Town Center (Fourth Edition)

EvEvanstar8,5

Having played card city, and using the wonderful how to play article on BGG, this game went from being a chore to a delight. I'm so happy I returned to this game, after playing it only once shortly after the KS. My big disappointment on my first play, years ago, was expecting this abstract to feel like a city building game. In fact, it's more of a puzzle, and it's a really interesting one. In essence, you have these colored blocks, and each round you draft 2. The blue and green blocks give more powerful results when they are next to each other, but the trick is they can never be placed next to each other during the build phase. Rather, during the expansion phase, they will automatically grow if the right conditions adjacent to them are met. When you try to set up those circumstances, and realize how little space you have to work with, your brain really starts melting. I'm enjoying this game so much it's started to invade my dreams. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ★ Multiple plays stay interesting ★ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★★★★☆ Raw enjoyment

MCMitchell Cstar3,5

Not for me. Too abstract, too fiddly and obtuse in it's mechanisms - how does a carpark become a lift and then predicate an office building...? I don't mind a pasted on theme but I found that the lack of theme in this made it difficult to play and understand.