NOTE: This is the first in a long--he hopes--line of reviews aimed at the discerning gamer without any playing partners around. This is kind of a "demo tape" for the delectation of publishers around the globe, who might be looking at aiming more of their marketing at this particular demographic. We hope you like it. --MANAGEMENT
Greetings! We here at MR&TLU certainly enjoy our games, and using the editorial "we" when discussing them in a formal capacity. Even if we don't play them quite as much as we used to, having a certain number of them around "just in case" has its certain appeal. This is common for many people in many situations. Anyway, today we're going to take a closer look at a game from 2004, only what I have is the 2008 English edition: Neuland. It had been sitting unpunched on my shelves for about two years now (reasonably enough) and it's time for a Closer Look. (I'm trying out various taglines here. Publishers, if you have a preferred one, let me know.)
First off, the Title. And hey: It's an Entdecker title! I like when a game comes out in an English edition, but preserves the German (or whatever) title as it is. This gets Z-Man +2 Bonus Points.
Moving on to Box Size. It's a standard 297x297x72mm box, which is appreciated. It sits nicely atop Ta Yü, Tobago, Vinci, and Ingenious without unsightly overlaps. This earns Z-Man an A. (Get it?)
Games also have weight, of course, and this one tips the scales at 1540g. In this reviewer's estimation, this weight is not excessive considering the amount of material in the box.
Opening the box, the first thing most gamers are struck by is the game's odor. Having been out of shrink for so long, most of the odor has dissipated. This does not deter us. What remains are faint, earthy tones; a kind of slight muskiness with an overlay of chemical dye. Overall, this rates as Faint.
Many gamers now move to punch the game parts out of the sprues. MR&TLU's Reviews Dept. has chosen, at random, a baseline time of ten minutes to completely detach the pieces from their cardboard prisons and either deposit them in the sorting tray provided by the game, or, failing that, into baggies. The time taken to de-sprue the game will be deducted from ten minutes, resulting in a positive or negative score. We desprued the game in 8:43.2, for a score of 1:16.8. We feel we could improve on this time with practice.
Like many games, Neuland comes equipped with a Rulebook. It is a small-format booklet, which makes the rules seem longer than they are. The rulebook is certainly colorful and appears to describe the operation of the game adequately. No major typos were discerned. As no problems with the rulebook were discovered, the rulebook scores zero points.
FINAL TALLY. Looking at the scores, we have:
+2 + A + 1540g + Faint + 1:16.8 + 0
Which, according to MR&TLU's proprietary formula, results in
46 Units of Quality (UQ)
46 UQ! Only time will tell if that's a large number or a small number, but I think we can all join together to praise Eggertspiele and Z-Man for bringing such a fine product, in a standard-size box, to our shelves. Thank you, publishers!
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