Game Reviews

Carcassonne

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Carcassonne

If city planning was as easy as Carcassonne makes out, chances are we'd all be living in sprawling metropolises by now.

That's the beauty of Exozet's take on the ever-popular boardgame. While it's no mean feat to come out on top in this three-way battle for the kingdom, it's not hard to grasp the fundamental principles: it's an all-out land grab.

Town of tiles

Starting with just one tile on the board, play moves around the table with each player placing a tile chosen at random on the grid.

Said tiles consist of a multitude of features – some contain a portion of a city, others a branch of road, or even a lone cloister.

Tiles can only be placed where they fit (roads or city districts having to match up with those already on the board), with Carcassonne automatically narrowing down the options for you.

The key is just where you place your followers. With seven on offer, you're given the option of dropping one into play after each title you place, presuming you have a populace left.

Some of these followers pay off fairly quickly: those placed on a stretch of road, for instance, will deliver points as soon as said path has been completed by other tiles

Others are more for lovers of the long game. Points are only delivered for those placed in a city, for instance, once said township has been rounded off, or the game itself comes to a close.

The bigger the conurbation, the more points on offer.

City sticker

Making decision after decision is exactly what Carcassonne boils down to: whether to pick up short and sweet points to keep your followers up or whether to try and build an entire empire for the big score while your rivals – hopefully temporarily – race ahead.

Even if unlocking the correct formula is beyond you, squeezing in another game to brush up your skills is always an attractive proposition, even ten or 20 tries down the line.

Carcassonne's one weak point is accommodating the phone's screen. Once play gets going, barely a portion of the map is visible at any one time, and while it's possible to scroll around when choosing where to place your tile fairly easily via the number keys, it's incredibly time-consuming.

As a result, it becomes easy to lose track of your areas of interest when the pressure is on.

Also, the lack of multiplayer is a sour (if expected) loss, though the game's AI does a good job of filling in.

It's hard to be all too critical of Carcassonne given the overall quality of the game. An entire boardgame in your pocket, Carcassonne's unique brand of empire building is, once again, king of the castle.

Carcassonne

Yet another remake of the boardgame, Carcassonne holds up remarkably well on mobile, and proves utterly addictive even for the unsuccessful amongst its audience
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Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.