There’s a power struggle in Mirror City. The world is overrun by powerful corporations and, as a runner, you’re just trying to make a name for yourself. If you want to outdo the competition, you’ll need to travel the metro, complete jobs, and do a little hacking along the way, all to gain as much influence and notoriety as you can. Think you have what it takes to be the best?

What Is It?

Worker Movement (Rondel) – Each turn players move around the board in order to choose what district they want to be in/what action they want to do. The more they want to move, the more it will cost them.

Hand/Resource Management – Players will collect resource cubes and job cards throughout the game, but can only hold so many of each at the end of their turn, so they have to be sure not to overly stock up so as to not waste resources.

Set Collection – Players will collect sets of resource cubes to use to complete job cards. Once completed, they’ll also try to tuck certain sets of job card types under their boards together to complete contracts for additional points.

Route Building – Players can use the hacking action to attempt the network puzzle in the center of the board. They’ll need to manipulate the PANOP tiles to connect the 2 green nodes on one of the available network cards.

Who Is It For?

  • 1 to 5 Players – Solid solo mode. I thought it worked pretty well at any count, but I did find 4 players to be my favorite
  • Ages 14 & Up / Mid-Weight Gamers – Gameplay is fairly light, but there are still multiple paths/strategies possible, and the hacking puzzle can be tricky as well
  • Fans of worker movement, action selection, set collection, and spacial puzzles
  • Players who can see paths on the spacial puzzle pretty easily

Variants

Solo – Play against the Rogue AI. Each turn the AI will move, then take actions based on how their notoriety level compares to the player, and finally move up on the track(s). The player will compare their score against a chart at game end to see how they did – I thought it played very smoothly, and upkeep was quick and simple, which I always appreciate. I think it’s a good option for big solo gamers, or for players looking to try out different strategies ahead of a multiplayer game.

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Nice art and really gorgeous translucent components for player pieces. I really love the overall neon glow look
  • Components – Great quality. I love that the track pieces stack together nicely
    • The metal PANOP tiles (which are an add-on) are so pretty and satisfying to move around
  • I like that you can focus heavily hacking, or more on completing jobs, and both feel viable
  • Most actions are pretty simple and quick to resolve
  • A good variety of different characters/hacking abilities (plus fun character stories on the back of the cards)

CONS

  • Hacking can definitely be time consuming for players who can’t “see” the solution quickly. It can make turns and entire games run long, and increase downtime between turns. It can also be frustrating if playing with players who can see it quickly
  • If a player jumps up a track quickly (usually notoriety from hacking often) it can feel like the game ends too early

Final Thoughts

I love the look of this game, and I did enjoy the overall gameplay, even though I am one of those players who is not great at the visual puzzle most of the time. As one of those players, I did feel bad taking longer turns when I wanted to hack, but I felt like it was just part of the game, so it had to be put up with (much to the dismay of some others at my table).

Aside form that, I liked going around the board and collecting my cubes to finish jobs. It is a very simple flow of collecting resources to complete cards, but I do like that sort of game. And I liked that completing jobs got you the rewards/points from the job, plus the reward for where on your board you tucked it, plus the potential for points at the end of the game if you completed the contract sets. It felt like a big move which was cool.

I think if that puzzle is going to be frustrating for you, in one way or the other, this might be a pass for you. But if you like the other mechanisms of the game and don’t mind if that puzzle can be tricky for some players, the game is really cool. (and I can not recommend enough to grab those metal hacking tiles because they definitely elevated that action a lot!)

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 7/10

Designer – Stephen Kerr
Artist – Ignacio Bazán Lazcano
Publisher – Thunderworks Games
MSRP – $59.95 (with free mini expansion when
bought from the Thunderworks website)
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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