Dorfromantik Review

It’s game time. The wife (me) has spoken, so once again you are playing Carcassonne. You’re having an enjoyable time laying down tiles until- crap!- you hit the edge of the table. It’s no big deal to shift the entire game over a little bit so you can get the perfect placement said no one ever. To make matters worse, Catzilla has discovered that meeples are perfect for the gravity game. Oh well, you didn’t really like the competitive aspect of Carcassonne anyways.

Is any of that familiar? It might just be me. I love city builders and Carcassonne is the closest a board game has come to scratching that itch, but it turns out, the virtual world might be the best for this afterall. Enter Dorfromantik. Core game complete, the devs (Toukana Interactive) have put it out as early access while they work on more biomes and special tiles. It’s a single player experience of trying to lay down tiles with matching edges to complete quests and get more tiles. Before I forget, these tiles are hexagons-- infinitely superior to squares. The concept is simple, but getting those perfect placements can be a fun/frustrating/relaxing puzzle. The somewhat rustic aesthetic is the cherry on top of this enjoyable game sundae.

Pros

• Hex tile

• Visually Appealing

• Replayable

• Sandbox mode (if you want)

• No “Game Over,” only “Session Complete”

• Relaxing, yet challenging

• Runs on my ancient laptop, still looks gorgeous

• Price is easy on the wallet

Cons

• Still in early access, so only a limited number of pretties

• Must play by your lonesome (or is this a pro? Your mileage may vary)

• Once a game is rolling, can be hard to stop a play session

• No undo button