Metroplex Zero: The Cyberpunk Card Battler You Didn’t Know You Needed
A history of deck-building card games
When we think of deck-building card battle games you may recall Slay the Spire, Fights in Tight Spaces, or maybe even a personal favorite, Monster Train. These games offer a challenging yet innovatively diverse style of play with high replay values. If the game is done correctly we get an experience that offers randomized encounters and unique RNG card delivery that help define the genre.
Metroplex Zero brings fresh air by offering a card game with a little more RNG flare to keep each playthrough inviting. Each run gives the player a chance to see cards they have never played. Soon, players can access unique options like story mode, draft runs, and future plans for a “special draft challenge mode” quoted by their dev team. Let’s talk about the things you need to know to help guide your purchasing decision.
The story of Metroplex zero
Let’s break down the story of Metroplex zero. Firstly, we start with a drawn-out but albeit informative tutorial that begins to weave your place in the universe. Much of the Corpo world is out to get you and it seems everyone is full of themselves and their abilities. In the similar plots of cyber genre games, we see a protagonist, Medigeneix, hell-bent on immorally ruling the world for profit. As your characters continue through the game each hub lends different scenes to paint the full picture. You will find yourselves in an array of dialogue through business lobbies and hovertrains as the game continues to unfold, and you fight the power.
The dev team does a great job at guiding the story to keep you interested in a card battle game where similar titles fail. In contrast, Monster Train does a poor job of giving you actual reasons why everything is happening the way it is. This game delivers dialogue lines that read well and only a few errors can be spotted in my current alpha version of v0.0.45 on the 10th of July. Enigma Dragons have put a great deal of energy into the title to keep you invested in the why behind playing Metroplex Zero.
Metroplex universe
To illustrate, A universe should be a defined and immersive experience that stays fluid with characters, story elements, the niche, and gameplay. Metroplex does a great job of helping the skills used and the environments feel like a cyberpunk world.
You will see that the cards and each leader all have style choices that make them stand out. Centrally, I found myself using a tank. Naturally, other choices let you stick to traditional archetypes like the rogue, marksman, mage, and more. Each build and run lets you define new fights and new outcomes as well as combos that leave you feeling like Bobby Fischer. Overall, the diversity in playstyle should leave everyone feeling included. To this end, Metroplex also does a great job of allowing the player to channel the game the way they choose contrary to being funneled into specific patterns.
The leaders and their skills
Characters throughout the game offer a wider variety of pathways and even more are coming. Additionally, Metroplex Zero has another three possible characters in development. Also, the game will branch out to add three character-specific adventures.
Interestingly enough, we see some newer design elements in their way of implementing an XP system to help the level of the character along the way. Contrarily to genre games where you only see partial upgrades after significant boss battles. The level system works similar to Fights In Tight Spaces where your character can earn more movement or even buffs on spawn. In other words, the late-game fights get pretty easy.
The game offers nine characters to choose from and each with its own degree of synergy and difficulty. Although there tend to be some balance issues with early development as one run as a powerful mage class I died on the first encounter, oof. Each combat sequence is randomized however, even save scumming yields different results.
Save Scumming:
The process of saving and reloading constantly to ensure things go your way.PostMatters
Skills and abilities
Skills are diverse and leave you feeling powerful which is essential in the world of RPGs. Furthermore, Many games miss the essential aspect of funneling XP and Money into your cybernetics. As a result, these leveled skills and abilities leave you feeling godly. It could stand to have a sort of augmentation system to add an element similar to most futuristic worlds. For example, games like Shadowrun, Battlelords of the 23rd Century, Cyberpunk 2077, and others. There is a storefront much like other card upgrade stations to add power to your card building deck. Critically, they leave a little gap by not knowing what the gems mean at the bottom. I’ve found these below:
- Common is gemless
- Uncommon holds the silver gem and isn’t much worth a purchase
- Rare is the gold and for that reason is usually worth picking up when seen
- Legendary is a blue/platinum color and is always worth buying
Metroplex music and style
Let’s skip the pleasantries. Metroplex Zero leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to its creative artistic style and quality. At one point in the game, I found myself removing my headphones as one of the tracks has a more shrill pitch and had me grimacing with its odd tonal choices, for example.
Comparatively, the art isn’t the most visually pleasing when placed against other games in its class. It does a great job of fitting within the universe and space. I feel as if the environments make sense and the color schemes fair well with no contrasting clashes. Chiefly, the issue they have is in sheer quality as the development has been focused entirely on the element of gameplay. Their story transition scene was great as it has a sort of 3d appeal as the train floats through formative space bouncing up and down. Surely, these environments add a sort of depth to the character dialogue as you read through. Presently, none of the lines are voice-acted.
Combat and gameplay in the cyberpunk world
The game plays extremely well. Very rarely has Metroplex Zero put me in a place to question the design choices. Specifically, only once have I had a battle that I have failed. It was my first battle in a run as a high-skill leader. Also, you always start the first mission by yourself. I couldn’t get my cards to line up enough damage fighting against an enemy hitting for 12 points a round, against my meager 43 hp. As a result I quickly lost that battle.
Each turn plays smoothly enough. You start with abilities and their variations depending on the character’s skills. The battles play well enough with the expansive library of cards to collect. Quite critically, It can be odd when you have more than 1 person in your party as you still only have three playable cards. However, I can understand why they would do this in their current stance as it would make your party far too powerful. Rest assured, the game never leaves a state of balance between incoming and outgoing damage. Heals exist pretty freely between fights leaving you nearly unstoppable.
The conclusive Metroplex Zero review
Let’s break things down simply. Core gameplay and card synergy feel smooth and balanced. Each turn really feels like you grow more powerful as the game progresses through the primary story. MZ’s story is pretty substantial and accordingly, makes this deck builder feel unique. It should be noted the audio and art leave a lot to be desired. Granted, in its current state, it isn’t the absolute worst. Similarly, Slay the Spire was lower on the overall art scale but maybe it had better animations. Nonetheless, the game leaves you feeling immersed and wanting to come back and continuously play more. You have to beat the game with all the leader options right? It would be great to see how they implement trackers. Undoubtedly, we will see the times a card may have been played, and also which cards you have finished the story with.
Store link and update info
To conclude, I would recommend picking up the game anywhere under the 25-30 dollar mark. You can find Metroplex Zero on Steam and add it to your wishlist today. Of course, As the game continues to add new features I will update my review.
This has been The Vault View on Metroplex Zero.
H4mm32 specifically gave this title
7/10
| Story | Gameplay | Art | Audio | Overall |