Pros
- It isn't very often that my girlfriend vocally tells me "I like the game" nor "Let's play it again", I heard it probably only once with Agricola, and then here with Point City. The simplicity and strategy is what she liked.
- Easy to learn.
- Fast to setup and play. For 2 players, it took us around 30 minutes. For 4 players, it might reach an hour.
- Replayable. You have to constantly adapt on how you could benefit the most with the current board game state, thus it wouldn't feel the same nor repetitive. There's also some variety with the setup as not all civic tokens nor cards will be used in a game.
- Fun to play! It's fun to plan what you want to do, it is fun to execute your plan, it is fun to build those buildings that you prepared for, it is fun to score points based on what you collected.
- Very strategic. This is a thinky game. You have to plan on what you should build and have a plan on what you need by the end of the game.
- While the game requires you to analyze and make tough decisions that make it feel like a medium-weight game, overall, its simplicity still gives it a light-weight feeling. I thought we wouldn't be able to play it after a long day at work as I thought it could be too draining. I was wrong, while it's not very light, it still feels light and the game just flows. Still a relaxing game.
- The mechanic of flipping resources to buildings and vice versa creates a nice balance in the game.
- Solo mode!
Neutral
- Very similar with the gameplay of Splendor.
- Each turn in Point City is more interesting than Splendor as you take adjacent resources / buildings and target to score the civic tokens, while Splendor is more competitive and tense as all players race to end the game.
- In Point City, you just have to take the most efficient move for every turn until the end of the game. You also know exactly when the game will end. There's not much tension there. You can draft what others need but it may not be optimal for you and may actually not have any effect if the newly drawn cards offer something better.
- Splendor is more tense due to its race element. You're not playing Splendor right if you are not cursing at your opponent for hoarding and keeping the tokens you need. You might have an idea but you don't know exactly when one of the players will end the game.
- A player can be locked out of moves in Splendor and forced to do inefficient moves. Compared to Point City, in Splendor if you drafted what others need, their life will be so much harder, and will result to them needing more turns, and thus benefiting you further if you can end the game faster. THIS IS IMPORTANT. If you played it this way, your soft-hearted opponents may not want to play Splendor anymore. But this will not happen in Point City as there are always other options.
- Point City is more varied from game to game due to the varying civic tokens and thus varying engines you could build from game to game. In Splendor, the only difference from game to game is the color you are collecting. But don't get me wrong with the replayability. As of 2024-05-08, I played Point City for exactly 10 times now, while I played Splendor for 190 times!!! Splendor may have less variations, but the race aspect of it is more exciting than Point City. Splendor is replayable because of the extreme competition, while Point City is replayable because of the varied goals and goal combos you could build from game to game.
- Splendor is easier to learn and teach, smoother and faster to play.
Cons
- While the mechanic of handling the resources and buildings in the game is very interesting, however, it is very fiddly to constantly perform during the game as players draw cards. They provided tokens for tracking but it just makes that part more confusing. What we did was to just replace the cards right away after drawing for us not to forget it.
- With 2 players, more cards and more civic token will be removed from the game during setup. Thus, if you take on a civic token, you need more luck hoping that the card symbols you need weren't removed during setup.
- With 2 players, it is multiplayer solitaire. You wouldn't be affecting each other that much during the game. With 4 players, there is more interaction and competition on the board as more players are drawing from it. But with a back to back turn for 2 players, you can do what you want most of the time.
- The box is too big, I was able to fit everything in half of the box. On the other hand, the insert is too small for sleeved cards so I just removed it. I don't understand why publishers don't take into account sleeved cards when designing inserts / boxes.
| Product Dimensions | 19.56 x 4.57 x 14.48 cm; 494.42 g |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer recommended age | 10 years and up |
| Item model number | AEG1009 |
| Language: | English |
| Number of Game Players | 1-4 |
| Assembly Required | No |
| Batteries Required? | No |
| Batteries included? | No |
| Material Type(s) | Cardboard |
| Colour | Multicolor |
| Release date | 22 Sept. 2013 |
| ASIN | B0C24H392P |
