Urban Rivals

Although it might seem like trading card games have only exploded in the last few years, they have actually been around for much longer than that. Naturally, the whole thing started with actual, physical cards, but the genre has been translated into the virtual realm massively lately. Hence, even giants like Blizzard and CD Projekt have their own CCG series.

Urban Rivals is a fairly old game at this point, given the fact that it has been around for almost a decade now. However, the developers decided to bring the game to Steam, which should make it more popular with gamers that might not have heard about it. In essence, this is a pretty straightforward CCG, but it comes with some interesting mechanics as well.

To begin with, the whole thing takes place in a sci-fi setting, and the battles are between rival clans and gangs fighting for territory. You start with a simple deck and not many options at your disposal, but every victory can reward you with more cards. The rounds are pretty intense as well, because you can also cast special abilities and use power-ups to give your characters a boost.

One of the other interesting aspects of the game is the fact that your characters can get stronger along the way, and your spells do too. Besides winning new cards through victories, it’s also possible to trade them with other community members. This way, you don’t always have to wait for sheer luck in order to get the cards you want, although this can get pretty expensive.

As far as the game’s interface is concerned, things are easy to figure out, especially if you are at least somewhat familiar with the genre. Even if you are a total beginner, there is a tutorial to get you started, which really comes in handy. The artwork in general is pretty neat, but it won’t blow you out of the water either, given the low resolutions and not much emphasis on background images.

To sum things up, Urban Rivals is clearly designed to cater to a more hardcore audience, but with a little bit of effort anyone can get into it. The sheer number of possibilities should keep you invested for hours.