Ratropolis

Ratropolis is an unusual card game where you need to lead a group of rats into the future, build and protect the town, being a general and a mayor at the same time. The game combines elements of city building, tower defense, and deck building card games. Download Ratropolis for Windows or OS X to see how it goes!

Graphics 4/5

It’s strange now to see a desktop game that refuses to be 3D. Ratropolis is a decent 2D game, making an accent on its card playing components. This makes tower defending less spectacular. As for economy and morals, and stuff, they are nearly beyond visualization; you get informed about it in text messages. On the other hand, that makes Ratropolis system requirements incredibly low. It only needs 4GB RAM, 512MB (no typo!) video card, and 1GB storage.

Gameplay 4/5

The idea of combining various gameplay elements is realized logically. You start with basic cards and eventually unlock new ones. These cards are used to set your defense against waves of enemies, or to develop certain spheres of life in your town. The enemies are attacking in waves, and they are different, but you can send your troops or build fortifications on their way to protect your town.

As for content: some cards can be played out as troops or towers to defend others. Some provide bonuses for your economy or military power. Others offer you to make decisions and upgrade your leadership and other qualities that help. If you think you are not competent enough, though, you can rely on advisors that come from the outside and suggest you correct moves. Cards feel imbalanced so far, but the game is in early access; let’s hope they are fixing it for the release.

Last but not least: cards from your deck are dealt randomly, and you only can play one of those in your hand at the moment. That means that you can never plan your actions beforehand: you’ll always have to improvise. The fast-paced game gets even more dynamic with this. 

Controls 5/5

As a PC game, Ratropolis is meant to be controlled by mouse only. Some key shortcuts can also be used… probably. In fact, a mouse is quite enough to control it. If you have a touchscreen-equipped PC, well, it works too. The developers selected the genres to combine partly because of simple controls of them all. At least, so it seems.

Replay Value 5/5

That’s where one cannot expect more from Ratty. There are so many cards (and thus possible combinations) that you can never play them all. In addition, your decisions matter too. Add advisors, enemy lines, random elements, and you’ll see that the game is highly replayable, even given its imperfect balance.

The Bottom Line

The developers never forget that your citizens (as well as most enemies) are rats, and this impacts the design and the content of the cards. Ratropolis becomes a serious and funny game at the same time. It is fast-paced and strategic, making you both think strategically and improvise. And the rats are so nice here!

2020 is the year of the Rat. And hardly will you find better rat companions unless you download Ratropolis and join its ratizens in their struggle.

• Graphics 4
• Gameplay 4
• Controls 5
• Replay Value 5

Pros

Unusual combination of deck building and tower defense;
Good writing and moral choices;
Low system requirements;
Colorful expressive visuals (despite 2D style);
Rarely does one see rats so cute.

Cons

So far the game is unbalanced (early access);
The learning curve is quite steep;
One may just dislike rats.