An amusement park on your table. Unfair Game Review
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Did you ever imagine as a kid that you had your own amusement park? You thought you could ride all the rides, eat fast food in any quantity, stay up all night to watch endless fireworks. But now you will descend from heaven to earth. Actually, managing a theme park is a huge amount of hard work. You must build rides, hire staff, open entertainment venues, improve and upgrade equipment to outshine rival parks, and be prepared for any subterfuge, corporate schemes or espionage from other players. Who will have the grandest amusement park at the end of 8 rounds? Fingers crossed for luck!
PREPARATION FOR THE GAME
To lay out the game, each player chooses one of the themed decks to include in the game. Then you take all the cards of the chosen theme, divide them by type (event, park, drawing, etc.) and shuffle everything together. Each player receives a center gate card, a loan card, 20 coins, and 5 cards from the top of the park deck. Once all players have received their cards, the first round can begin.
GAME PROCESS
The Unfair game consists of 8 rounds. In each round, starting with the first player, you will go through 4 phases. In phase 1, the event phase, each player plays an event card and then has the opportunity to play as many event cards from their hand as they wish. Phase 2 is the park phase where you will do your main actions. On your turn, you have several options: you can buy a card from your hand or from the market on the playing field to add to your park, or draw some more cards from your park deck, events, or blueprints, or demolish an attraction in your park, or "pick up a change" (this is the weakest action in my opinion, but it can give you a few more dollars instead of taking out a loan). After the action-packed Park phase, you get all the money from ticket sales in the Visitor phase. Finally comes the "Cleaning Up" phase, which involves preparing for the next round.
I know what you're thinking. And that's all? The most interesting thing here is how everything is related to the subject. If you play cards from the vampire deck, you can hire a collaborator who can charm other players into giving you their abilities. With the cards from the pirate deck, many cards will be aimed at getting all the loot without making any trade-offs for your opponents! Your park can only hold 5 rides, so you also have to make sure you make the most of the limited space. At the end of the round you must discard up to 5 cards. You can carry over event cards you play from round to round, but they count against your hand limit. You will always try to weigh whether a particular card is worth taking up space in your hand.
Unfair can be unfair, mean, mean, because your actions and event cards can interfere with other players' parks, but it's just a game; in principle, its meaning is hidden in the name of the game, so it should not be surprising. Depending on the theme you choose (the base game includes Vampires, Ninjas, Pirates, Gangsters, Robots, and Jungles), certain cards also allow you to redirect or defend against any attack or event that might cause damage to your park.
COMPONENTS
The box contains: 86 coins (denominations 1, 5, 25, 125), 6 themed sets, 57 cards each, a phase counter in the shape of a roller coaster cart, a playing field and a notebook for counting points with a pencil. The components of this game are great in my opinion. The playing field is of good quality, the chips are thick and the cards are of good quality. Artists David Forrest and Lina Cossett have to be applauded, as everything from the cover to the field and maps look like some of the most brilliant work I've ever seen in a board game. The cards are really beautiful with unique artwork that just permeates the theme.
CONCLUSIONS
I love Unfair, it's approachable and easy to understand. I feel like a kid every time we open the box. It's a very themed game that doesn't stress me out at all, it's just fun to play and it's very strategic. Mixing different themes forces you to adjust your strategy every game, so I'm always amazed at how my park looks at the end of the game. The game works well for any number of players, but can be a bit slow at 5. If I had to find a fault, it would be that when the final round starts, I feel like I've already done everything I wanted to. We will always play with a game changer that shortens the game to 6 rounds. It speeds up the game and builds tension because you know you won't be able to get everything done in time.
I would rate Unfair 5 out of 5.
— This is exactly what I want from a board game. I will never give up the party and want to play it regularly. It is hard to imagine that I will ever get rid of this game.