Another video game adaptation

🏘️ Dorfromantik is the adaptation of a video game of the same name. I really like how tranquil and relaxing that game is, so I was intrigued about its board game version. It's a co-op tile-laying game with slight legacy-campaign elements. What's not to love? Well... let's see how to play first.

👉 Your turn is really simple - you draw a tile and lay it according to some simple rules: place it adjacent, plus rails and rivers cannot be cut off. Some tiles have objectives on them, like "have 5 forest tiles adjacent" - these have to be matched exactly to earn points for them. When there are less than 3 of these ‘objective tiles’ out, you have to draw and place a new one on your turn. 🧐

The game doesn't really have a goal, other than score as many points as you can. You play until the tiles run out, then you count up your score and see how you did. The more objective tiles you can compete before the basic tiles run out, the higher your score could be. You also might unlock some hidden stuff to add to the game.

💬 It is a family game, so I guess you can't expect much complexity. However I believe the base pillar of co-op games is one or more losing conditions. Here you literally cannot lose - the worst that can happen is that your score is low, so you don't unlock many things.

💭 Even though the video game is really chill, you still feel a constant dread of your deck of tiles running out (you try to stretch your game, as completed objectives gift you additional tiles to use). I know you can’t have an infinite amount of tiles in a physical adaptation, but I would have liked something that gives you a similar kind of feeling.
Due to this ‘beat your own score’ goal the game fell flat for us, though I understand we are not the target audience.

I can gladly recommend this game for families though. The rules are simple, there is no confrontation because of the co-op aspect, and unlocking new stuff to play with is exciting (plus it hides additional rules until later). The art on the tiles is quite simplistic but nice. It's fun to look back at your creation at the end of the game. 🙃