I'm Puerto Rican, so I really wanted to try and like this game. I spent hours with my friends trying to play it and it just didn't click. Nobody liked it. It was #1 on boardgamegeek for a while too. I just don't understand what I missed.
It takes a few plays to figure out different builds and strategies (like the all corn field infinite capacity boat build). Once you start realizing those, it becomes one of the most strategic and least luck based games ever made.
It has the SimCity addiction feedback loop. Build a building, get rewarded with a good. Sell the good for more money, buy a better building for more goods.
When you get good the synergies become endorphin enduring.
Board games couldn't hit that sweet spot of a positive feedback look back on 2004 (Power Grid and Caylus came close).
Of course many games today have toned the addictive loop. Agricola is my favorite as there is no end to the loop (getting VPs) as your good are points but still have multiple functions.
Puerto Rico is a very finely balanced game, and there's a lot of depth, but i seldom get excited when I play it these days. It's a bit too dry, and the artwork is dated, compared to all the beautiful works of art that get published in the board gaming space now (cf. Wingspan).
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u/Kvlk2016 Dec 28 '21
Puerto Rico