The Castles of Burgundy
- February 27, 2019
- DIGIDICED
- 6h median play time
Get on Steam"The Castles of Burgundy" is a strategy board game set in 15th century France, where players build and expand their estates through trading, farming, city building, and research. With two dice determining the actions and multiple paths to victory, players must carefully plan and make decisions to gain the most victory points and emerge victorious. The game offers a tutorial, cross-platform play, AI opponents, and a world ladder with GLICKO rating for ranked and casual games.
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Reviews
- Excellent adaptation of the board game with a faithful recreation of its mechanics.
- The game offers a variety of strategies and challenges, making it engaging and fun to play.
- Playing in windowed mode improves the user interface significantly, enhancing the overall experience.
- The user interface is clunky and takes time to get used to, often leading to confusion during gameplay.
- There are issues with the random number generator for dice rolls, resulting in frustrating patterns like excessive doubles.
- The tutorial lacks clarity, leaving players with unanswered questions about game mechanics and scoring.
- gameplay24 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 71 % neutral mentions
- 13 % negative mentions
The gameplay is generally well-received, with a strong emphasis on skill over luck due to the effective integration of dice mechanics as a resource. While the interface is criticized for being space-inefficient and cluttered with unnecessary animations, the core mechanics are solid and provide a fun experience once players acclimate to them. Overall, the game offers depth and strategic options, making it engaging despite some design flaws.
“The worker mechanic mitigates the dumb luck aspect of dice games, turning the dice into a resource rather than a bad feelings generator.”
“The gameplay itself is easy to understand, but there is a huge amount of depth in what you can actually do, resulting in a game that is mostly skill dependent (very little luck in this game).”
“After you get used to the mechanics, this game is really fun to play.”
“For some reason, they just smash all the actual gameplay into a small box in the middle while putting massive boxes on either side that are completely, and I mean absolutely completely worthless.”
“In this game, there is a riot of silly colors and worse, all of the tiles are 3D, meaning that there is plenty of pointless animation, eating up processor space and software space that could have been put into the mechanics.”
“Weird steampunk mechanical theme is a waste of programming.”
- graphics8 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 38 % neutral mentions
- 38 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game are generally criticized for being weak and featuring distracting elements, such as a steampunk shield that obstructs gameplay. Many users report issues with visibility, particularly at higher resolutions where important information becomes difficult to discern. However, some reviewers note that the interface design is well-executed, providing a contrast to the overall lackluster artwork.
“The interface design and graphics are top notch.”
“The graphic design generally isn't strong and has some distractingly odd elements, such as that steampunk 'shield' that opens and closes over the game board.”
“At most of the games, the graphic of the game board paper disappears and shows a big black area in the middle, which makes it impossible to see the dice. This is the only problem I see so far.”
“Windowless at high resolution, or windowed per positive reviewers' recommendations (at 800 x 600 max), most of the information is displayed in tiny, barely discernible fashion. Opponents' boards are inscrutable, and the artwork is pretty lame compared to the real thing.”
- music6 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 17 % neutral mentions
- 17 % negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its quality and ability to enhance the ambiance, with some describing it as wonderful and fitting well with the animations. However, a few users find the music to be nerve-racking, indicating it may evoke strong emotions during gameplay. Overall, the soundtrack contributes significantly to the game's atmosphere and challenge.
“The music is wonderful, the animations are fascinating, and most importantly, the AI is pretty solid (gives a real challenge).”
“Nice animations and background music to add to the ambiance.”
“The music is nerve-racking.”
- stability6 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game is reported to have stability issues, frequently freezing, particularly after trade goods are taken via the ship. While it is considered a great strategy tabletop experience and functions on the Steam Deck, its overall production value is perceived as low and buggy.
“The game often freezes.”
“The game often freezes after trade goods are taken via the ship.”
“A bit buggy and has a low production value.”
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviewers express frustration with the monetization strategy, suggesting that it lacks clarity and coherence, indicating that the developers may not have fully considered the functionality they are promoting.
