Title: Panorama
Designed By: Alex Wynnter
Art By: Dann May
Published By: Sparkworks
Released: 2021
Player Count: 1-6
Time to Play: 20 Minutes
Ages: 8+
Overview:
Panorama is a beautiful picture-making game where players draft cards and build images with their neighbors. With this in mind Panorama is a cooperative competitive game. Players score points based on pictures they make with both their neighbors. But ultimately only one player wins. Play happens over two rounds, dusk and dawn. Your goal is to try to make sure that your combined total of points between two rounds (with two pictures each) is the highest.
On their turn, players select one card from their hand and decide which panorama (their left or right side) they wish to build on as well as if they want to add it to the left or right side of the chosen panorama. Players hope that their opponents play cards that support their strategies in creating the highest scoring picture.
The panoramas can get quite large, and are composed of some truly lovely pictures so Panorama looks really nice laid out on the table while playing.
What's purr-ty cool:
Art: Besides just being a very ascetically pleasing game, one super cool thing about the art is how it uses placements of things like the sky, land, and mountains to determine which cards can be played where. Different elements in the middle of the card land at differing heights. Since only cards that match the card they are being placed next to can be played, it makes for a neat way to incorporate art into gameplay.
Strategy: Since Panorama is a drafting game that is competitive, but also cooperative, there is an interesting mix of choices players need to make. Player's essentially will need to decide which cards are best to play on their turn, and which they can pass off, hoping the next player will add a card that benefits them too to the shared picture. There are a variety of different ways to score points, so players need to try and be on the same wavelength as their partners are in order to maximize their opportunities to earn points. We also like that there are a bunch of different ways to score points, from how you lay your cards out in the panorama, to what is included in the images. It provides good opportunity to have multiple paths to victory.
Replayability: We like that Panorama includes 10 award tiles but you only need 4 for each game. Awards are given for achievements like have most trees, being the longest, having the least foxes etc. This means that you have a bunch of different combinations you can focus on building in future games. It stops players from always trying to use specific cards every game. This keeps Panorama fresh through multiple game plays.
The cat's meow:
"Must resist urge to sit down and take a nap right in the middle of mom's panorama.....must resist...zzzzzzzz" - Pudgy Cat
Disclosure: Pudgy Cat Games was provided a copy of this game in exchange for a review, however, this review reflects the honest thoughts of the author.
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