Terra Mystica Reviews

The game is very good, I've been playing iOS version and it has all what it should have. And I definitely recommend the game to any boardgamers and those who dares to step into the world of top-5 board games of all time. Although, there are few things that I'd like to be improved and mostly all of the issues are because this game was a port from mobile platform. The full screen pop-ups (when you click on faction icon or any of the menus) are way to big and I suggest them to have some max size, because on my big screen this looks unnecessary cumbersome and inconvenient. Same for cult tracks - now you see up to 4th position but I don't see why not picture whole tracks if screen allows. I hope my points are clear - game is great, AI is decent, user interface is what bothers me right now.

It's a straight mobile port and it shows, and somehow, the UI is absolutely godawful even when you take into account that it's a mobile port. A scam at $15, passable at maybe $2.

I see a lot of petty complaints about the UI, but here's the thing: When a computer is automating all the time-consuming fiddly bits of an otherwise fantastic board game, I am totally willing to forgive a slightly weird interface. Yes, it's a mobile port, and very obviously so. Yes, you have to learn how to perform certain functions that are not terribly intuitive. But guess what -- once you learn them, they become second nature and it's not an issue anymore. You can act like a know-it-all prat who could design a better interface in his sleep, or you can settle in and enjoy a really good game in half the time it would take to play the tabletop version. PLEASE NOTE: This is the only DIGIDICED game I'm willing to be lenient for. All their other games are full of bugs and unfinished features and, yes, terrible interfaces. Every single one. The reason TM gets a pass is because it is the least bad DIGIDICED game in each of those categories. So I totally get why the reviews are mixed, but I still have to recommend because it's a reasonably playable adaptation of an extremely good board game. Terra Mystica is a truly unique game. It's deep and complex, with a lot of moving parts and multiple paths to victory, not to mention asymmetrical factions. It's a real shame there are so many whiners giving it the red thumb because they think the interface is all there is to a game.

TL;DR 4/10, unclear/not fully encompassing tutorial, buggy, and unattractive digital board game. Pros: + The game itself has potential + Different theme music for each class + deep strategy Cons:
 + Terrible tutorial + Rampant spelling and grammatical errors + Extremely limited options menu + Many bugs/errors I was very disappointed with this game. I bought this with no prior knowledge of the board game, but am an avid digital board gamer so I thought I’d give it a go. The tutorial is not only confusing and not fully encompassing, but it’s filled to the brim with spelling and grammatical errors which was really distracting for me. The options menu is extremely limited, giving you only the possibility of full volume sound or muting. In addition to this, the AI player speed options are only slow, medium, and fast, not terrible, but certainly not ideal. The game is the definition of too much. The various menu’s you must use for gameplay are VERY busy and overwhelming looking. I understand that with a deeply strategic game there is a lot going on and it can be difficult to simplistically convey that to the player, but this is plainly not the way to do it. The number of completely separate windows you have to open on a single turn is really cumbersome and takes away from the enjoyment of the game. This game is still new, which means it has the possibility of being improved, so I will keep checking up on it to see if it gets any better. For now, would not recommend.

I'm a fan of the board game so I thought I'd give this a try, and if it's good get some extra copies for friends so we can play this excellent game remotely. I was shocked by the user interface. It may have been the worst I have seen in 40 years of gaming. Also all information is so poorly presented, that it makes it hard to even understand what you're doing. At first I was trying to convince myself that I might get used to it, but when I was prompted with the "action wheel", I thought "ok, that's it, I'm out". Mind you, that's as someone who actually knows how to play the game. I have played an online browser adaption that is 100 times better than this. This is sadly the worst boardgame-to-digital conversion that I personally have come across so far.

I've never reviewed a game on Steam before, but Terra Mystica is my favorite board game of all time and this implementation is absolute garbage. I can not come up with words to adequately express how much I absolutely loathe this version. This isn't an overly complex game, but there are a lot of different mechanics to keep track of. This version hides almost all of the relevant information in secondary screens. Want to know how much income that trading post will give you or where you stand on the cult tracks? Well, then you've got to click through and watch some awkward and annoyingly slow animations bring up those screens. A better example, might be upgrading a trading post to a temple. In TM, getting a temple means you gain a favor tile. Favor tiles give you special abilities or points bonuses and also advance you on the cult track. In order to choose the right favor tile, it's important to know where you are on the cult tracks, if you have the right structures to trigger the bonuses, and what your income for future rounds will be. The latter is the only thing displayed all the time; everything else is hidden. Even more infuriating is that accessing those secondary screens often cancels whatever action you've just selected. A typical temple upgrade might go something like this: 1. Click hex with trading post 2. Click green check to upgrade 3. Favor tile selection screen pops up. 4. Click cult screen. Cancels action. 5. Repeat 1-3 6. Realize you need to know what the later round bonuses will be to make your decision. Click on the round bonus screen [cancels action]. 7. Repeat 1-3 8. Pick a favor tile. All that complexity for something that should be straightforward. That's pretty much how the whole game plays. Just find some friends to play with in real life instead.

I didn't think the reviews could be accurate, particularly about the interface. I uninstalled the game and put in a refund request within 7 minutes according to my playtime. An absolute disgrace. CoB is awful too. Avoid Digidiced on PC. I really hope they step up their game for Gaia project. They shouldn't be able to continue to sell this on Steam IMO. Believe the bad reviews. I never bother to review anything so you can imagine how annoyed this has made me. Disgraceful.

First, I want to say that Terra Mystica is one of my favourite board games. However, this version might be ok for tablets and devices with a small screen, but for a PC monitor its just infuriating. Everything is way too big and all the relevant information is hidden on secondary screens. That makes you click everywhere to get the stats you need to make the right decisions for the game. If you can choose a reward, you can't access game information as it cancels the current action. The same slow animations for every turn.. a horrible user experience. I wish there would be an update for the PC-version with the needed graphics update everyone here is talking about. But since there are no more updates here, nor any discounts on steam sales do yourself a favour and skip this. I hate to say it, but I absolutely regret to spend ~15 € on this. It could have easily been much better.

Alright if you already play Terra Mystica, yes, this is way better than what we have currently for online gaming. The interface is solid, although things are a little clumped and you need to do some clicking and open some menus. But since it's terra mystica, that's like a given. As a big time terra mystica lover, I am trilled to find this game. If you DON"T know what Terra mystica is, it's one of the most heavy borad games out there. It is praised for it's depth and complexity, a boardgame that incorporate a lot of boardgames mechanics such as worker placement, resource management, terrtorial dispute, timing, etc. It's a really well done board game. Problem: if you don't enjoy heavy and in depth board games, don't bother with this. Please leave. This shit ain't Settlers of Catan, although it may look like it at first glance. My friends complained to me that this is worse than doing taxes when I tried to teach them this. One of them rather do his CS homework than play it. Explanation: Terra mystica isn't so much as complicated than it is dense. There is a lot of mechanic and stuff that you have to know about. None of them is difficult to understand, it's jsut that there is a lot. The real issue is that every turn your action seems compleatly arbitrary. You will start off not knowing what you are suppose to do. There seems to be so many ways to get points, so many ways to make reasources, etc etc. But that's the whole strategy of it. The entire game is based aroudn coming up with a plan during the set up, and know how you can maximize your points while growing your economy. Knowing where to compete and where to spend reasource in order to disrupt opponent. It is a really well made game in the sense the strategies are truely fun to solve. Again, this is meant for people who love games because they enjoy learning as part of the process and solving the startegies. Lastly, you know what is really amazing. This game has zero luck factor. Okay well maybe 5%. It is all in the set up. You see what the tiles for points and passing bonuses are, and the rest is all up to playe decisions. No dice, no RNG, no bulls*it, ALL SKILL.

06/2017 I was really excited to see this get ported to Steam. I was tempted to get it for Tabletop Simulator, but I didn't feel like managing all the bits, and I would have liked an AI to play against. The good: It's Terra Mystica with the rules enforced, no fiddling around! AI to play against! The bad: The interface the interface and the interface. Oh. My. [strike]God[/strike] Eyes. Seriously, this looks like it was directly ported from an [strike]iPad[/strike] iPhone, with the graphics scaled up proportionally (though thankfully done in higher resolution). Everything is HUGE. It's like playing with binoculars strapped to your face. I can't do it. I just can't. I have to move my laptop 5 feet away just so I can make a menu choice, everything is so in my face. And then it zooms back out to the map, so I have to get close to the laptop again. This isn't such a big deal because I happen to keep my laptop on a conveyor belt, but I'm wearing out the backwards/forwards buttons FAST! Basic tile selection that you can do easily wiith a physical copy is impossible because everything is 4 times as big as it needs to be. Glancing at 5 inches of bonus tile choices becomes scanning across 14 inches screen. Choosing your starting race involves scrolling through fist sized icons of race portraits. Look at your fist. Just look at it. Thats how big the icons are. WHY??? I just can't recommend the game currently as it is. Do yourself a favor and look at some screen shots, full sized, and get an idea of what you're going to be in for.