I'm so glad to have Johannes' perspective on this one. There are a few games with a love/hate relationship for me where my brain just doesn't wrap around the mechanisms and strategies. My wife, on the other hand, is more intuitive and often connects to games more easily. Thanks for the excellent video! It will help me decide if this game will be worth the investment for us.
I've found I need at least one of two things for me to enjoy moooost euro games, which is either variable player powers/abilities/engine building to help differentiate each play or a unique mechanical hook/gimmick like in a lot of Feld's games. The dice in CoB, the multi use cards in Bruges/Hamburg, the resource rondel in Macao/Amsterdam and the cube towers from Amerigo and Marrakesh (not that the latter's one does much). Darwin's Journey didn't meet my first requirement and it just felt like a really tight frustrating generic worker placement game, the moment where I realised the only way for me to get money is to take these garbage side actions (I already had first turn order and the photograph tiles did not work for what I had multiple rounds in a row) was the moment i realised i was not going to have any more fun in the game. I prefer open feeling games rather than restrictive. I like tight designs, but usually not tight gameplay.
Great review! Darwin's Journey has been one of my favorite games in the last 12 months. I totally understand not liking it if it's not clicking in terms of feeling an improvement in your game play. There are a couple of games that don't work with my brain either. Ark Nova I can't seem to improve much and yet I can do well in games like On Mars and other such much heavier games.
Oh wow, interesting review. I played it twice as the base game and thought, "what! Is that it?!?" I was. Soooo disappointed! Then I thought well I'll try one more time with the expansion and I thought it was a totally different game! Really liked it! I've never had an expansion improve a game so much! (probably though because if I don't like a game I don't but the expansion...) So I'm really surprised to see your preferred without Fireland. But DJ is definitely a unique game, even if there's not that much 'new' in it.
We have only played base game x2 3 players. We learned it and then wanted to play again the next day. We truly love this game. I hold Lorenzo above GAH and i think I love this one even more. Now the difficult task of finding it.
GAH will always be a special game for me, and one I will love forever! Super happy to hear you had fun playing this one, and I hope you’ll get the chance to find a copy!
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@@BoardGamingRamblings Strange. Me and my wife got GAH deluxe with expansion. We played base game and it left us underwhelmed. We played 3 player game. We plan to play base game with all new elements and then with expansion and see where we land. Same happened with base Concordia. We really liked tzolkin and marco polo 2 tho. Im looking forward to try Darwin soon. Its one of the kickstarters i supported, because it looked different.
This is the heaviest game on my collection, still we tried it with my 10 yo and it was a blast. I like it a lot and he undertood it perfectly. It make me have AP for sure but it's one of my favourites right now
@sunniva: as you seem to like this game (do you still get it in the table very often?), what do you think about the huge benefit for the player who is starting... Collecting the first animal on the island and then delivering it to the museum. Seemed like a enormous Advantage at the beginning of the game
I think this shares some DNA with Barrage in the restrictiveness of it, how tight the resources are. I now like that game, but I still don't get over the fact that players never feel super powerful; rather, players are always struggling, scraping for resources and points for much of the game. From Johannes description, that's what it made me think.
I love this game, but it absolutely takes a few playthroughs to get the hang of it. My least favorite aspect is the solo mode. I really feel that could have been streamlined, particularly the seal rules.
I mostly love games that frustrate me, ha. I keep going back to these ones untill I understand them. This one is really a great game (with a learning curve for sure).
For me the game doesn't work, even if I like a lot of it. The main reason is the economy, that is very frustrating. Not even that you can block other players with taking worker placement spots, but you can increase the amout of money other players need to pay to do a completely other action (in a 2 oder 3 player game). The game would be better if they did fewer mechanisms. The Correspondence/Stamps is another action that I don't need.
This game was pretty decent but I think it didnt work for me because you would watch a better player have these insane never-ending turns and then you would take your turn and do basically nothing in 2 seconds. If you fail even a bit at the start, you snowball downwards for the rest of the very long game. If you are really good at it, I guess you would enjoy it but its definitely not a good one to bring out in a group where everyone isnt super euro pros (and I say that as someone who loves euros and usually do fairly well at them). Its just too punishing for such a long game and to me, a game that will be super fun for one player and super boring for another, is a pass.
@@BoardGamingRamblings lol! Im sure it could get better but I find games like that to be harder to table as they end up being fun only for a small group of people. I mean of course it depends on the table participants and all. Im not a sore loser but it doesnt feel good spending most of your game having literally 0 hope to even come close to win but also having very unfun turns most turns while others are having fun turns. If its fun for me, I dont care if I lose.
I'm so glad to have Johannes' perspective on this one. There are a few games with a love/hate relationship for me where my brain just doesn't wrap around the mechanisms and strategies. My wife, on the other hand, is more intuitive and often connects to games more easily. Thanks for the excellent video! It will help me decide if this game will be worth the investment for us.
I've found I need at least one of two things for me to enjoy moooost euro games, which is either variable player powers/abilities/engine building to help differentiate each play or a unique mechanical hook/gimmick like in a lot of Feld's games.
The dice in CoB, the multi use cards in Bruges/Hamburg, the resource rondel in Macao/Amsterdam and the cube towers from Amerigo and Marrakesh (not that the latter's one does much).
Darwin's Journey didn't meet my first requirement and it just felt like a really tight frustrating generic worker placement game, the moment where I realised the only way for me to get money is to take these garbage side actions (I already had first turn order and the photograph tiles did not work for what I had multiple rounds in a row) was the moment i realised i was not going to have any more fun in the game. I prefer open feeling games rather than restrictive. I like tight designs, but usually not tight gameplay.
Great review! Darwin's Journey has been one of my favorite games in the last 12 months. I totally understand not liking it if it's not clicking in terms of feeling an improvement in your game play. There are a couple of games that don't work with my brain either. Ark Nova I can't seem to improve much and yet I can do well in games like On Mars and other such much heavier games.
Thank you for watching! Glad you liked both the video and the game :)
Can't wait to get my pre-order!
Hope you’ll love it!
Oh wow, interesting review. I played it twice as the base game and thought, "what! Is that it?!?" I was. Soooo disappointed! Then I thought well I'll try one more time with the expansion and I thought it was a totally different game! Really liked it! I've never had an expansion improve a game so much! (probably though because if I don't like a game I don't but the expansion...)
So I'm really surprised to see your preferred without Fireland. But DJ is definitely a unique game, even if there's not that much 'new' in it.
Super nice to hear your experiences! Glad you’ve been enjoying the expansion :)
We have only played base game x2 3 players. We learned it and then wanted to play again the next day. We truly love this game. I hold Lorenzo above GAH and i think I love this one even more. Now the difficult task of finding it.
GAH will always be a special game for me, and one I will love forever! Super happy to hear you had fun playing this one, and I hope you’ll get the chance to find a copy!
@@BoardGamingRamblings Strange. Me and my wife got GAH deluxe with expansion. We played base game and it left us underwhelmed. We played 3 player game. We plan to play base game with all new elements and then with expansion and see where we land. Same happened with base Concordia. We really liked tzolkin and marco polo 2 tho. Im looking forward to try Darwin soon. Its one of the kickstarters i supported, because it looked different.
This is the heaviest game on my collection, still we tried it with my 10 yo and it was a blast. I like it a lot and he undertood it perfectly. It make me have AP for sure but it's one of my favourites right now
That is awesome! Thank you so much for sharing!
@sunniva: as you seem to like this game (do you still get it in the table very often?), what do you think about the huge benefit for the player who is starting... Collecting the first animal on the island and then delivering it to the museum. Seemed like a enormous Advantage at the beginning of the game
I think this shares some DNA with Barrage in the restrictiveness of it, how tight the resources are. I now like that game, but I still don't get over the fact that players never feel super powerful; rather, players are always struggling, scraping for resources and points for much of the game.
From Johannes description, that's what it made me think.
I haven’t thought about the likeness, and it’s been a while since I played Barrage. Thanks for sharing your thoughts :D
Great game. Firelands is the game for me (but I play with face up explore card or blind draw).
Glad to hear you are enjoying it! 🤩
80% of my brain power was spent on trying to read the map and all the small symbols. It was a no for me, sold it after 2 plays.
Haha, there is a lot of info there! Not all games can be for everyone!
Definitely one of the better ones I've played this year and I'm with Sinnuva a 8.5 for me...
Super happy to hear you’ve been enjoying it!
I love this game, but it absolutely takes a few playthroughs to get the hang of it. My least favorite aspect is the solo mode. I really feel that could have been streamlined, particularly the seal rules.
Glad to hear you’re enjoying it! Games making people happy makes me happy!
I mostly love games that frustrate me, ha. I keep going back to these ones untill I understand them. This one is really a great game (with a learning curve for sure).
Glad to hear you’ve been enjoying it! :D
Great game
Happy to hear you are enjoying it! 🤩
For me the game doesn't work, even if I like a lot of it. The main reason is the economy, that is very frustrating. Not even that you can block other players with taking worker placement spots, but you can increase the amout of money other players need to pay to do a completely other action (in a 2 oder 3 player game). The game would be better if they did fewer mechanisms. The Correspondence/Stamps is another action that I don't need.
The economy is tight, and I usually like that a lot. Here, I don’t mind it, but it is very, veey tight! 😅
Just played this for the first time last night with two friends. Think I came in second place. Not a bad game. Lots of things going on.
Thanks for sharing! Glad you had fun :D Fun is good!
This game was pretty decent but I think it didnt work for me because you would watch a better player have these insane never-ending turns and then you would take your turn and do basically nothing in 2 seconds. If you fail even a bit at the start, you snowball downwards for the rest of the very long game. If you are really good at it, I guess you would enjoy it but its definitely not a good one to bring out in a group where everyone isnt super euro pros (and I say that as someone who loves euros and usually do fairly well at them). Its just too punishing for such a long game and to me, a game that will be super fun for one player and super boring for another, is a pass.
That does make a lot of sense, and mirrors a lot of how it feels to play this with Sunniva 😂
@@BoardGamingRamblings lol! Im sure it could get better but I find games like that to be harder to table as they end up being fun only for a small group of people. I mean of course it depends on the table participants and all. Im not a sore loser but it doesnt feel good spending most of your game having literally 0 hope to even come close to win but also having very unfun turns most turns while others are having fun turns. If its fun for me, I dont care if I lose.