Rules
The full rules are available online courtesy of Rio Grande Games. To put it briefly, the game is an auction game in which players place numbered buildings to win the auction. There are bonus as well as penalty markers on the board.
One interesting note is that there are 2 games contained in the box. The basic rules are very basic and are designed to be family friendly. While I feel they work as a simple version of the game, they are much to simple for gamers and probably too simple for casual gamers. The Advanced version is only slightly more complex than the basic game yet offers a much deeper and richer play experience. Even for new players, I would recommend playing with the Advanced rules because they provide a more complete game.
Components
Metropolys is very light on components. The main components are the buldings. There are 4 different colors and each color contains 13 buildings. Buildings 1-5 are short, 6-9 are medium, and 10-13 are tall. The buildings are made of wood and are ridged on the sides. One end of each building has the number and the other is blank.
Additionally, there are a variety of archaeological site, subway, and Trendy Neighborhood tokens. These tokens are about the size of a US nickle and have an icon on one side and the point value on the other. There are also a bunch of cards corresponding to the different goals as well as the Archaeological site penalty card and the Subway bonus card. The cards are fairly thin in their stock but have a nice coating. There is no text on the card so players must refer to the rule sheet if they have questions about which secret objective they have. The cards are too thin for a card game, but they don't get much use here so they should be just fine.
If there's one major gripe about Metropolys, it seems to revolve around the board. As you can see below, the board is very busy. There are a lot of colors and some may find the blue and green too similar. Also, the board seems to be very cramped. It can be difficult to tell which spaces are adjacent, especially once there are building on the board. Overall, I find the board functional, but its a bit busy. I wish it was toned down a bit so that it was a bit clearer, but I don't really have any problems with it. Once you play a few times, you get used to it.
Gameplay
A luckless game
Not completely. The only luck comes from the initial deal of the area and objective cards. After that, all decisions are completely up to the players. There is no luck, only choice. To make it even more luckless, each player's unused buildings are open information so everyone can see what buildings are left in play. This combines to create a game in which the players are in complete control of what happens. There is no random chance from a card deck or from dice, there is only the decisions of the players. I really enjoy games like this as I feel it puts serious responsibility on the players. You're directly responsible for your own performance.
Minimal rules, maximum choice
Again, the emphasis is on the players. Metropolys is built around a system that uses a very simple ruleset and puts the focus on player decisions. This gives players the ability to actually “play” the game instead of just being along for the ride. You are completely free to make the choices you want because the framework of the game forces you to do so. In this way, the game is similar to Through the Desert and other games of minimal rules and luck.
Is it really like Ra?
Yes and no. I say yes because the bid system feels similar. Much like Ra, you know what bidding pieces the other players have. This allows you to play the player as much as playing the game. You can choose your battles based on what buildings other players have available. It creates an interesting game of chicken in which each player is almost daring the others to up the ante. On the other hand, once a building is built, its there for the whole game. Players don't get buildings back unlike Ra in which the bidding tiles pass around the table. The other big difference is that Metropolys is much simpler than Ra. In Ra, players are collecting sets of tiles which they collect by using their bidding tiles. In Metropolys, you're simply placing a building on the board trying to complete some goal. Ultimately, the games are similar in the way that bidding is open information, but they differ radically after that.
The bonus and penalty tiles
One of the most interesting parts of the game is the penalty tiles. The archaeological site tokens are worth -1 per token. However, as soon as you take one, you must take the Archaeological site card which is worth -2 in addition to the token. If you already have the card, then taking another tile doesn't hurt quite as much. Its when you don't have the card and you're forced to take it that it seems to hurt the most. The player in possession of the card at the end of the game loses those 2 points. Therefore its not bad to have the card during the game, but you really don't want it at the end.
Conversely, there are a lot of bonus points available. The easiest are the Trendy Neighborhood tokens which are worth 3 points with no other catch. If you successfully build on a space with one of these tiles, you take it and score 3 points for it at the end of the game. If you can get several of these early, it can give you a really nice buffer which will allow you to play around the negative archaeological site tokens.
The subway tokens are nice as well although they're not nearly as useful as the Trendy Neighborhood tokens.
Secret Objective
The Secret Objective cards are what really drives the game. While the bonus tokens are helpful, you can't win unless you can score some points by completing your secret objective. There are 5 SO cards in the game, so one will not be used in a 4-player game. Some of these are harder to complete than others and as such are worth more points. Some people have complained that these cards are imbalanced, but I have yet to see this. The harder ones are worth more points so it feels like it all works out.
Player numbers and downtime
The box says that Metropolys is for 2-4 players. I think this is a lie. I haven't played the game 2-player, but I can't imagine how the game would be any fun to play that way. Metropolys is only good because of the tension created by players competing for the same small areas. If you don't have that conflict and tension, then there's really no game at all. I've yet to play 3-player either, but I can see how that would work well enough to be fun. The board is smaller when you only play with 3, but I think the ideal player number is 4. This creates the most tension and conflict and therefore raises the quality of gameplay. Unfortunately, this all means that Metropolys will have a relatively limited amount of opportunities to see your game table. In the long run, it will be worth your while to not play this game with less than 4 because you won't be getting the full game experience. You'll end up appreciating your 4-player games much more.
As far as downtime goes, there shouldn't be too much, especially in the later part of the game. In the beginning, everyone has a lot of buildings so there are a lot of options. As buildings hit the board, there will be less opportunities for players to build so the late turns go much faster. If this game is going slow, its the fault of the players, not the game. Metropolys feels pretty fast to me and it should be played that way. Don't let it bog down and you should have minimal downtime.
Theme
If you're a lover of strongly tied themes, then you should look elsewhere. The theme to Metropolys is pasted on firmly. Personally I don't think the game needs the theme as it could be a really good multi-player abstract. Obviously the people at Ystari disagree with me.
Compare it to...
We've already talked about how Metropolys compares to Ra. I've even mentioned Through the Desert. In truth, I think the Ra comparison is the most accurate. Even though the games are different, I still get that same feeling of trying to make someone spend more than they want to or of stealing a placement for a cheap price. I think Ra is a better game, but Metropolys takes some of the Ra aspects I like and boils them down to their most basic element.
Overall
When I purchased Metropolys, I wasn't sure what I was getting. In the end, I ended up with a game that has some of the flavor of one of my favorites yet also has its own identity. Its a wonderfully satisfying game that gives you the feeling of control. It makes you feel like your choices matter. It also gives you the chance to look back and think about what you should have done differently.
I rate Metropolys 8/10. I like this game a lot. I'll probably suggest it when I have 3 or 4 players. I can't say I'll always want to play it because I will flatly decline to play this 2-player. However for 3 or 4, I can't see myself turning this one down.
Metropolys isn't Ra. Its not even close. But it does take some of the Ra ideas and makes them its own. If you own Ra, Metropolys is different enough to own both, and even to play both in the same session. There are similarities, but in the end, Metropolys stands on its own. This is a game that I'm happy to have in my collection and I can see this one getting a lot of play in the years to come. Even as a thinly veiled abstract, Metropolys is a great game that deserves a spot in your collection.
Posted Fri Aug 8, 2008 3:40 am
