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| by Pencil First Games |
The Joy of Painting (and Hiking...)
I remember watching Bob Ross with my mom growing up. That super chill jazz music would start and then this weirdo with an afro would show up and teach my mom the ins and outs of painting landscapes. There would be nothing but happy little trees and happy little clouds and no mistakes, just happy little accidents (tell that to my mom when she was pregnant with me...).
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| Me, too, Bob! |
Pencil First Games has sent me one of their newer games, Sunset Over Water, claiming that it is a "Picturesque" game. The last game they sent me was the phenomenal Herbaceous, which they claimed to be "Flavorful". Those claims soon proved true as the game was FANTASTIC, so I'm hoping that Sunset Over Water will let me find my own Art of Chill and paint all those happy little trees, but without any of the mess!
The World is Your Easel
Sunset Over Water is a programming style set collection game where players guide their Hikers through an ever changing environment full of beautiful vistas, trying to paint the kinds of pictures that will get them the most points based on the Commissions available to them.
The players do this with these Planning Cards:
At the start of each round, each player draws three of these Planning Cards from their own personal deck. These cards have all sorts of information as to how your Hiker will spend their day, including what time they're going to Wake Up, how far and in which directions they'll be hiking, and how many Landscapes they're going to Paint. They choose one of these cards, place it face down in front of them, and then all players reveal their cards at the same time, and the player who chose to start their day the earliest goes first.
Seems like it's not too big of a deal, right? I'll just sleep in and relax. I mean, after all, you can usually move farther and paint more things the later you start in your day. So what if they get to the Landscape before me. It's all good, we're just painting, right?
Wrong.
The fatal flaw in your plan of sleeping in is that when a player "Paints" a landscape, they remove the card from the play area and put it into their collection and the card's not replaced until the end of the round, which means you can't move through those blank spaces in the play area.
It's like after someone painted a particular area, they SCORCHED THE EARTH so that no beauty would ever be found there again.
This conundrum is compounded by the fact that two Hikers may never enter or share the same space as another, which means that you HAVE to hike through the wilderness ALONE. If you see another Hiker, better run the opposite direction, because they will TOTALLY &#$% you over.
I haven't really been hiking that much, but my step-father goes quite a bit, and HE TRAVELS WITH OTHER PEOPLE with good reason! I'd be pretty worried if that 70 year old man just wandered out into the wilderness alone and said, "I'll be back in six days after I'm done painting!"
None of this is very thematic, I'll just be honest, but it makes for a very tense game. You'll be constantly weighing the power of sleeping in with the effectiveness of getting what you want by waking up early. And yes, you will literally find yourself BEGRUDGINGLY getting up early just to get the ONE Landscape that you need or so you won't get stranded on the Landscape that you DON'T NEED.
The good news is that if you do find yourself having to change your daily plans there are usually multiple ways to score points each round, whether it be the multiple Commissions or the singular Daily Goal.
There is a single player version as well, where players must cross through "Ranger Stations" in order to replenish the Landscapes they've rendered asunder, whereas in the normal multiplayer game they're simply replenished at the end of the round. This is a fun little mechanic that keeps the strategy there without feeling shoehorned in with any artificial difficulty. I like it a lot, though it does conjure up images of Park Rangers trying to be Rainbow Brite and bring color back to the forest.
It's a great little addition that feels well thought out and organic.
The players do this with these Planning Cards:
At the start of each round, each player draws three of these Planning Cards from their own personal deck. These cards have all sorts of information as to how your Hiker will spend their day, including what time they're going to Wake Up, how far and in which directions they'll be hiking, and how many Landscapes they're going to Paint. They choose one of these cards, place it face down in front of them, and then all players reveal their cards at the same time, and the player who chose to start their day the earliest goes first.
Seems like it's not too big of a deal, right? I'll just sleep in and relax. I mean, after all, you can usually move farther and paint more things the later you start in your day. So what if they get to the Landscape before me. It's all good, we're just painting, right?
Wrong.
The fatal flaw in your plan of sleeping in is that when a player "Paints" a landscape, they remove the card from the play area and put it into their collection and the card's not replaced until the end of the round, which means you can't move through those blank spaces in the play area.
It's like after someone painted a particular area, they SCORCHED THE EARTH so that no beauty would ever be found there again.
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| Well, I'm done painting those flowers, let me just... |
This conundrum is compounded by the fact that two Hikers may never enter or share the same space as another, which means that you HAVE to hike through the wilderness ALONE. If you see another Hiker, better run the opposite direction, because they will TOTALLY &#$% you over.
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| I imagine it'd go something like this... |
None of this is very thematic, I'll just be honest, but it makes for a very tense game. You'll be constantly weighing the power of sleeping in with the effectiveness of getting what you want by waking up early. And yes, you will literally find yourself BEGRUDGINGLY getting up early just to get the ONE Landscape that you need or so you won't get stranded on the Landscape that you DON'T NEED.
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| I don't CARE if they take the Waterfall, I just want 15 more minutes! |
The good news is that if you do find yourself having to change your daily plans there are usually multiple ways to score points each round, whether it be the multiple Commissions or the singular Daily Goal.
There is a single player version as well, where players must cross through "Ranger Stations" in order to replenish the Landscapes they've rendered asunder, whereas in the normal multiplayer game they're simply replenished at the end of the round. This is a fun little mechanic that keeps the strategy there without feeling shoehorned in with any artificial difficulty. I like it a lot, though it does conjure up images of Park Rangers trying to be Rainbow Brite and bring color back to the forest.
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| I know Rainbow Brite, and you, Sir, are NO Rainbow Brite... |
It's a great little addition that feels well thought out and organic.
Fine Art
Pencil First Games has done it again with their components. This game looks PHENOMENAL. I mean, just LOOK AT THESE CARDS! Each and every one of them could legit be in an art gallery.
Just like with Herbaceous, every card is a beautiful painted masterpiece, and the symbols that go along with each card to describe what Features are present in each Landscape are both distinct shapes and colors, making them easy to tell apart.
Again, this game comes with a custom insert (with SPACES FOR FINGERS!) and the artist meeples are both chunky and well made, but they also have a slightly different shape to their individual hats, which can help tell them apart, especially for colorblind gamers.
Buy It!, Try It!, or Fly It!
What can I say? Pencil First Games is on a hot streak. They've once again hit it out of the park with Sunset Over Water. It's a quick, cute game with great components and just as, if not MORE, fun as playing some games twice its size or complexity!
Yes, the game does encourage you to be antisocial, but not to the point where the player interaction feels like an afterthought. You're constantly planning and strategizing, and figuring out the best paths to take, and which Landscapes to paint... And then all that goes out the window because some $#&$%@ woke up 15 minutes before you did.
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| Hugh Grant knows what's up in this game... |
While it may not have the raucous fun factor as the last game I reviewed from Pencil First Games, Sunset Over Water is still a great game that is worth you time.
The Verdict...?
BUY IT!
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