Nic

Introduction:
Android: Netrunner is a living card game which set its background in a cyberpunk future. Where giant corporations dominate the major interests of human race like the technologies, resources, and media. And there are these rogue IT geniuses, trying to break into the corporations’ security system and steal intellectual properties for their own purposes, some want to make a profit from it, some want to do damage on these “evil” corporations, and some, just want to see what they are capable of.

Goal:
This game is played by two players, one as the Corporation, trying his best to advance his hidden agendas while using upgrades and ices to protect his system against his opponent, or take an aggressive strategy, using traps and other tools to destroy the Runners who dare attempt to infiltrate his system. And the other player plays as the Runner, installing programs, hardwares and resources his has at disposal to try to break through the Corporation’s defenses and gain access to the hidden agendas while trying to avoid traps and leaving traces at the same time. Once either side gain certain amount of agenda point through fully advancing an agenda (corporation) or gaining access to agenda cards (runner), that side wins. Corporation could also win by dealing damage higher than the runner’s number of cards at hand and the Runner could win by exhausting the Corporation’s R&D section (deck).

Mechanics:
As mentioned above, Android: Netrunner is an asymmetrical card game, mechanics of different roles are completely different. Corporation players need to protect their serves with barriers called Ices to prevent Runners from getting access to their cards in those servers, and try to score an agenda by fully advancing it before their opponent manages to bypass their defenses and reach that card. Since all cards of Corporation is installed facing down until being accessed or activated, Corporation players can also install assets like traps and ambushes at their remote servers where agendas are installed and advancing them to try to create an illusion that these are agendas to lure the Runners to these servers and then deal damages to the Runners or trace them.

As for the Runners, it is a completely different story, all cards of Runners are played facing up, so the Corporations always know what they are up to. But this game did an amazing job on balancing the power between the Corporations and the Runners so neither side is overpowered. Besides having the ability to take one more action than the Corporation at each turn, there are many useful cards in the Runners’ deck to help even the odd. The Runners’ main goal is, by all means, trying to gather as much information as possible, locate the hidden agendas and then bypass all the defenses and get access to them before Corporation players score them by fully advancing those agendas.

Both Corporations and Runners have two main resource, namely the Clicks (actions that can be taken per turn) and the Credits (major tokens needed for most the actions). Resources management is crucial part of the gameplay, for example, a Corporation player has managed to install multiple layers of Ices above his servers, but if he does not have the required credits to activate those Ices when a Runner approach them, those Ices have no effect and mean nothing to him, or if a Runner player spends all his click on launching runs towards his opponent’s servers without drawing any cards, he may gain some agenda points, but he may also be left vulnerable against Corporation player’s attack when there are very little cards remain on his hand.

Both Corporations and Runners have different factions among them. In the basic deck included in the Android: Netrunner package, there are 4 Corporations and 3 Runners where there are more available in expansion packs. Every faction has its own play style, some are better at gathering resources, some are stronger at attacking their opponents, players can also modify their decks by mixing cards from different factions to suit their own play styles. And again, this game did an excellent job on balancing, there are “Influence Points”(IP) which are basically “costs” on different cards, if players are introducing cards from different factions into their deck, they have to make sure the total IP of those cards does not exceed certain amount, so they cannot just gather all the most powerful cards, which usually has the highest IP into their decks. All these mechanics add a lot of depth to this game and each playthrough gives a very different experiences because of all those possible combinations.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of card games myself, I only get to learn and play Android: Netrunner because it is a school assignment. And at the beginning, all those specific terms like “R&D” (drawing deck of the Corporation), “Stack” (drawing deck of the Runner) and rules are really confusing to a card game newbie like me. But after a few playthroughs, once I get used to its terms and rules, I start to enjoy it, those terms which once bother me a lot now play a supportive role helping me immerse into the underlying stories, and when you successfully lure a runner into your trap and deal the killing blow on him, when you take a leap of faith and run into a server you know nothing about and turn out it is a agenda with high score on it, those feeling of accomplishment are priceless.

Final Thought:
Android: Netrunner, despite its terms and rules are quite complicated and confusing to new players, is a well-done game. The artwork on the cards looks cool, the background stories are compelling, the gameplay is well-balanced, the mechanics has depths and huge potential of further development. I would like to explore more in this game.