The app also keeps the soft buttons visible on Android, which isn't unheard of, but does eat up a precious few pixels that could have been used by the game. On one hand, it takes some work to get to this point, one the other, it's a fairly known bug so you would hope it would have been fixed. If, during a game, you zoom out so your tiles aren't visible, there is no way to get your tiles back in view. On the downside, there is a notable bug with zooming. This is a well designed implementation of the game. The controls are straightforward and exactly what you'd expect and want. The city boards themselves get squeezed a bit with everything else going on, but scrolling and zooming is simple enough that this doesn't create a big problem. The game itself has a lot of information to keep track of at any given time and the app does a great job of presenting the information to be visible at all times. The visuals in the game aren't overly striking, but they are presented well here. The menus look good and so does the game. Suburbia has a very clean and functional design. There are references for all of the tiles and goals, so all aspects of the game are well covered.

The rulebook follows suit, it covers the basics, much of the same ground to tutorial covers. The complexity comes in with the individual tiles and their interaction with each other, so there is no need to go into great detail during the tutorial. This works just fine with this game because the core gameplay is quite simple. The tutorial is extremely concise covering the basics of tile purchasing and placement. Suburbia comes with a tutorial, a rulebook, and reference pages for all tiles and goals. Let's see how it stacks up in other areas. Suburbia is a highly rated game for a reason and the app does a fantastic job of porting the game to the digital world, even streamlining it a bit by simplifying the bookkeeping significantly. Much of the game is deciding when to push your population, which isn't a terribly difficult action to pull off but if done at the wrong time can be devastating to your chances later on. It sounds like a bit of a mess trying to explain how they all tie together, but rest assured that they do. The trick of reducing income when specific population levels are reached is a nice wrench to throw in the game, as is the reputation score which, if it goes negative, can reduce your population after each turn. This isn't a big secret as it is the first tip provided by the app, but it remains true. Suburbia is all about building up an economic engine in order to be able to afford the population increases necessary to win. Fans of Castles of Mad King Ludwig, from the same designer, will notice some similarities. This adds strategy in which tiles you decide to purchase.

When a new tile is placed, it goes to the leftmost spot of the market, with the highest extra cost.

After that, going left, the tiles have an added cost associated with each. The game introduces tiles into a row (called the Market), the two rightmost tiles can be purchased for face value alone. There are a handful of other game features which add important strategic elements, but I will save a few hundred words and only describe one more: tile purchasing. Because of this, the app inevitably feels a bit lighter than the physical version. This is incredibly helpful in simplifying all of the effects a tile will have. The app simply provides a snapshot of what the end result of your turn will be if you choose to place the tile. Often a tile will increase income and population, but it might move your population past a red line which would result in an income and reputation deduction. One great point of the app is that it does a fantastic job of letting you know what the end result will be of placing a tile.

Suburbia game ios