Friday, May 27, 2011

Key Harvest- Game Session and Review

The newest game to my family's game collection is the Rio Grande version of  Key Harvest. We picked it up recently for $15-$20 at a local comic book store during free comic book day. Board Game Geek  rates the game 6.87/10. It is a 2-4 player game ages 10 and up.  Though I would say more 12 and up unless your child is a seasoned board game player. Seasoned meaning has played games more complex than monopoly, life, chutes and ladders etc.

We decided to give it a whirl Monday night. Unfortunately we didn't get to finish the game but managed to get down most of the basics. Some of the mechanics of it is similar to Vegas Showdown where you need to bid on a piece of land and place it on your territory. However there are two added elements of having workers and harvesting your land. The game is estimated to take 60-90 minutes. I would say closer to 90 especially the first few sessions. The game is not overly complex and my 13 year old stepdaughter who sleepy at the time was able to pick up on the basics. This is the type of game that requires a few times being played to get all the mechanics and to understand the strategy. That being said it was fairly enjoyable and I can see my family putting this into our normal rotation of games.  If you are new to board gaming I would suggest only playing this with someone who has played it before and can help and explain it. If you are a seasoned player you should have no problem picking up the mechanics of the game.


Now then what to rate this at...well since I haven't played a full session of it yet it is hard to rate. I would have to put it at a  3 out of 5. Not an instant hit but still very enjoyable. After a few more game sessions I'll update my opinion on it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I tend to like Rio Grande's games, but "harvest" as a theme just doesn't grab me.

Our new one is Isla Dorada, a fun, light-hearted family game. You're all exploring an island together trying to find treasure and avoid curses.

Unknown said...

the harvest part is just how you get your resources to bid with. It is more about territory building. I haven't tried Isla Dorada. We just bought a bunch of new games one of them is Boomtown which we really had fun playing as a family. We also just tried Incan Gold which I really loved but hubby and stepdaughter were not too in to it....Might be because I beat them every single time

Anonymous said...

We have Incan Gold, too. It's not a big hit at our house, but fun occasionally.