How good is Resafa?
Let’s revisit 🐫Resafa, this time with some more thoughts. For a gameplay overview I recommend checking out our previous post on the game. 😉
Reni & Kristóf
In summary, I think Resafa is a bit of a mixed bag. ⚖️ First of all - this is a matter of taste, I know, but - we were spoiled last year with some unique or at least more interesting themes in games, so unfortunately the theme feels quite uninspired for us. The art itself is a subjective matter too, so everyone has to decide for themselves, but to me it feels a bit dated too.
All of these can be forgiven actually if the gameplay stands tall, right? 🤔 Unfortunately it doesn’t quite hold up either for us. 🙁 In spite of the great action selection and the interesting bonus and special cards you can get, the actions of the game don’t feel very impactful and I feel a lack of an arc. You do get a bit better as your caravan capacity increases, you collect special cards or build additional workshops, but it never feels like you’ve gotten much stronger. 🧐 I guess that is also due to the relatively quick playtime of the game, which could be taken as a pro.
Resafa has some fiddly rules that could’ve been streamlined a bit more, like the rain scoring or the camel movement. Another pet peeve of mine are dull tracks, and regrettably you get 4 of them here. 👉The rewards themselves are great and it is worth it to go for them, but there are always 2 steps that give you nothing before you get to that coveted reward-step. 😶
On the plus side, there are some mechanisms I enjoy, like how there are bonus icons on the sides of workshops that you can activate by placing gardens adjacent to them. I also love how the camel meeples have slots in them that can hold the resource tokens. Very clever! 👍
💬The question is how it all adds up to you if you try the game for yourself. I‘ve seen many people praising it, so I encourage you to give it a go if you encounter Resafa somewhere, as you might enjoy it more than we do. It does have some good ideas and game mechanics up its sleeve.
But compared to other games from 2024 in the genre, I don‘t think it will hit our table often.
A copy of the game was kindly provided by the publisher. Read our content policy.
