LogFAQs > #965910526

#49: Dorfromantik

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/9/AAA-H0AADWrr.jpg

Did you know I used to be the president of my college's board game club? It's true! I really miss having a regular board gaming group - it's been hard to get any of the core members of that gang back together since Covid. We played a lot of stuff but our focus was on euro games - you know, the kind of game that's themed off of like a pastoral village in Europe where you have to place workers and collect wood and stone and use them to build stuff that give you slightly more efficient wood and stone production. You know, like Settlers of Catan. Well, not that, because that's like the most entry-level euro game and we've all graduated onto bigger and better things like 15 years ago. What's another game where you place hexagonal tiles? Eclipse? Not really the idyllic countryside vibe I'm going for, but sure, whatever. Point is, I like games with a rustic european vibe and a hexagonal tile grid. I'm talking about Dorfromantik. Dorfromantik is the game I'm trying to get to here.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/0/AAA-H0AADWrs.jpg

Dorfromantik is a solitaire tile-placing game where you place tiles on a hexagonal grid that create a cute little countryside diorama, connecting them together until you run out of tiles. To earn more tiles, you have to complete objectives where you create villages, or forests, or connected railroads, etc of a certain size. You try to get the highest score you can. And... that's it! Eventually you run out of tiles, you look at the cute little landscape you've made, and that's the whole game.

I'm a little torn on this. On the one hand, I've become accustomed, in modern times, to games having a lot of mechanics. Dorfromantik is not a game with a lot of mechanics. It's not a roguelike. There aren't abilities to gain or items to play or anything to unlock. It's as simple as it gets. But on the other hand, maybe that simplicity is its biggest asset? There's something very zen-like about it. It's a game that's really easy to just boot up for 15-30 minutes to relax and play a few rounds in. Nothing too hard to think about, no difficult rules to grasp, just a relaxing game about placing hexagonal tiles. It's very comforting. The comforting vibe is due in large part to the game's stellar presentation - the game just exudes cozy vibes. The simple, bold diorama look of the tiles makes them very satisfying to arrange and look at.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/4/1/AAA-H0AADWrt.jpg

I said this game is simple, but for some reason, I really, really suck at Dorfromantik. I recently had a round of this game where I thought I did pretty well - I placed my tiles in a way that made sense! I completed as many objectives as I possibly could! I made like, almost 9000 points! - and I was like, not even in the top 100,000 on the leaderboard. The top 100,000! I can't believe there's even 100,000 people who play this game! This makes me think that in my few hours of play I've missed something crucial here - maybe there's something a little deeper to the game that I'm not understanding, some fundamental flaw in my play I'm not realizing. Maybe this game ACTUALLY DOES have game mechanics, and I'm just not seeing them.

At the same time, this game doesn't quite have that addictive quality to it that makes me want to play it over and over until I'm seeing hexagonal tiles everywhere like a eurogame-inspired Tetris. I boot it up every now and then for a few rounds, but most rounds do play mostly the same. It's Solitaire, really. My grandfather can amuse himself for hours playing Solitaire, but I like something with a bit more meat to it. But the mystery of my apparently low scores in Dorfromantik is kind of tickling at the back of my brain and makes me want to go back to it. I think this game's still in early access, so there's still plenty of time yet for me to master this apparently simple tile placement game.

Next up: Birds feature prominently in this game where you ride a skateboard.