilities or, in some cases, slowly evolving them into something else entirely. While you can hold off levelling your cards if you like the art/don?t want the better stats (there are some tournaments that have set level limits), the art you have unlocked will always be available to see in your collection, and there are some cards that it?s cool to just go back and check out how they?ve grown.
Gameplay - The big one. I personally find the gameplay strangely addictive, but I suppose that?s just the sign of a good card game. Out of your deck, you get four cards. You then take it in turns with your opponent to attack and defend, picking cards to play against each other. The aim of the game is the same as Magic : The Gathering - use your cards to defeat your opponent?s cards and attack the other player?s Health. The person who has taken the most damage at the end wins.
In addition to your cards, each player gets 12 ?Pillz?, which are a combined accuracy and damage power up. As you only get 12 of these things to last you the entire game, it creates an oddly balanced system of bluffing and counter-bluffing that is rare in most video games, let alone online card games. The aim of the game is the same as Magic : The Gathering - use your cards to defeat your opponent?s cards and attack the other player?s Health. The person who has taken the most damage at the end wins.
This is further built up in tournament play, where bonus points are scored for any leftover Pillz, but only if you win. Doing well in a tournament can get you plenty of Clintz, the game?s currency, which you can use to buy new cards for your deck. After placing in the top 150 in several tournaments, I had enough Clintz to buy a deck that can reliably take on players four times my level which, in turn, means I can now focus on just collecting all the other cards for their artwork.
As I said under 'graphics', as you play cards, they level up and get more powerful. Most cards unlock unique abilities at higher levels, and they are, nine times in ten, worth it. To combat the slow grind, you unlock a Training room later on - your random draw is replaced with cards that aren't maxed out, and everyone gets full XP when used.
At the same time as your cards level, you level as a player. While this has very little bearing on the actual game (you unlock a "leader" card with special abilities every 5 levels), it's a good indicator of how good your opponent is, or at least how long they've been playing.
A quick note on deck building. All cards have two special rules, a bonus and an ability. These effect how the card plays, from having extra damage for every other friendly card of the same faction to blocking your opponents extra rules. Abilities are unique to the card, but bonuses are given to entire clans, and are unlocked by having more than one member of the same clan in play at once.
Conclusion - I?ll happily admit, I?m addicted to Urban Rivals, even going so far as to pay real world cash for more packs of ?cards?, more out of a desire to support a good indie game than to get new characters (I haven?t used a single card I?ve got, anyway?). At the end of the day, it?s fun, it?s tactical, it?s a decent way to kill a few hours a day, and most importantly, it?s free unless you choose to support it! There?s really no reason not to at least check it out!
This is a link to it, right here [http://www.urban-rivals.com/?sponsor=5987683]. I?m not too proud to say that this takes you straight to my ?sponsor? link, but if you don?t like that, just delete me from the ?Sponsor? section and I'm sure I'll still survive.
Platform - PC
Genre - Browser-based multiplayer card game
Storyline - As a MMOCCG (I?m aware this isn?t a ?real? game type, but I?m making it official now), Urban Rivals doesn?t have the best storyline, but it?s enough to give a bit of narrative to the game. In the near-future battleground of Clint City, twenty different factions, from the pirate crew Piranas to the super cops of Sentinel, have gathered to fight to control the streets.
There is an ongoing web comic that predominantly stars Sentinel fighting Nightmare, a clan of the undead and demons, and GHEIST, a group that are much like James Bond?s SPECTRE, only with superpowers. This is completely throwaway and doesn?t even really explain why the groups are fighting beyond ?because they can?.
Each faction and character has a short paragraph explaining it?s motivations, and some of them are actually quite funny, so I?ll give them that.
Graphics - Oddly enough, for a game where psychotic carnies can engage with intergalactic squid-monster missionaries (yes, that is actually a faction?) in a super-powered fight to the death, the graphics aren?t picture-perfect realism. The entire game has a comic book look to it, but it certainly works with the gameplay. This is reinforced with the attack animation each faction gets - some are quite cool, such as La Junta?s barrage of throwing knives, to the ridiculousness of Jungo?s half-peeled banana attack.
Special mention goes to the card art itself. As I?ll go onto with the gameplay, your cards level up and become more powerful the more often you play them which, in turn, improves their artwork, giving them better armour/weapons, more obvious supernatural abilities or, in some cases, slowly evolving them into something else entirely. While you can hold off levelling your cards if you like the art/don?t want the better stats (there are some tournaments that have set level limits), the art you have unlocked will always be available to see in your collection, and there are some cards that it?s cool to just go back and check out how they?ve grown.
Gameplay - The big one. I personally find the gameplay strangely addictive, but I suppose that?s just the sign of a good card game. Out of your deck, you get four cards. You then take it in turns with your opponent to attack and defend, picking cards to play against each other. The aim of the game is the same as Magic : The Gathering - use your cards to defeat your opponent?s cards and attack the other player?s Health. The person who has taken the most damage at the end wins.
In addition to your cards, each player gets 12 ?Pillz?, which are a combined accuracy and damage power up. As you only get 12 of these things to last you the entire game, it creates an oddly balanced system of bluffing and counter-bluffing that is rare in most video games, let alone online card games. The aim of the game is the same as Magic : The Gathering - use your cards to defeat your opponent?s cards and attack the other player?s Health. The person who has taken the most damage at the end wins.
This is further built up in tournament play, where bonus points are scored for any leftover Pillz, but only if you win. Doing well in a tournament can get you plenty of Clintz, the game?s currency, which you can use to buy new cards for your deck. After placing in the top 150 in several tournaments, I had enough Clintz to buy a deck that can reliably take on players four times my level which, in turn, means I can now focus on just collecting all the other cards for their artwork.
As I said under 'graphics', as you play cards, they level up and get more powerful. Most cards unlock unique abilities at higher levels, and they are, nine times in ten, worth it. To combat the slow grind, you unlock a Training room later on - your random draw is replaced with cards that aren't maxed out, and everyone gets full XP when used.
At the same time as your cards level, you level as a player. While this has very little bearing on the actual game (you unlock a "leader" card with special abilities every 5 levels), it's a good indicator of how good your opponent is, or at least how long they've been playing.
A quick note on deck building. All cards have two special rules, a bonus and an ability. These effect how the card plays, from having extra damage for every other friendly card of the same faction to blocking your opponents extra rules. Abilities are unique to the card, but bonuses are given to entire clans, and are unlocked by having more than one member of the same clan in play at once.
Conclusion - I?ll happily admit, I?m addicted to Urban Rivals, even going so far as to pay real world cash for more packs of ?cards?, more out of a desire to support a good indie game than to get new characters (I haven?t used a single card I?ve got, anyway?). At the end of the day, it?s fun, it?s tactical, it?s a decent way to kill a few hours a day, and most importantly, it?s free unless you choose to support it! There?s really no reason not to at least check it out!
This is a link to it, right here [http://www.urban-rivals.com/?sponsor=5987683]. I?m not too proud to say that this takes you straight to my ?sponsor? link, but if you don?t like that, just delete me from the ?Sponsor? section and I'm sure I'll still survive.
