PoliCromix

R.I.P.

PoliCromix is a card game that caught me off guard because it is not really played like a normal card game. I am placing cards onto a board and the cards attack automatically depending on the direction of their arrows. That means I am not sitting there choosing an attack every turn. Most of my decisions happen before the battle really starts, so where I put a card can be much more important than simply having the strongest card. I like that because it gives the game a proper board game feeling instead of just feeling like another standard card battler. The positioning is easily my favourite part. When I put a card next to an enemy, the directional attacks can trigger automatically and cards can be flipped depending on how the arrows line up. I have to think about which spaces I want to control and whether placing one card in a certain spot is going to help me later or leave another part of the board exposed. It is simple enough for me to understand fairly quickly, but there is still some planning involved once I start paying attention to how the board works. The fact that the battles can change because of one placement makes even small decisions feel useful. I also like that there is more here than just one versus one matches. I can play against bots through training and story battles, take on other players online and use special boards that can support up to eight players at once. The storybooks are probably the part I find most interesting outside the battles because they mix dialogue, comic style scenes and actual fights together. Completing those stories can unlock new boards that I can then use again, which gives the story content a purpose instead of making it feel like something completely separate from the card game. The progression is another strong point for me. Cards can actually grow stronger the more I use them, so I have a reason to keep working with cards that I like instead of constantly throwing them away for something new. I can earn cards by playing and expand my collection through battles and story progression. There are also multiple universes with their own characters, boards and backstories, so the game has a lot more variety than I expected from the basic battle system. Some boards even have their own special rules, which helps stop everything from feeling exactly the same. The biggest issue for me is that the game is clearly still finding its feet. It only launched on Steam in March 2026, and the developers have said themselves that more features and content are still being worked on. I can feel that in the overall presentation because some parts are a little rough and there are quite a few different systems being introduced at once. There is also a paid optional farming system and other in game purchases, including chance based purchases, which I am less interested in. I would rather spend my time actually playing matches and earning cards than thinking about extra ways to speed things up. I do like the overall personality of PoliCromix, though. The different universes are colourful and quite weird, with settings ranging from fantasy worlds to much sillier themes. There is a lot of character art and story content packed around the card system, and I think that gives it more identity than it would have if it was just a plain board with cards on it. I also appreciate that the game is free to play, because it gives me a chance to see whether I actually like the unusual combat before spending anything. The developers are clearly still adding chapters, boards, characters and events, so there is a lot of room for the game to grow. Overall, PoliCromix is a surprisingly creative card game that I think has a genuinely good idea at its centre. I really like the positioning system, the automatic battles and the fact that one bad placement can completely change what happens next. The storybooks and different universes give me more to explore, while the unfinished feeling, extra monetisation systems and occasional roughness hold it back from being one of my highest rated card games. It is still early, but I think there is enough here already to make it worth trying, especially if I want something that mixes cards, board control and a bit of visual novel style storytelling instead of just giving me another normal deck battler. Rating: 7.1/10