Don Kirkby
Abstract Games Magazine
August, 2003
Canada

Cityscape is an appealing game in which players compete to develop a certain city skyline. It is a fun family game rather than a deep game of strategy.

Two to four players are building skyscrapers on 16 city blocks, and each player has secret goals to accomplish. (How many of the buildings you can see in one row, or how many buildings have the same height in another, for example.) Each sits on a different side of the city, and can see four rows of buildings.

At the start, each player selects a goal for each row of buildings and records them. This is done in an elegant fashion using dice on a rack. Players then take turns adding a piece to any of the 16 skyscrapers. When the last piece is placed, the players reveal their goals and calculate their scores.

There is a bit of strategy. Building high buildings right in front of an opponent blocks his view so he will not be able to see many buildings. The pieces come in five different sizes, and the large ones tend to go first because they make the biggest difference in a race to build the tallest building. If you go straight for your goals, your opponents may guess what you are trying to do and thwart you more easily. Thwarting an opponent is the best part of the game, after all. To avoid that, you must be more subtle; throw in some random moves and work on several goals at the same time.

As with all the games in the Masterpiece series, this one is nicely made. It has the simplest design of the series: really no more than a set of building blocks and a board to build on. I said it was a good family game. However, for serious game players the hidden goals really reduce the amount of strategy you can plan. In essence, your opponent does random things, and you try to recover. To have a good game with younger players, just ignore defense and focus on your goals. I rate Cityscape an interesting diversion because of its appeal for the whole family.

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