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Metropolys |
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Availability:
In stock
List Price:
$49.95
Our Price:
$37.95
You Save:
$12.00 (24%)
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Description:
The awe-inspiring Metropolys is in effervescence! Talented Urban planners and architects rival each other to make luxury, elegant buildings of glass and steel defying the laws of balance grow from the ground. Who will eventually impose their style to leave an indelible trail in the history of the city? The answer is in your hands!
The players are urban planners in quest of prestige. Over the course of the game, they try to construct their buildings in the best places. As soon as a player has placed all of their buildings, the game ends. The player with the most prestige is the winner.
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Our Review:
Metropolys is a fabulous family game due to its simple, easy-to-remember rules, its interesting strategy, and the built-in flexibility to accommodate a large range of ages. This is one of those all-too-rare games that parents can enjoy playing with young (ages 8 and up) or older children alike.
Metropolys comes with two sets of rules, the “Family Rules” and the “Expert Rules.” The Family Rules are particularly simple and can be explained in ten minutes or so to new players, while the Expert Rules add more depth to the strategy.
In Metropolys, players are builders who must outbid each other in order to build on the best parcels of land in the city. The city is divided into neighborhoods, each of which can support one building. Each player has a set of thirteen buildings of different heights and values. Players place their buildings, representing “bids,” on empty neighborhoods that are adjacent to neighborhoods already built or bid on, until no one bids higher, or until there are no empty spaces adjacent to the last bid. The winning bid turns into a permanent building and the other bids are cleared for future turns.
Buildings score prestige points based on where they are built. Collectible tokens on neighborhoods that affect prestige points are visible to all players. In addition, each player has a “secret” objective to earn prestige points. For example, one player’s secret objective might be to build buildings adjacent to the statues throughout the city, while another player’s objective might be to build next to lakes. After one player has successfully won enough bids to “build” all of his buildings, the game ends. The player with the most prestige points, based on tokens collected and secret objectives accomplished, wins.
Metropolys is easy to understand, and even younger players should have a fairly good grasp of the game by the end of their first game. This is an addicting game—you will likely find yourself wanting to play again after completing a game. There is enough variety here to keep your interest for a long time.
The game’s build quality is good, and the artwork is interesting, though this is certainly not the most beautiful game out there. The buildings are fun to play with, however.
Play time increases depending on how many players are playing and minor analysis paralysis is possible; the deep thinking involved in planning elaborate strategies can be fun or a burden on the other players. Strategies in this game with simple rules can become quite complex, especially when using the advanced rules, and when playing with more than two players.
One minor drawback is that the “random” placement of the tokens can end up favoring one player above another. One two-player game we played had four “classy neighborhood” tokens adjacent to lakes, while there was only one adjacent to a statue, which made the winning neighborhoods obvious for one player, while the other player had to split his goals carefully. It also occasionally seems like one secret objective might be harder to accomplish than another, which can give the game a slightly unbalanced feeling. Both of these drawbacks are easily overcome if the rules are tweaked so that players are trying to reach the same objectives. In this case, we would recommend using one objective for a two-player game, and two objectives for a three- or four-player game.
Despite what the rules booklet says, the “Advanced Rules” are basically just a more complex variation of the “Family Rules,” as the game mechanics don’t change—just the objectives to score points. Providing two sets of rules was a great idea for this game, and the Family Rules really are easy enough for the whole family to enjoy this game together. Metropolys makes a very nice two-, three-, or four-player game.
We highly recommend adding Metropolys to your game collection as a thoughtful yet simple game that offers tremendous flexibility. We give Metropolys our Best Family Game award for 2008.
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Rate Metropolys by Rio Grande Games / Ystari Games:
All reviews become the sole property of Wasatch Game Company. |
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