| RavenBlog |
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| Comments on Tuesday 18 November 2003: |
| Another game review - this time it's Lost Cities, by far the worst of the games from the stack that we've tried so far, and thus jumping ahead for its review, because it's so much easier to write a spiteful scathing review. Perhaps a hint should have been taken from the fact that it's called Lost Cities rather than Verlorene Stadte or Löst ßities. Of games people are likely to be familiar with, it's most similar to a game of Solitaire. The only interaction between the two players is in the revealing of cards such that when they are played by your opponent, you know that they are no longer in the draw pile. Well, that and, perhaps, setting a precedent for what sort of score one must be aiming for in order to win. There is no way to sabotage the opponent's activity, no way to help them, and very little in the way of coherent choices. Perhaps, now that I describe it that way, it's more similar to Blackjack/Pontoon/21 as played in casinos. You can count cards that other people draw, but there's sod all else you can do, skillwise, except play the odds thus calculated. You pick up cards, you put down cards, the draw pile runs out and you add up the scores. Boom. It's all very exciting. Oh yes, and there's some contrived theme about it being searching for lost cities, which are coincidentally each represented by three score-multiplier cards and nine cards numbered from two to ten. I'm going to Atlantis with what I've learned! Holly also wrote a review, and she liked the game even less than I did. [17:04] |
| Iain |
| This is actually a superb game, it’s basic and the theme is artificial, but it’s a subtle. Give it another chance. Serious gamers love this one. At least the cards look nice… |
| RavenBlack |
| We must be frivolous gamers, then. Didn't really like the card artwork either, and the board's manky colours are irritatingly unclear in their linkage to the cards' colours. |
| Iain |
| There's nothing wrong with being a frivolous gamer! My wife is one and she loves Lost Cities... I like the artwork very much, but then I hate the colour scheme of this blog, so our tastes obviously differ! ;o) The board is purely optional. |