A wretched hive filled wit conflict on a regular basis.
Clan wars all abound.
It’s not safe to walk out on the streets no matter what time of day.
I don’t know why a girl like me decided that roosting here for awhile was a good idea.
I think I might have gotten myself into something I don’t quite understand.
Something vicious and dark. Something…that might consume my soul.
OKAY, enough of the film Noir bits. I’m reviewing Urban Rivals.
I just discovered the game a few days ago, and I love what I see thus far. This is like the Magic the Gathering of online games. It’s been around for about nine years now and still going strong. Now it’s got its hooks in me. As we speak I’m checking the in game market to see what I can snap up for a few possible decks I can bust out. But enough prattling on, let’s get right to the review. Some of us have lives…I think.
Game Play: Unlike other card customizable card games it only takes a few minutes to really get the hang of the rules. Though it may seem rather “cut-&-dry” those views might become obsolete the moment you get into things like Clan bonuses, but more on that later.
When you sign up you get to select from one of three random booster packs. Each one of these packs will have a random assortment of 8 cards from a pool of all the available clans. As I write this there are 22 Clans with 2 new characters being introduced every 2 weeks and a new clan every 6 months. Its getting to the point where I can’t help but wonder exactly how big is Clint City
Onto the Clan Bonuses I mentioned earlier. Clan Bonuses are a unique trait among clans which can only be accessed if at least two characters you control are from the same clan. These could tip the balance in your favor, but it’s not always an absolute. Abilities also come into play as well. Some have them, some don’t. Sometimes lacking an ability can be a Godsend as opposed to a hindrance since you got Abilities and Bonuses that stop Abilities and Bonuses. I’m not going to get into ALL the abilities and bonuses since these kinds of reviews are to be compact as possible since people can be quite busy these days (also if I told you EVERYTHING that would probably make you less eager to visit the site).
ANYWAY, onto the game play. Your deck is comprised of 8 cards. Once you find an opponent (shouldn’t be that hard, the place is pretty active) out of those 8 cards 4 are picked at random, and so is turn order. In standard play you start off with 12 Life (60 in Pratice) and 12 Pillz. Pillz are what you can use to power up your characters to help give them that extra push needed to gain the upper hand. Part of the game is to know when to spend Pillz and when to hold onto them (as a side note, neither one of you will know how many Pillz (if any) have been used until both players finalized their choices).
Another key element is to know when to lose. Yes, you read that correctly. There are going to be situations where it would probably be better to throw a Character to the wolves as opposed to trying to actually win the fight. The game is determined by who has the most Life left by the time the 4 rounds are up. It’s possible (if not hard) to lose 3 rounds, then come back in the 4th round to win the game.
Another interesting feature in the game is that the cards gain experience points and can level up to become more useful. The artwork will also change on these cards. Changes can vary anywhere from cute, to sexy, disturbing and everywhere in-between. Most of the strategy in battle comes from the deck building, so experiment, see what works for you.
Features: Like any of these “free to play” games, you don’t need to pay in to get anything out of it, but expect it to do it SLOWLY if you’re not lucky enough to get anything that sells well. Oh, the game has two forms of currency. Credits and Clintz. Credits are used to purchase from the in game system while Clintz are used to buy cards from other players (as an added annoyance, if you’re a seller they take 5% of the Clintz you priced the card for, so take that into account as you set prices). Clints are obtained in small amounts just for playing the game to completion.
Tournaments are held every two HOURS. Yeah, ALWAYS at least 12 going on in a 24 hour period. They give out cards and extra Clintz depending on how well you perform by the time its over. No entry fee needed, you can enter in as many as you want in a day you just need to at least be level 15…well, you need to get adjusted to the game so its for your own safety.
The game also has several kinds of formats, so if you’re looking for a challenge from the norm you can take part in them as long as the deck follows the regulations of the format (you can look this up easily in the My Collection/My Deck screen by clicking on one of the formats to produce a dropdown list).
The biggest format in the game is known as Elo. I don’t know what that means, but the key feature of that format is that it’s the only format where certain cards are banned. If you see a crossed out pill on the upper left hand corner it can’t be used in that format. The list of cards banned is always in flux. The players can actually vote on what cards they want on the list and which ones they want off. So, they do care what the players think. Just pray that the community at large sides with you. It also seems to be the format that gives the most Clintz.
Expanding further on the buying and selling of cards you can either make the sales public, private or hold an auction for the card. The message boards can also be used for such conduce and other things like advice and the joining/establishing of Guilds.
Final Judgment: I would defiantly give this game a try at least once. It’s free to start and the games can be nice and quick so you can get in a bunch without throwing off your entire day. Not too deep on thinking but not too shallow either. Go on, give it a look and try it for a day.
Also, I’d like to say that in about a week from now I plan on reviewing cards from the game as a common occurrence. Though I must tell you I have a rather STRICT “review what I own” policy. If I don’t own it I won’t review it. I just don’t think I can give a fair review for anything I have not had any first hand experience with. If by chance you want to alter that you could either offer me said cards for sale (provided I can afford) or simply donate cards or Clintz to my cause so I can have more stuff to review. You’ll find my profile on the Gaming Haunts page. So, have a good evening people.
So back to the streets of Clint City
This girls gonna hustle.
Got to keep some kind of edge.
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