🎵I can show you the woooorld!🎵
•••Game Stats•••
•Publishers: Queen Games
•Designer: Piero Cioni
•Artist: Patricia Limberger
•Players: 2-4
•Sweet Spot: 3-4
•Mechanics: Auction-ish / Set Collection
•Long-Distance Hacks: If only one side has a copy, remote side needs a handful of tokens in different colors representing bricks (Pandemic cubes worked perfectly for Liz before she got a copy)!
In a time when traveling is at a standstill, vicariously experiencing the wonders of the world is more important than ever! Ready to build something wondrous? Let’s get our hands dirty!
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•THOUGHTS•
Brooks: Quarantine blues got you down? Having nightmares about that non-refundable Paris vacation package you bought? Missing out on your third annual stay at your Tallahassee timeshare?
Lizzy: Do people even do timeshares anymore?
Brooks: Well, do I have the solution for you! Although solution may be a bit strong, rather a damn good substitute if gaming and building things are the quickest way to your heart.
Kitty: And in Tallahassee, of all places… oh gawd, why?
Brooks: Prepare to bring the architectural wonders of the world to your very own living room in this pleasantly strategic version of competitive Legos.
Kitty: A Tallahassee timeshare?! That’s like having your birthday party at the DMV… just… no.
Brooks: Stop it!!! It’s a thing! Anyway, this under-the-radar offering from Queen Games is actually a surprisingly entertaining treat. The light strategy begins with the very first step of collecting building block types from the quarry. Deciding whether to scoop up the blocks that will be used in higher scoring tiers or grabbing the base blocks giving you more control over when and where stones are placed is just one layer to this evolving architectural creation.
Lizzy: Other strategic aspects range from being torn between laying a brick and possibly providing a platform for more points, snatching the blue bricks to cash in at game-end, and securing the first-player token to score its associated benefits. Also, the theme will delight anyone invested in anything ancient, historical, or cultural. You could find yourself building a sphinx, the Louvre, or even the Capitol building. As Brooksby said, the strategy may be light, but it’s abundant. And this lends itself perfectly to a calming, engaging experience where each block you place may be opening your opponents up to score more points or block them from placing thus scoring none. The strategic decision-making doesn’t feel rushed, tense, or stressful, but rather chill and thoughtful.
Kitty: Exactly! The Zen aspect of constructing a small block model of a historical monument is almost enough to give me ASMR.
Brooks: Fun fact: I get ASMR when my cat cleans herself.
Kitty: Well, that’s precious. So as I was saying, the relaxing quality also pairs perfectly with the understated, yet detailed artwork. The back of each monument board has its own depiction, the board has little workers milling around the base of each structure, and the images of each creation look like they were taken from an artist’s sketch-pad. The coloring of the building bricks could be somewhat different though, as some of them are rather similar. Our very own Sir Brooksington has mild red-green colorblindness making a multitude of colors (reds, greens, browns, blues, purples, oranges, pinks, and yellows) difficult to distinguish.
Brooks: Yeees, thank you! I feel like simply screen-printing them to have “textures” would easily solve this. The browns could have a wood effect; the purple could appear as marble; red as stucco, and so on. This would create a much-needed delineation making it slightly more accessible to color-impaired individuals.
Lizzy: At first, only Brooksy and Kitty had a copy, so remote play was interesting on my end. For drafting I used pandemic cubes (I seem to use those for everything) to differentiate between the brick colors and signify how many of each color I had. It was infinitely easier when I got a copy for myself, especially when it came to brick placement, which at times was a little difficult to explain correctly. (To the left of that one… no, the other left, yeah, no, down one, now over one, and up two… aaaand, there!!!)
Kitty: But you’re worth the hassle! Also, overall, the theme is kinda funny when you think about it. It’s as if we’re all passive-aggressive architects, squabbling and bickering over how best to build the monument. We then either try to sabotage the other builders leading to gloriously lopsided structures, or once we’ve been screwed over on placement and take our unused bricks as negative points, we go on a lunch break and pout.
Brooks: In conclusion, World Monuments is quick, easy to learn, and has breezy, understated layers of complexity. No matter how you look at it, it’s a solid creation. (See what I did there?)
Lizzy: Oh no…
Brooks: A work of wonder!
Kitty: Please stop.
Brooks: A MONUMENTAL success!
Kitty: 8/10 ~ Lizzy: 8.5/10 ~ Brooks: 8/10
!!!Game Playlist!!!
Seven Wonders ~ Fleetwood Mac
Living In Another World ~ Neon Trees
Around the World ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers
If The World Was Ending ~ JP Saxe/Julia Michaels
Mad World ~ Michael Andrews/Gary Jules
On Top Of The World ~ Imagine Dragons
Ordinary World ~ The Temper Trap
She Had The World ~ Panic! at The Disco
Till The World Ends ~ Britney Spears
Top of the World ~ The Cataracs/Dev
Long Distance Gamers 