Small World 2 Review (PC)

good
key review info
  • Game: Small World 2
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: N/a
  • Reviewed on:
Small World 2

Small World 2 is the digital adaptation of the well-known homonymous board game, an acclaimed design from Days of Wonder which was recently made available on iOS, Android and PC.

Days of Wonder made quite a reputation with their selection of board games that allow some surprisingly strategic gameplay that manages to also be quite fun, Small World being joined by Memoir ’44, Ticket to Ride, Shadows Over Camelot and many others on the company's roster.

Small World’s premise is simple, there are too many fantasy races and too little game board to support them all, therefore players have to cycle through the available race combinations, seeing them through glory and decline, and gather the most points in the process, over a set number of turns.

Gameplay

Players can choose from a randomly assembled pool of races and special powers, each with its own particular bonuses that afford a surprising depth to the gameplay, as each unique combination can help take the game into a particular direction depending on the board state.

The map is made out of several types of tiles such as forest, swamp and mountain overlayed with some special symbols such as mine, cavern or magical source that offer bonuses to certain races.

The races and special abilities combo together to offer point bonuses for occupying a certain type of terrain or a region with a special symbol during the end of turn scoring phase, or afford some unique abilities such as increased defenses on certain tiles, the ability to conquer the otherwise uncontrollable sea tiles, bonus score or reinforcements for each region conquered during your turn, and many others.

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The only rule is there are no rules
You can easily highlight a player's domain
A game takes place over a fixed number of turns, and 2 to 5 players can vie for supremacy, strategically deploying their armies in order to score the highest amount of points each turn. At the end of the game, the player with the highest score is declared victor, and oftentimes battles are pretty close and suspenseful.

This in part is because although the game shows you how many points are scored each turn, you can only see your own total accumulated number and have to guess how well others are doing based on your recollection of past scores.

Scoring is done by counting how many tiles your active race is currently occupying, along with any bonuses afforded by either your racial ability or special ability. You can expand your influence by conquering regions that are adjacent to the ones you already own.

Conquering an empty region takes 2 units, while conquering an occupied one takes 2 units plus the number of enemy units currently stationed there. At the end of your turn you can redistribute the number of tokens in each region in order to fortify key areas, while keeping a minimum of one in each one of them.

The interference of luck is minimal, as each player has only one dice roll each turn on their last attack, that could potentially aid them in overcoming the odds and sneaking in another conquest.

Of course things are not always that simple, because of the racial an special abilities which constantly alter the defensive and offensive power of units based on different modifiers, for instance Giants can conquer any region adjacent to a mountain they occupy at a cost of 1 less army token than normal, and the Flying special ability allows you to conquer any region on the map, without them needing to be adjacent to ones you already own.

Whenever an enemy conquers a region you occupy, you lose one unit and the rest go into your hand. When your turn starts, you get all units in excess of one from each region, and you deploy your troops for new conquests before scoring.

This of course means that soon your race will be outnumbered and spread too thin, at which point you can opt to spend your turn to place the currently active race into decline, turning the markers over and making them inactive, and then choosing a new combination on your following turn. Inactive tokens also count toward your scoring phase, but you can only have one active race and one on decline at any given time.

You can either pick the first available combination for free or pay some points to choose one further down the line, one that will better suit the current board state and allow you to make a trade-off that will net you more points down the line.

Although it may not sound like much on paper, the game is genuinely fun to play, especially when you’re playing with friends and are constantly bickering about what’s going on.

The good thing about the digital version is that you can sneak a quick game even when your friends are busy, as it allows you to play with others online, in either combination from 2 to 5 players, and you can even play solo games against the AI (which you’ll be defeating quite easily).

Furthermore, you can play hotseat games or LAN games, and you can even play asynchronous matches, as the game will save your progress at every step and you can safely disconnect and rejoin a session later on.

Small World 2 also comes with a handy tutorial and encyclopedia detailing all the different aspects of gameplay, from races to abilities to general strategy, and also comes with local and online leaderboards to give you bragging rights among friends.

Visuals and sound

The visuals are digital versions of the physical board game, and look and act pretty much as you’d expect from a computer port of a board game, without extra fluff like unneeded animations to weigh you down.

All the drawings are colorful and thematic and offer a vivid and lively gameplay experience, and the cartoonish outlook goes hand in hand with the game’s tongue in cheek demeanor.

The sounds are okay, you get an aural confirmation of pretty much everything you do, from picking a race to conquering a region and scoring points, nothing great, just functional, but not bad either.

The music on the other hand will be muted after a couple of minutes, as it’s the same loop over and over and it’s not that great to begin with.

It looks and sounds like a port of the mobile version, complete with issues regarding fullscreen and different resolutions that cut off portions of the screen or leave them unused.

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Things tend to get complicated in larger games
That's a a killer name for an '80s hair metal band
Conclusion

Considering it’s a port of the mobile version of a board game, it’s hard to judge it by comparing it to traditional entries in the PC video game medium. It’s simplistic and it’s a rather casual experience meant for social players, not for hardcore turn based strategy enthusiasts.

If you like the board game, you’ll also like this, especially since it gives you the option to play it online, with cross-platform multiplayer. But if you’re not familiar with the board game and you’re accustomed to traditional PC strategy games, this will disappoint you.

The bad thing is it doesn’t come with cross-buy across the other platforms, which is okay when you play it on a tablet, as it’s one of the best strategy games available on mobile platforms, but on the PC there are dozens of much better games you can get at the same price.

Also, Small World 2 comes with a considerable number of bugs still roaming free, bugs that will crash the client or make you exit and reconnect in order to continue a game and other such nuisances. The good thing however is that Days of Wonder has been regularly releasing patches to fix most of the problems the community outlined, so things are going to get better.

Still, you can see it’s pretty much a mobile port and not geared up to face the stiff competition in the PC strategy arena. It is a fun game with great mechanics, and if you’re looking for a more relaxed but still challenging experience, Small World 2 might just be the game for you.

Small World 2 offers an enjoyable social experience with a unexpected strategic depth, but it struggles to maintain a foothold in the PC video game arena. Fans of the board game will no doubt enjoy it and the convenience it provides via its online multiplayer support, and seekers of lightweight and colorful strategic experiences will definitely find it appealing.

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story 0
gameplay 8
concept 8
graphics 8
audio 7
multiplayer 8
final rating 7
Editor's review
good