Let me start this off by saying that I bought this game almost entirely because it is based on Magic the Gathering style booster drafting, which is one of my favorite pastimes. I had heard a lot of hype about it, but had some doubts based on how short the playtime is (as most short games seem to be on the light side for me).
Holy cow - only one play in so far, but this might be a masterpiece.
I'm not going to regurgitate every rule, but instead I will try to explain why this game is so unbelievable: it combines almost every mechanic from every game I've ever enjoyed, in an easy-to-learn/teach experience for up to 7 players that only takes a half hour! WTF?
Here is a list of things you will find that are nicely blended together:
-MtG style draft. Obviously the biggest selling point for me based on the intro to my review. 3 rounds, 7 card packs, pass different directions each time. Love the strategy involved in drafts.
-Resource generation/management. resources similar to those in classics like Agricola or Settlers, with some new additions (glass, papyrus, wool). You have to pay attention to the infrastructure you're building, and definitely pay attention to your opponents too.
-Through the Ages-style tech progression. In the 3 sets of cards you'll be drafting, you'll find increasingly better versions of production buildings, point-scoring buildings, etc. There are even specific tech trees, with cards that reward you for having their previous iterations by not costing anything. Nice!
-Military. Any Civ game needs military, and this is no exception. It's similar to Through the Ages again though – fall behind in military compared to your opponents and you will face some trouble.
-Commerce/trading. In this game you're not just limited to your own resources; you can also give your neighbor some money to make use of theirs as well! This is a really nice way to abstract trading, without all the downtime that comes from waiting around for someone else to get their trades done (I'm looking at you, <PERSON>). 629
It's also a neat balancing mechanism to ensure that even if you get completely shut out of a certain resource, you aren't out of the game.
-Race for the Galaxy/San Juan style set collection. Science awards you for collecting both varied research as well as specialized research. There are also the guilds, which are basically this games' version of PR's “big buildings” or RFTG's 6-developments.
-Agricola-style scoring. “I need everything, but can't get all of it!”
-Unique powers ala Cosmic Encounter. Every player gets a unique wonder board that provides a distinct but balanced advantage over the other players.
There's probably more that I'm missing. But seriously, it is astounding to me that this many mechanics were placed into this game, yet it doesn't feel unnatural or forced. Not only that, but it only took less than 10 minutes to explain it to my roommate, who picked it up immediately (and actually took the win from me by 4 points). Then it took less than 40 minutes to play.
As far as longevity, I can't say anything with authority because I can't predict the future to see if I will get tired of it. But I am going to at least project that this game is going to get played. A lot. It scratches the itches of many games that I own in half the playtime (or less). I'm not going to assign it some kind of meaningless star rating or X out of 10. But I will say that if you love games, no matter your skill level, you need to get this game. 237