Review Details

Agricola

Product Rating:

Product Review (submitted on August 10, 2009):

Agricola is a very good game that shares its mechanics with other popular Eurogame designs (i.e., Puerto Rico, Zooloretto, Pillars of the Earth). It all seems familiar, but the fluid amalgamation and novel implementations add up to a better, more varied game than its predecessors.

Player interaction is a minor, almost non-existent element. This would normally be a big turn-off for me, but building a well-balanced farm with what scant resources are left available is challenging, though I think the system herds the players too strongly by penalizing victory points for neglecting any developments. What, a farm can't specialize? I'd prefer a trade market or something to simulate the varied needs of the family and the community, plus it would inject some welcome interaction.

I appreciate how difficult it is to juggle short-term needs (food, resources) with long-term goals (expansion, diversification). There's no narrative to the game, but the theme of having to scrape by to keep the family fed with a hopeful eye towards the future frames the mechanics well enough.

The downside, this is some of the ugliest art I've seen in a game. The pieces look like they belong in an early prototype and the cards and boards are bland. Worse yet, the blandness of the pieces (wooden discs and cubes representing resources and animals, respectively) actually inhibit the function of the game! It's hard enough to keep track of everything when you're new to the game without trying to remember what all these pieces are supposed to represent.

Overall, I think Agricola's a great strategy game, especially if a person's not bothered by the aesthetics. I do, however, think the game is overpriced since so many of the components are plain cubes and discs, especially when I look at cheaper games full of beautiful art (i.e., Arkham Horror) or sculpted miniatures (i.e., Doom).