SUBURBIA City Building Game

I got this for $0.99, which really is a steal. This is a great game and an adaptation of a very good board game. The AIs are tough and there’s a learning curve to figure out how scoring and modifiers work, but once you do, this is quite fun. Games take about 20 minutes, and the computer handles all the tricky math for you, but I still do recommend learning how it calculates these anyways, or you’ll never get far. I play on ipad. It makes zooming in easier, and this is important to remind you which tiles use what modifiers, as the text can be small. Placing a surburb tile next to a lake tile is good. Placing suburb next to landfill is bad. But, landfill is great for an economy boost. Part of the fun is learning how to combine your tiles for best effect. The goal conditions can change from game to game, so you can’t just use the same layout designs again and again and expect to succeed! Some tips - early in the game, build up your economic base first, or you will stagnate. Keep reputation healthy; you get +1 population for each rep point per turn, but control your growth! If you allow population to grow too quickly, you won’t have the economy to support them and you will fall behind. I play vs one AI at a time, and a game lasts about 19 turns, so if you cripple your economy, you won’t have time to catch up in time. Anyway, if you like strategic economy games (check out Le Havre too), or you like simcity-like games, Surburbia is a winner!

The preview showing how the tile will affect stats are incorrect. For example, the airport which should only show -1 rep if adjacent to a suburb is showing -1 in every possible spot, despite only one space being adjacent. So disappointing since I love this game.

I originally gave it 3 stars because I found the new graphics hard to read, but I found the option to revert to old graphics and all is well.