Name: 7 Wonders
Publisher: Asmodee
Year Published: 2010
Average Retail Price: $50
Good: Nearly perfect replay value – Short – High production value – Easy to learn – Accommodates up to 7 players
Bad: Large element of luck – Few distinct strategies
Ever since Dominion was released in 2008, quick, fast games with high replay value have saturated the market. 7 Wonders is yet another game of this type, yet it plays unlike almost any other game on the market.
The basic premise of 7 Wonders is that you take control of one of the civilizations that made one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. During the course of three eras of your civilization, you build up your economy, army, scientific knowledge, and build your wonder in order to be the pre-eminent civilization of the ancient world.
This growth is performed by a rather unique card draft system. Each turn you receive a hand of cards and choose one with which to perform an action. At the same time every player reveals the card that player chose and pays the appropriate resources to use the card. Then each player passes all remaining cards to the next player. Play repeats until all but one of the cards from each set has been played.
The cards are the building blocks of your civilization. Cards can provide money, building resources, points, army strength, or discounts buying resources from your neighbors. In order to play a card you either have to produce the necessary resources or purchase any resources you do not produce from your neighbors. During early eras cards cost little and often produce resources. During later eras cards are much more expensive and often give you points rather than resources. Also, some cards from earlier eras will actually permit you to play cards of the next era at no cost.
With such simple game play, you might expect modest production value. Surprisingly this is not the case. The cards are high quality with a glossy finish and wonder tiles are thick with highly detailed artwork. For a game that is likely to take no more than half an hour to complete, this is some of the best quality that exists.
Between simple game play, high production value, and short games, it would seem this is the perfect game. Unfortunately, the simple game play creates one very noticeable downside. Luck is a major influencing factor in the game. You have no way of knowing what set of cards you may receive and you may end up never seeing important cards to your strategy. Alternately, you may see all the key cards to your strategy in a single set, of which you can only play one card from.
Of course, this assumes that you actually have a strategy. Only two or three distinct strategies really exist in the game and not all are compatible with every culture’s unique wonder benefits. Thus, there is a good chance that you may simply forgo any distinct strategy and play as chance dictates. Such an approach is fun for a while, but can quickly get dull for more strategically minded players.
Conveniently, even if others get bored with the game, you should be able to play the game for as long as you continue to enjoy it. The game is remarkably simple to teach and almost immediately understood by players of almost any age. In addition, it plays with any number of players from two to seven, making it one of the most player flexible games on the market.
7 Wonders certainly isn’t a heavy thought game nor is it particularly well designed for expansion. But, it is highly addictive and is the type of game that you are likely to play multiple times in a row and enjoy every single time. It is appropriate for almost all ages and quick enough that you can easily play it during a lunch break or before playing more time intensive games. If you are looking for an alternative to Dominion, this is the game for you.
Rating: 4 out of 5
