“Ratropolis” by Cassel Games (SungJin Hwang, SunWoong Lee, MinSu Kim, GaYeon Ham, JunHyeok Park & TaeGyung Yeon).
“[The players] are clan leaders [of] a small rat post, they will defend your rats from predators and monstrous creatures. [The user’s] main goal is to build the largest [‘Ratropolis’!] Make your rats talk about it for a thousand years.”
While it is still a demo version, “Ratropolis” already proves to be quite some excellent deck-building fun! Over eighty unique cards wait to be collected, each with its own ability. The three most important card types in the beginning of a round are economy cards, building cards and military cards. Economy cards will help you to gain some money, if you use them wisely. Building cards can be used to create certain types of buildings like houses for your rat citizens, farms or market places. The military cards will turn your rats into little soldiers with individual skills (defensive guards, attacking knights, archers and so on) to fight off the predators of your otherwise cozy little village. However, to activate a card will take some of your resources (like gold, some of your citizen or both), so you have to develop a strategy to master this game.
At the start you will not have many cards to choose from, but by surviving wave after wave there will be new ways to expand your deck. For example, by eliminating an enemy wave, you will be offered a little treasure chest. Then you can choose one of several reward options, which often involves getting a new card, but is by far not limited to it. Another way to build up your deck is to buy some cards when the merchant is in town.
Over time, the hordes of hostile creatures will not only get bigger, but also stronger, faster and more dangerous overall. They even will attack you not only from one side, but two. So, if you are a fan of deck-building or tower defense games and love titles where you have to think quick to make the right decisions, “Ratropolis” will be worth your time for sure. [PLAY]
