Cities Components Overview and Impressions

DEVIR is known for making fairly complex board games, with the likes of Bitoku and Daitoshi being two that I have really enjoyed this year. DEVIR does makes some lighter games as well. There are those that are medium weight games, like Rock Hard 1977, and some that are much lighter like Cities, designed by Phil Walker Harding. Does DEVIR’s attention to component quality dip as the games get lighter, or are they producing quality games regardless of audience? Let’s take a look!

Cities is definitely a lighter game, one that even my 10 year old Lochlan can play with us. And box wise, this is NOT one of DEVIR’s big box games. You’d be forgiven if you thought perhaps there would be a dip in component quality, and for the most part you would be wrong. Game for game, it is not as impressive as something like Bitoku or Daitoshi, but that’s simply because of size and scope. The bulk of components in Cities are cardboard tiles and plastic city pieces. Nothing to write home about, for sure, but somehow DEVIR still knows how to make something that should be basic, look so good.

I love the artwork in Cities, and if I had one major issue, it’s the use of a cell phone image for the end game scoring cards you select each round. This doesn’t impact gameplay in any way, but I’m not sure the cell phone look matches the artistic theme used for the rest of the games components.

Enough with what I don’t like, let’s focus on the good. There is a ton of cardboard in Cities, and all of it punched out pretty well. Again, I’ve seen better cardboard components in other games, but I’ve seen far worse as well. In my opinion, Cities provides you above average cardboard components, which is perfectly fine in my opinion. The highlight of this production, though, are the coloured plastic pieces. They stack really nicely, as they must for the flow of the game, but I love that each little house has a bit of detail on it, and isn’t simply a square design with a roof. It’s the small attention to detail that makes games like Cities so much better than you might imagine. If the design team cared enough to add those little details, it means they cared enough to put out a product they thought was the best. Does the look of hte houses change how the game plays? No. But it means something, at least to me.

Overall, Cities doesn’t match the beautiful look of other, big DEVIR titles, but it’s still not a mass release feeling game. The cardboard is better than average, and I love the details on the plastic buildings. Components wise, this is one that will hold up long term, which is good because I think Cities is a game that will get played often!