The Opinionated Gamers

Design by Reiner Knizia & Sebastian Bleasdale
Published by Ystari Games
2 – 4 Players, 1 hour
Review by Greg J. Schloesser

With a name like “Prosperity”, you would think this game would be an economic game of high finance with the goal being to amass the largest personal fortunate as possible.  Not exactly. Rather, players assume the roles of emerging nations who must invest in infrastructure and industry in order to pull their nation out of third world status and into the realm of economic giants.  However, one must also be concerned about the environmental impact of such progress lest pollution create a hazardous atmosphere, making life there far from desirous.

For such an elaborate theme, the game is actually easy to learn, but quite challenging to play well.  Each player receives a board that has space for up to eleven technology tiles.  Several are pre-printed on the boards, so players do not begin from scratch.  Players will place newly acquired technologies onto this board, sometimes covering existing technologies in their quest to move their nation forward.  The boards are double-sided, offering different start-up options and difficulty levels.  The board also provides charts wherein players track their energy, ecology and pollution levels, as well as helpful but cryptic charts listing the possible actions and final scoring sequence.

The central Research board serves to track players’ progress in both energy and ecology research, as well as their prosperity (victory) points.  Technology tiles are set in rows beside both sides of the research tracks, and players must progress to the appropriate levels in order to purchase various tiles.  Of course, tiles at the higher levels are more valuable, but can cost more and require players to make tremendous progress on the appropriate research tracks.  The game begins with twelve tiles beside each track, two on each level.

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