So, have you guys heard of Santa Monica? It’s a turn based tableau builder type game that allows players to customize their boardwalks in the famed California city, Santa Monica. You get customize your boardwalk and attractions as you see fit to achieve the predetermined game objectives. Here’s our conversation about our first few experiences playing Santa Monica.
Cat: Spider, what were your impressions of the game?
Spider: I loved the artwork The calm, beach vibe was super appealing. It definitely made me want to listen to beach themed music and have Mai Tai's while we played. The artwork totally supported the theme of the game and had a big impact on how I played. It just sort of created a laid back Southern California beach community vibe. It created a low stakes, safe and happy feeling. Playing the game made me happy. I loved the foodie trying to hook up with the food truck, the tourists trying to get to scenic locations, locals going to favorite spots, and VIPs walking around. I felt the purpose was to make the most fun combination of things for meeples to experience. It’s not like f-you and your beach. The pure objective is trying to create the most productive environment for people to have fun. It wasn’t like my meeples were going to die or get eaten by monsters if I didn’t get that perfect card. There’s nothing dark or adversarial about the game.
Spider: How do you think the artwork influenced how you played the game?
Cat: I agree that the artwork and theme really influenced how I approached it. It wasn’t really tense at any point. So, I felt that the artwork and the theme didn’t match the versus style. Even though we were technically competing, I liked scouting cards for you to help rack up your points. So, after thinking about it, we played the game more like two side by side games of solitaire. I thought this worked for us and I thought that the happy, calm vibes in the artwork supported this approach and made the competition factor less visible.
Spider: That’s true. I wonder if it’s possible to play as a combined high score in a two person game. So it’s not like one person with a high score wins. You would need to both get high scores, but it’s still not competitive between us.
Cat: What did you think when you opened the box?
Spider: Weirdly, when I opened the box I was surprised there weren’t more parts. I thought there would be a lot more because of the size of the box. Like, maybe they made a standard size game box. It seemed like there was a lot of love put into the production of the game. The local meeples had little sunglasses and the tourists had little cameras. I loved the detail in the art on the cards. The quality of the pieces and the artwork showed the attention and care that was paid into the game. It made me want to play it more.
Spider: What did you think when we opened the box?
Cat: Honestly, when you opened the box I was a little overwhelmed. I felt a little taken aback because I don’t really have any gaming experience and it seemed a lot to keep track of. I prefer to read the instructions first and so I went through the book trying to identify the pieces and what they meant and did. After about three play throughs we were onboard and able to handle everything: keeping track of the sand dollars, the three types of meeples, the cards, the food truck and the foodie, the giant sand dollars, and the game goals card seemed a lot to handle at first.
What did you think about the game play?
Spider: I felt like the actual turn to turn game play was pretty fun. I liked being able to see what my options were for future turns. I was never bored. It seemed really digestible. It didn’t feel like a big commitment and that it wouldn’t strike people down that are prone to analysis paralysis. I thought it was exciting and kept my attention.
What was your opinion about the game play?
Cat: I thought the first play through went pretty well, but took a long time. I did feel a reliance on the rulebook for the first couple of times playing the game, but I know I’m a rule follower. I liked being able to refer to the instruction booklet to identify the symbols and how they relate to the cards and the stated objectives. Once I figured out the language of the symbols on the cards, the game ran a lot smoother for me, although my scores didn’t necessarily reflect that. I thought it was fun to see you experiment with your boardwalk. It was clear you had strategy to achieve the games’ objectives and sometime it was noticeable when you would change your tactics.
Our take home feelings about the game:
Great artwork - really set the relaxed mood for the game
Thorough instructions - made the game easier to play, especially for novice gamers, only thing missing was a description of the score card
Liked the variability in ways to score points - activity circles and people placement, VIP travel path, card symbols
We liked the limited number of turns - it forced us to be thoughtful about our card choices and meeple movements.
On a scale of 1-4 how did we rate the game?
Ratings
Spider
Cat
Rating Scale
Would not buy or play again
Would not buy but would play again
Would buy and play again, but only occasionally
Would buy and play again in normal rotation
This review was not sponsored by anyone or any company. Santa Monica is a game developed by Josh Wood with art by Jeremy Nguyen. The game is produced by AEG.