Slay the Spire. Dicey Dungeons. Griftlands. All great roguelike(/lite, whatever) deckbuilders AKA card battlers, and all games I have put plenty of hours into. However, I’ve recently come across what might just be my favorite. It’s called Urban Cards, and it feels like both a reach back into traditional board games and an evolution of roguelike card battlers. It’s even in Early Access right now, so it’s probably only gonna get better. Let’s check it out.
A Board Game/Card Battler/Lane Control Game
In a sentence, Urban Cards is a board/card game where you have to manage businesses and workers all in the service of making as much money as possible, as quickly as possible. There are three lanes on the board, and each lane can be controlled by one player by maintaining a business there. You can use henchmen to defend your businesses, and you can use workers to make even more money.
A typical game will have you setting up shop, then having to decide whether you want to aggressively expand your empire or just play it safe. In the screenshot below, the thin horizontal strips at the top and bottom of the board are each side’s workers, the next-highest and next-lowest horizontal strips are each side’s henchmen, and the middle horizontal strip is where the businesses go. Finally, you can see that my character (in orange) is much closer to the $5,000 goal than my AI opponent (in blue).
From the screenshot above, you should be able to see why I say this game feels like a traditional board game. Don’t be fooled though, because aside from the different combat styles, a typical game session feels a lot like Slay the Spire. Each “node” on your map represents three potential events (such as battles or shop visits), of which you can pick two. You battle your way through this map until you meet a miniboss and move on to the next map, all culminating in a final boss. Even though the game is still in Early Access, you can play to completion with several different classes.
Great Writing and a Fun Tone
While Urban Cards has a great gameplay loop, the cherry on top is its tone, which skewers capitalism and corporate culture at every turn. It also leads to ridiculous match ups, such as “Gamers” vs “Restaurants”, giving this game a substantially different, more modern tone than something like Slay the Spire or Monster Train. In other words, it’s a fresh take on roguelike deckbuilders in more ways than one.
It Even Has Multiplayer! (Beta)
Finally, in case you’re not already sold by the hours of singleplayer fun you can have with Urban Cards, the devs have recently added multiplayer! I haven’t given it a shot yet, but I like that A) the devs are actively developing this game, and B) they’re trying something new to give people even more gameplay time by offering multiplayer, which other roguelike card battlers do not offer. It’s refreshing to see what the devs are doing with Urban Cards, in taking inspiration from the games that have come before it while also innovating in many ways.
I’ve already put a lot of hours into Urban Cards, but I anticipate putting even more in as they add more singleplayer content and as more people jump into multiplayer matches. In fact, I’m such a big fan of this game that I bought a few copies for my friends who also like games like this, just to support the devs. If you like any of the games I’ve mentioned in this post, like Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons, Griftlands, and Monster Train, it’s a pretty safe bet that Urban Cards will be your next love.
