Thursday, June 28, 2018

Dave Reviews: City of Normalcy

Metropolys

Semi-unique mechanics! Average gameplay! Excitement abounds for all!


Metropolys brings an old-school, semi-steampunk look to a tower placement game, which is like worker placement except with towers.

This is high-level analysis, folks. Feel the rush.

The city board is split up into several districts, each of which has a various number of smaller sections. Each player has a set of towers numbered one through fifteen. Players can hide the numbers of their remaining towers, but they're in three sizes according to value (1-5, 6-10, 11-15), so opponents can always get at least a rough idea of what you have remaining. This is probably the most interesting aspect of the game, the way they've made what is effectively card-counting something you can use to get an edge but also a manageable task.

The first player chooses one of the small sections of the city and places a tower on it. From there, play continues with players either placing a higher number tower on an adjacent spot or passing, until all but one player has passed or no one else can make a legal play (this includes not having a space on which to play another tower because all adjacent ones have been taken). On all subsequent turns, the player who chooses the section is the one who won the previous auction.

Different tokens are placed on the city sections as bonuses or, in the case of one token type, penalties. Forcing players away from (or towards) these tokens is useful, although the secret objective each player gets may make them perfectly willing to absorb a small penalty in order to win a bigger bonus at the end of the game.

The main strategy of the game is figuring out which sections you want to target and how to ensure you get them. If you need to chain sections along a lake for your secret objective, there's a section in the middle of the board where it might be worth dropping your biggest towers early because there are two lakes touching the same areas, so you'll get double the bonuses. If you wait and try to finagle your way into them without committing as many resources, there's an excellent chance you'll lose them; should it work, however, you could end up with a major advantage. Likewise, cornering areas so you can take them with your smallest tower (by making sure there are no free adjacent areas) is a big part of winning.

As a game, it's... fine. It's adequate. You'll probably play, finish, and say, "Yeah, that was alright." It's the type of game more likely to sway you after your first run based on how you finished, because it's not so bad that you'll feel like it was a waste of time even if you win, and it's not so good that you'll be dying to try again even if you get smashed.

Of course, it's not my place to say how you'll feel. That's rude. I'm running on probabilities. This is an older game, so telling you to find a friend with it isn't a suggestion to save your money; it may be the only way to see it. It used to be playable online, but that's apparently no longer the case. It's worth one playthrough, at the very least. You might adore the game. Just don't set your expectations excessively high.

Score: The most mundane 7/10.

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