Shadowjump

I have read many reviews on this game, before I got it. On this site, and others. Most of the reviews were lukewarm at best, but the game play sounded interesting to me.

I have now played this game 3 times. Once with 2 players, once with 3, and one time with 4 players. The game scales well by adjusting the number of turns (and turn options) based on the number of players. The scaling is simple and effective.

Tension in the game is created based on the approach you take to collecting victory points. You can focus on collecting and selling treasures, you can focus on finding bonus cards, you can collect tokens that allow you to travel through secret passages, and you can also focus on collecting keys from the temple. Whatever path you choose, you will be more successful if you do what other players are not, and not try to do everything.

Many reviews make it sound that there is no challenge in this game. I disagree. For those that only play it once, and move on, they are probably not seeing how the competition for victory points will escalate with more experience, and more plays.

Overall, I think this is a great game that only suffers from the Tikal II title. It is not Tikal. Calling it Tikal II for marketing purposes seems to have backfired in this instance.

The first time I played this game, I thought it was too long and a little dry. But after it was over, I kept thinking about what I could have done better. I started thinking about how you must balance building your city with minimizing your poverty points. Brilliant!

I had to play it again, and again, and again. I even played several times the solo version.

The game plays better and quicker once you have played it a time or two. It never stops being challenging.

This has become one of my favorite games. Each play provides new challenges with a wide variety of card combinations. It is highly interactive because a card’s strategic value is dependent on what cards are in play by all the players. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a card game.