Android: Netrunner is an asymmetric two-player card game based on the old CCG Netrunner Richard Garfield authored alllllll the way back in 1996 (can you imagine playing a game over twenty years old?!). Over the years, the design has proved quite popular and remains a tournament favorite for many dedicated players. A CCG-turned-LCG(™) that has been played competitively in some form or another for the last twenty-five years when so many others have come and gone, it must be good right? But how good? Better than… Magic: The Gathering? Yes, much better. It’s not even close. Whether its deeper or more complex is a much harder question to answer — and one I don’t have the tournament-level experience in either to adequately tackle — but Android: Netrunner is a far, far more enjoyable way for two well-played gaming enthusiasts to spend an evening together. Its exquisite theming, immersive world, unique player interactions, tense information exchanges, and flavorful scenarios all compliment a creative, asymmetric core system that commands the utmost attention of your tactical sensibilities.
I just spent the entire introductory paragraph raving about how great the game is, so lets start off the review proper by griping about something that doesn’t really matter. What is the deal with the new core sets rulebook? It actually states on the very first page that you’re going to need to consult an online reference for some of the rules questions that arise during play because they aren’t covered by the text. That is stupid annoying; why would you not provide everything needed to understand your game in the stinking box! What is here is clear and well-written, but what does forfeiting an agenda mean, rulebook, why won’t you tell me!? At least the rest of the production doesn’t cut corners, and the tokens and card stock are of standard high FFG quality. The card illustrations, graphic design, and copywriting are all also heads and shoulders above most competition. This is highly professional stuff and screams quality. This may be the only game that has ever compelled me to read all the flavor text while playing, because doing so makes a palpable cyberpunk narrative unfold in front of your eyes. It’s pretty great. Personal favorites are “Mr. Li” and “Whirlpool”. “This ICE sucks.” Classic.
That’s all fine and dandy, but a good production does not a good game make (see: Jamaica). Fortunately, Android: Netrunner‘s mechanical/thematic integration and asymmetric structure are equally outstanding. Set in a subtly dystopian, not-overly-distant future, one player enacts the role of a nefarious mega-corporation trying to advance their secret corporate agendas to exert political, financial, and technological influence over the world. The other player is a scrappy hacker, or “Runner”, trying to illegally access the corporation’s internal computer servers to expose these agendas to the public before they can come into fruition. The craziest part of this insanely ambitious setting? Playing the game feels as awesome as that sounds. Whether you use one of the standard decks featuring the corporations and runners that come in the base game or you buy every expansion to build your own, highly optimized competition-stomper, the experience of Android: Netrunner is exciting, addictive, and wholly unique.
Playing as the corporation is all about managing a network of computer servers, and the cards in your deck represent the data that is stored on them. An impressive quality of the game’s design is how this basic concept extends into every corner of the corporation’s play area. These servers are not just formed when the corporation plays new cards. No, their hand, deck, and even discard piles are hackable servers as well. To protect all of these, corporations can prepare security measures in the form of “ICE” cards. These are defensive programs that are placed out in front of servers to make it more difficult for runners to get through. Additional servers are created whenever the corporation installs an “Agenda” or “Asset”. Agendas are the cards that both players are fighting over to score, the corporation by expending funds to “Advance” them to a certain threshold using “Advancement Tokens” and the runner by hacking into that server and accessing that card. Seven points of scored Agendas for either player results in an immediate victory. Assets work similarly to Agendas, only they grant helpful abilities instead of scoring points. “Upgrades” can also be added to servers and typically adjust the way the server behaves when accessed by the runner. In a stroke of design genius, every one of these cards is played facedown until the corporation wants to pay their activation cost to flip them face up and begin using their abilities, referred to as “Rezzing” them. Corporations only need to spend one of their measly three actions per turn to place a card, not rez it, so they can set up some seriously underhanded power plays if they have enough cash on hand to do so. The thematic implications of all this are great. Playing as the corporation has you holding shady meetings, planning your opponent’s ruin, and using your PR team to spin the global narrative your way while secretly releasing A.I. onto neural networks to spy on the entire world. Meanwhile, the runner can only infer what the corporation’s face down cards might be and choose which servers to target based on the corporation’s perceived behavior. Even more, many cards enable the corporation to devise devious, damaging traps, forcing the runner to remain ever cautious. Thus, the bluffing elements in Android: Netrunner are absolutely core to its experience. In fact, I’d say this is one of the most intense and complex bluffing games I’ve ever played. Every single scrap of information is pivotal. If the corporation plays in a way that is easy to read by the hacker, they will lose every dang time. For that reason, it’s best if new players start as the runner whenever possible until they at least get the basics down. Otherwise, it’s highly likely they’ll face brutal defeat before even getting their bearings straight. Where there is mechanical asymmetry, strategic asymmetry will follow.
The runner’s game is less about bluffing and deceit, instead falling somewhere closer to the tableau-building genre and featuring elements of push-your-luck. Their deck contains “Resource” cards representing jobs and social connections that provide them with funds and supplementary abilities; “Hardware” cards which usually increase one or both of their two primary stats, namely “Memory Units” and “Link”; and “Programs” which allow them to circumvent the ICE the corporations set up to protect their servers. The amount of Programs a hacker can install are limited by their Memory Units, and Link is used to resolve “Traces” that the corporation can enact on the runner in certain circumstances — most often as the result of activating a piece of ICE. Unlike the corporation, the runner gets four actions per turn but do not get a free draw at the beginning as the corporation does. On the contrary, the runner has to choose when they draw cards which is of exceptional importance considering their hand also acts as their health meter. If the runner ever takes damage and doesn’t have a card in hand to discard and absorb it, they’re dead and its game over, man. Talk about tension! In a similar fashion, the corporation’s mandatory draws act as the game timer. If they hit the bottom of their deck and still haven’t scored their seven Agenda points, they have failed to hit their deadlines and lose the game. Talk about tension! Did I already say that?
Running is the crux of the runner’s turn (it is the name of the game after all). The runner announces which server they are attempting to access then must work their way through a series of encounters with the ICE the corporation has installed in front of it. If a piece of ICE is not yet rezzed, the corporation has a chance to shell out the necessary bucks and rez it. The runner may then attempt to disable the ICE’s effects by spending credits to buff the power of their Programs in order to use their abilities to render the ICE useless. It’s a bit like a complicated game of rock-paper-scissors, because the different types of Programs can only interact with specific types of ICE. As such, when an ICE card is still facedown there is always the risk of it being insurmountable given the runner’s current load-out. Any ICE effects not disabled by the end of the encounter are then triggered by the corporation, resulting in a wide variety of pain and suffering being inflicted on the runner: damaging them, costing them actions or credits, or running Traces on them — which often result in runners getting “Tagged”, allowing corporations to later send out goon squads to trash their Resources. The most common negative effect of ICE is also the most basic: ending the run. It’s tricky, nasty stuff, but if the runner successfully gets through to the server they get to access the cards installed there and may just strike gold. If its one of the corporation’s created servers they get to look at the Agenda, Asset, and Upgrades installed there. Otherwise, they look at the top card of the deck if accessing the corporation’s draw pile, a random card from the corporation’s hand if that was their target, or the corporation’s entire discard pile if they decide to go digging through the trash (secrets don’t stay buried long in the world of Netrunner). Runners can pay credits to trash any non-Agenda cards they access to impede the march of corporate progress, but, even better, if any of these cards are Agendas — BAM! — they just scored some points.
The tactical options both sides have at their disposal are ever-changing but always exciting. The corporation can set booby traps if they so wish, placing Advancement Tokens on facedown cards to make them appear to be Agendas when in actuality they are traps that deal grievous harm if accessed. On the other side of the table, the runner can play as cagily or aggressively as the situation requires. If the corporation is dragging their feet they can pounce right away to take advantage of that, or they can use that time to get a programming job and go searching for black market connections to scrounge up a little dosh for that big series runs they have planned a few turns from now. What really sets this game apart, however, is how fascinating the narratives that unfold from these player decisions can be. One particularly memorable session had me, as a heavily tagged runner, bouncing from friend’s couch to friend’s couch while being relentlessly chased across the city by a mob of corporate hitmen. Regretfully, this ended in several of my hospitable benefactors’ unfortunate demises, but what can you do? The world of Android: Netrunner is a dark and dangerous place.
Obviously, there’s a lot more to the game than what I’ve explicated above. This is (editor’s note: was) an LCG from Fantasy Flight after all, which means there are roughly 5 million cards for it spread across myriad expansions that affect the game experience in all sorts of different ways. However, it’s totally unnecessary to dig that deeply into Netrunner to get a clear understanding of what it has to offer. This is one of those rare games with charms that are both immediately apparent and remarkably persistent. I have had a blast with it over the years, starting with my very first game of it. The dynamics of its system give it a longevity that most other competitive card games can only aspire to. Even the game’s length is highly malleable and responds to player actions, reducing some rounds to a blistering 15 minutes while others make up an hour or more of constant tension. Android: Netrunner is an excellent title, well-deserving of the following it has earned. Its design is tightly packed with clever ideas without ever spilling over into excess, and it delivers a better thematic/narrative experience than just about any other two-player card game out there. Really, the only “faults” of the game — high amounts of RNG and luck, prior knowledge of existing cards having too large of an effect on player success, etc. — are more-so issues with the CCG/LCG framework itself rather than this particular implementation. So don’t be intimidated by its reputation as a tournament heavy-hitter, Android: Netrunner still delivers a fresh, exciting experience for social gaming enthusiasts like myself who merely seek new and interesting ways to interact and engage with others, be them friend, family, stranger, or — maybe at some point in the not-overly-distant future — android.
Android: Netrunner gets a rating of FOUR out of FIVE, indicating it is RECOMMENDED.