Unfair - RFY / WFY
Review copy provided by the publisher
While the newest title from Good Games Publishing is the lighter Funfair, there is still a lot of content on the way for the original theme park builder Unfair. The ABDW expansion is out and more are planned, with a total of 26 decks slated for a full alphabet soup of rollercoaster mayhem.
So, it’s a perfectly good time to see how the 2017 game fares in the age of the pandemic, when theme parks are a dream of the Before Times and life seems Unfair most weeks.
Unfair is a competitive tableau-building card game from Joel Finch and Good Games Publishing. To complement Joel’s design work, a team of artists—Nicole Castles, Lina Cossette, David Forest, and Philippe Poirier—brought to life a bustling world of city intrigue and amusement park drama. There are big attractions, small food outlets, ritzy hotels, beautiful panoramas, and much more to entice you. And if you’re lucky, maybe an alien will abduct you…
If you missed my first impressions of Funfair and Unfair or the deep dive into whether Funfair is Right for You or Wrong for You, then be sure to check those out, but for now, let’s see what type of board game player might be interested in Unfair.
Overview
Whereas Funfair operates as an amusement park amuse-bouche, Unfair acts as a theme park T-bone steak. It’s meatier, weighs more, and has a lot more chew.
Two to five players will embark on a 60-90 minute journey of attraction-building, upgrade-scouring, staff hiring, and obstacle-overcoming. The tableau-builder challenges players to draft the right cards, collect the right sets, and end the game without succumbing to the pressures of both the faceless threat of municipal interference or the very face-y attacks of other players around the table.
Unfair is a hodgepodge of thematic excitement, with modular decks bringing a different experience every time you play.
Theme
A short time ago on a table not really that far away…
It is a period of civil opportunity. Rebel theme parks, rising from a hidden urban lot, have won their first victory against the evil Unceasing Apathy. During the battle, these theme parks managed to steal secret plans to the ultimate weapons—happiness, thrill rides, and good ole capitalism. These ideals act as armor against the corrupt power of boredom, which is powerful enough to destroy an entire planet.
Pursued by the city’s sinister regulation committees and zoning boards, theme park owners race against each other as custodians of the super cool blueprints that can save people and restore fun to the galaxy…
If that text crawl doesn’t get you excited, then maybe I just need to do something else with my time.
Unfair is a game where theme is what you make of it. Literally. The general concept remains the same—build an amusement park and try to make it better than what everyone else builds. But the cards that create the game can be different every time. With the ABDW expansion (Alien, B-Movie, Dinosaur, and Western decks), there are now 10 different decks that I can pick from when building out the game. Each combination will create a unique play. And that will only increase as more expansions release. So have a Dinosaur-rampaging and Gangster-robbing game. Or an Alien-abducting, Vampire-leeching, and Movie-starring game.
Just make sure that you use all of those things to be the best architect of money-making in the business.
Accessibility
This is a mid-weight game with a lot of replayability. That replayability exists due to the modular decks that can combine and intertwine in interesting ways. Different cards provide different opportunities based on the blueprints acquired, the other thematic decks available, and other factors.
All of that variability will make Unfair a less accessible game than others, though. Decks must be added together and shuffled at the beginning of the game. And they must be separated and organized at the end of the game. Instead of something that you can just unbox and start playing, it will require some front-end and back-end card management. Some players will be perfectly fine with that requirement, given the replay value it offers, but others may find it a little too fiddly when other games—like the more condensed Funfair—can get up and running much faster.
As far as iconography and language-independence, Unfair performs fairly well. While the text on each card is useful (or, at times, essential), the iconography will guide players once they understand the mechanics of the game. Each icon signifies a type of attraction or upgrade and it’s pretty simple to build out your tableau with that knowledge in hand.
The first 5-10 games will also require players to recognize the different thematic decks available in the game and the combinations between themes that can be utilized. The possibilities really start to open up once you get into that range of games played.
Gameplay
Unfair is a competitive tableau-builder.
It’s also got hand management because players draw and use Event cards in addition to holding attractions and upgrades in hand.
Blueprints require players to focus on certain building patterns, which creates a set collection mechanism.
A coin economy forces players to consider what types of cards to play in order to generate income for future building.
And then the storied “take that” aspect of the game exists within the Event card system, where players can use a dual-pronged card for either a significant personal bonus or a moderate antagonistic play.
Those are all of the pieces that work together to make Unfair the theme-park builder that it is.
Gameplay is pretty simple, when theme comes to park. There are three distinct phases of the game—Events, Actions, and Cleanup.
Events are split between the City cards that affect all players and the Player cards which can affect one or more players. City cards are beneficial for the first half of the game and then detrimental for the second half. Player cards can be either good or bad—the top half presents a positive action that a player can resolve and the bottom half presents either an optional attack against another player or defense against such an attack.
Actions alternate between players, who either build attractions, upgrade attractions, take cards, or take income.
The Cleanup phase enables players to collect income for guests visiting their park, discard down to the hand size maximum, and reset the board for the next turn.
It’s not likely that everything will go according to plan. When the city and other players are acting against you, you’ll have to roll with the punches. Or the closed rides. Or the fines. Or the poached staff members. Or the rampaging dinosaurs. Or the loan repayments.
Whatever it is, if you can think your way past it, you’ll have a chance of coming out on top and showing off the best amusement park in town.
Modes of Play
Here’s where Unfair can really take off.
Yes, you technically play the same game every time. And yes, it’s only competitive, not cooperative. But… it’s modular in design.
That modularity is important. Adding theme decks together means that each game will likely end up with a different combination of decks (unless you’re really partial to a particular combo). Vampires and Robots. Or Pirates and Ninjas. Or Aliens and Dinosaurs. Or whatever you want to make of it. Each deck will interact with other decks in a unique way. And it will give players a lot of creative power in determining how to use cards in conjunction with each other.
So, there is only one game mode. But it’s got really deep pockets. And those pockets are full of cards. Lots of cards. Over 300 of them.
Also, there is a planned solo mode in an upcoming expansion but it’s not here yet.
Innovation
City event cards shift from positive to negative over the course of the game.
Player event cards give you two options: boost your own momentum or slow that of another player.
Staff members augment the tableau that you build—providing income, protecting attractions, and other useful functions.
All of these card types present another layer of complexity and nuance in Unfair. Each offers subtle manipulations of the core mechanics and then the changes between these decks are prominent whenever you introduce a different theme.
Pricing
The main game includes six thematic decks. Each expansion, the 2019 one and all upcoming ones, will add four decks. The base game costs $50 and each expansion will cost $35. So the overall cost may be more than many games, but the variability integrated into the design of Unfair is quite extensive compared to many card games.
If you plan to get all of the content, it will be pricey, but it’s also possible to just play with the base game or pick-and-choose your expansions.
Unfair is…
Right for You!
Be sure to check out the Good Games Publishing website to learn more about the game.
Order the game from Board Game Atlas or on Amazon.
To see what the community thinks, check out the BGG page.