The new Cyberpunk card game is co-op Poker spliced with an RPG

Games based on Poker are all the rage right now, from the collaborative cardplay of The Gang to the customizable wacky deckbuilding of Balatro. Cyberpunk Legends, the first card game by new tabletop developer Night Crew Games, has aspects of both of these titles, but puts its own spin on things and also throws in a story campaign. Personally, I think it’s onto a winner!

If you’ve ever played one of Fantasy Flights’ Living Card Games and especially Arkham Horror, you’ll have an idea of what to expect. Cyberpunk Legends is cooperative, and each player has their own deck of cards representing a specific character’s abilities. Together, you’ll tackle scenarios, each one its own deck with a story to tell and challenges to overcome. These scenarios can be strung together into a larger campaign.

But while the first mission I played alongside the designers (via the janky format of Tabletop Simulator) was well-constructed and well-written, the core loop of the gameplay was what really drew me in. In simple terms, Cyberpunk Legends is a game about collaboratively building Poker hands. When you come across a challenge, whether it’s a bouncer you need to fight or a security system you need to hack, the method for taking it on is to work together to construct the perfect five-card combination.

To do this, each player takes it in turns to drop a card from their hand, until between you you’ve completed the ‘plan’ and reached the magic five (usually – some cards let you play more than that). The obstacle will have a certain threshold, perhaps a squad of sharpshooters hunting you might demand a three-of-a-kind that contains stealth (one of the four suits) or else a flush or better.

Usually, you’ll need to hit this threshold to land a hit, but to beat the challenge you’ll also need to play cards that deal damage to the obstacle. And you’ll want to hit it hard so you can win in as few hands as possible – obstacles that represent enemies will deal damage to your team each turn, while other cards flip into bigger, scarier challenges if they’re not taken out immediately.

Oh, and if that wasn’t hard enough, you’re limited in what you can communicate. You’re not allowed to say any numbers, suits, or (supposedly) Poker hands – though Night Crew Games admitted that even they struggle to abide by that last one, and they’re still ironing out the kinks of exactly what is and isn’t permitted.

This would all be completely impossible, if the cards you got to play with weren’t a casino’s worst nightmare. You have cards with multiple suits or numbers on them for instance, (or perhaps two or more symbols of the same suit). Then there are cards with abilities, like letting a player have two turns in a row, or removing an unhelpful card from the plan.

Cyberpunk Legends is great, then, at making its missions feel challenging but its players feel powerful. The Poker system inherently helps with this. Because your brain knows what is possible in Poker and what is unlikely, the obstacles can at first seem overwhelming. But when you trounce the opponent with a five-of-a-kind, or a straight that’s also a full house, you feel like you’ve cheated the system somehow, even though it’s part of the intended experience.

You have loads of options at the start of each encounter, but as you don’t draw until it’s won, those choices dwindle until your enemy is beaten, which can definitely make for some tense moments – especially in boss fights. There are also cards that have powerful effects alongside downsides – like stopping everyone from playing a certain suit – which adds the potential for some catastrophic misplays.

I found the core gameplay loop of Cyberpunk Legends extremely satisfying. It is really easy to learn, especially if you know the basics of Poker (Night Crew Games can thank Balatro for helping circulate that knowledge) but with enough strategy for some cool plays. There’s a lot more potential for things to get deeper too, once you start customizing your deck in between missions.

While it wasn’t the star of the show for me, I thought the scenario structure worked well. It broke up the fights with a number of puzzles to solve or story cards to read that were neat little distractions. These can be hit and miss in some games, but here I found there was just the right amount of terse, evocative writing to sell the characters and setting without giving anyone a sore throat or the time to get bored. I also need to praise the art, which is lovely, with a nice mixture of the realistic and the abstract, gritty and drenched in neon.

In the core set of Cyberpunk Legends there’s four characters: the netrunner, the solo, the rocker, and the nomad. Night Crew plans to release more in later expansions, alongside new campaigns. Each specializes in a particular area. The netrunner, for instance, has more cards in the technology suit and is good at extending the plan, while the rocker has charisma and healing.

However, when you come to upgrade your deck and swap old cards out for new, there are no class restrictions. You can build things in whatever direction you like, and I can see how there’d be reasons to commit yourself further to your specialty or branch out and become a jack of all trades. As well as cards to pop in your deck, there are permanents to purchase, with special abilities that can be used once per obstacle, once per scenario, or once ever. Your missions might also give you ‘persistent memory’ cards that stick around for the whole campaign.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed giving Cyberpunk Legends a whirl. It’s one of the best tie-in board games I’ve played in a while, and I’m keen to see more of it. We’ll have to wait for the Kickstarter planned in September for that, however, after which Night Crew Games hopes to have the board game ready for retail six months later.