Game Reviews

Uncivil War review - A TCG that plays by its own rules

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iOS
| Uncivil War
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Uncivil War review - A TCG that plays by its own rules
|
iOS
| Uncivil War

Card games on mobile come in two sort of flavours. On the one hand you've got the big, in-depth games like Hearthstone, and on the other you've got lighter fare. The sort of thing that you play for a bit without breaking too much of a sweat.

Uncivil War sits somewhere in the middle of the two. It looks lovely for the most part, and there's some deck-building here, but the actual mechanical part of the game is pretty darn simple.

It's an interesting mix then, and it works reasonably well. But while it might be filling a specific niche, it's unlikely to set the mobile card game world on fire.

No Cap and Iron Man

The game is set during an analogue of the American Civil War. It's not in America, and the reasons the war is going on are sort of brushed over in the opening crawl. Basically there's been a war going on for a while and it's up to you to stop it.

To do that you need to battle all the generals that are still fighting using an army made up of combatants from different sides of the conflict. They're your cards.

Those cards represent a suit from a standard playing deck. 2 through to A. Your opponent and you take it in turns to lay a card first. Then the other player lays down a card and the one with the highest number on it wins.

Uncivil War iOS review screenshot

It's a bit more complex than that, but not much. As you level up your cards and unlock new ones, you'll gain skills. These change things about the cards. Play one card and it might give the others in your hand a boost. Discard a card and you might be able to toughen up some of your other soldiers.

In the end though it's still a game of numbers. If the cards you both play match, then you go to war, laying down cards until one side or the other has literal numerical superiority. When you win a duel, you get the value of your opponent's cards as points, as well as taking those cards.

Games last for 13 rounds, and they're reasonably fun. The problem is there isn't that much strategy. You've got three cards in your hand at once, and while you can discard them, it often comes down to the luck of the draw. Go too far behind in the points tallies too soon, and there's no way you'll be able to pull things back.

Civil tongue

There's definitely something to Uncivil War, and the gorgeous art makes it worth checking out. Plus it's free, so you're not really losing anything if you pick it up.

The problem is it's all a bit too clumsy. Nothing quite clicks in the perfect way, and while you're having fun one minute, the next that can all crumble away to tedium.

It's interesting, that's for sure. But it's not quite interesting enough to really give a hearty recommendation to.

Uncivil War review - A TCG that plays by its own rules

While it does have some good ideas, in the end Uncivil War just isn't quite entertaining enough
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.