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Gameplay
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Graphics / Interface
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Replayability
See who can build the best borough in the game Suburbia.
If you have been following me or ARC for a while you know that I really enjoy playing and investigating board games that get ported to iOS or Android. Having a portable copy of a game and not having to setup and cleanup tiles, etc is great. Now playing on an iPad is not the same but still can be very fun.
Today I am looking at the board game Suburbia by Ted Alspach that was ported to iOS a couple months ago. It has been updated a couple of times since it first launched. I had never played Suburbia but when I saw a preview of the game I definitely thought it would be a neat game on the iPad. I was not wrong.
The goal of Suburbia is to build your borough and have the largest population. You start off with three tiles, each tile is a different place in your borough: a factory, asuburbs, and a community center. Each player takes turns placing different tiles into their borought. Now each tile you place will effect your overall income, population, and reputation. So as you play, you need to see how each tile you plan to use effects each of these aspects of the game.
In addition to building your borough, there are public goals and a private goal that can help you with your population at the end of the game. At first, I was a bit confused on the game play. After losing a couple of games, I finally got the hang of it. This is a thinking game; you need to plan your growth, work on goals, watch your income, population, and reputation, and finally keep an eye on your opponent. This is not a simple game but not overly complicated. I do appreciate the app doing all the math for me though!
If my explanation did not help, the app does come with a tutorial and a nicely done rule book. The rule book goes through the different tiles you can have during the game, game setup, gameplay, and even some strategy tips. The game layout is excellent and it is very easy to see the board, the tiles, and the score.
There are three game modes you can enjoy in the game:
- Local Player (you can play against six different AI opponents or another human)
- Online Multiplayer
- Single Player Campaign. The single campaign comes with 8 different cities, each with three difficulty settings and goals. You have to play the cities in order and win to unlock the next city. These games cannot be saved, but your city progress will be.
This game is a keeper on my iPad. I still have a lot to do in the game but I really enjoy these type of board games where you need to think and plan your moves. The biggest challenge for me is getting the overall income, population, and reputation to where I want or need it to be to win. I have not spoken to the developer but I see that there could be quite a bit they could add on to the game such as more single player campaigns, and maybe Surburia Inc the expansion for the board game.
I definitely can recommend Suburibia for anyone who enjoys board games.
