Impressions - Marco Polo 2, Cooper Island, Sanctum, It's a Wonderful World, & Darwin's Choice

[@andreafioretti1134]

I rarely comment on any yt videos, however this time i have to. You are a talented person to streamline boardgames in a simple manner and for a non native speaker this is more than important. Keep it up

[@JonGetsGames]

Thanks Andrea, I appreciate it :)

[@seanmorgan2257]

HI Jon, thank you for another very insightful video, really appreciate the effort you put into these.

[@M3tabolic]

Awesome Wintergatan t-shirt and excellent information. Subscribed. :-)

[@JonGetsGames]

Wintergatan is my favorite non-board gaming youtube channel :)

[@iamspamus8784]

I found that the Voyages of Marco Polo needs quite a few plays to "understand" or get good at. I have played a few games on yucata.de and that has helped a lot. I am really looking forward to Marco Polo II. Yay.

[@itboznkgvjugjtfg]

I played Cooper Island solo last night, and it took me 6 hours hahah. It was great

[@KimDahl77]

When our group plays we always check at least one KZbin tutorial or playthrough beforehand. Much easier to grasp the rules after that.

[@kevinruland6460]

Love the Marble Machine X t-shirt!

[@JonGetsGames]

Glad you noticed :) Wintergatan is my favorite youtube channel.

[@furinkazan88]

I always like these impressions vlogs of yours. Could you also do impressions of other games you played, not necessarily new?

[@JonGetsGames]

For these I always cover all the new "to me" games I played since the previous Impressions vlog. This means I do sometimes cover older games, but by it's nature I will only get to the ones that I have just played for the first time recently. I have been doing these for a couple years now so I have essentially given my initial impression on hundreds of games as they were played and before that I have many years of my old style "review" videos which covered games I used to play as well.

[@furinkazan88]

@@JonGetsGames okay cool

[@jorgenolsson692]

I have the same feeling about Cooper Island - the rules could probably have been streamlined somewhat. You can do this and this however much you want, but this particular thing you can only do once every time you take an action. Explaining the rules felt heavy, though it's not a heavy game. The mechanics are simple, but it's hard to visualize the growth of your economy. The marketplace could probably be removed, and you'd get to choose if you put things to storage or discard instead. I did like the game, though I don't want to have to explain the rules to a new group again.

[@brickisland6353]

A wonderful world is a great game. Very easy to understand the rules but not that easy to master. And it will take about 45 minutes regardless if you are 2 or 5 players.

[@cantabrew]

Thanks for the video really enjoyed it. Is that a marble machine tee shirt?

[@hgurov]

Wintergattan Tuesday!

[@JonGetsGames]

Yep! Winergattan is my favorite youtube channel and I recently picked up a T-shirt to show it off :P

[@johannesnelson3973]

Perhaps a Marco Polo 2 playthrough? Really enjoy your impressions vlogs (:

[@JonGetsGames]

It's possible at some point in the future, would depend on if it wins a patron supporter poll :)

[@guillermoz4914]

Marco Polo 2 playthrough would be awesome ! 🤞🏽

[@JonGetsGames]

@@guillermoz4914 I imagine it'll go up in a patreon poll in january, wouldn't surprise me if it wins.

[@RaduStanculescu]

Interesting to see which character felt too powerful in Marco Polo 2. For us it was the one which received resources/VP per each die roll. The "free movement" one seems very powerful too, but still not as much as resources one... Anyway, for me Marco Polo 1 is still better, but I wouldn't refuse a play of MP2.

[@JonGetsGames]

In my second play one person had the free stuff from die roll character. At the end that player felt like it was a good pick for someone who was intimidated by the game or not too familiar with heavier games, but for them they didn't like how it didn't lend itself towards a specific strategy. I'm looking forward to trying them all once my copy arrives.

[@kennyv.2189]

Have you done an impression video on Glen More 2 Chronicles?? It's currently my favorite new game, I'd love to hear your feedback! I think you'll really like it. :)

[@JonGetsGames]

I haven't even read the rules yet, though that'll change soon since I am doing a playthrough for it.

[@JusticeSeeker19]

Wonderful World is great. Fast, fun drafting game😍. You can play a 5 player game in approximately 1 hour. The two player game is also fantastic and a joy to play.

[@Fighterfan69]

Saw Darwins Choice on KS and looked very interesting but passed to lack of funds. Cooper Island sounds interesting. will have to see it action. Marco Polo 2 sounds like it will replace Marco Polo for us. My wife really likes the game but like you, dislikes the movement aspect. we've played where you knew who was the runaway winner but the last few times were pretty close.

[@poul4335]

Are you going to pax unplugged?

[@JonGetsGames]

Poul Price No, it’s just too close to BGGcon and too far away and costly to rationalize adding to my travel schedule.

[@rictushep]

Yup, your experience with Darwin's Choice is exactly what I remember from playing it with my wife. It's really too bad, because we also really loved the theme, the artwork, and the crazy animal combinations. I also remember that the biome changes felt really random, and it would have been more strategic (and more deserving of longer playtime) if you could see ahead a bit to how the biomes were going to change.

[@JonGetsGames]

It's a shame you were proven right here :-\

[@FragRevel]

Marco Polo 1 vs Marco Polo 2 = Agricola vs Caverna

[@MrChompenrage]

Darwin's choice was intriguing and the art is quite something but when I watched the devs' playthrough it seemed really fiddly (and they were very fast thinking). I definitely don't want to get friends to play a game where you keep track of everything most of the time. I received my copy of "It's a wonderful world!". I played a solo game and I'm eager to play it with my group. The rules are very light but it does make your brain work!

[@cgmcgmcgmcgmcgm]

Suggestion: Use this videos for your impressions! You take 10-15 min per game, spending 85% the time reapeating the mechanics/ rules and at the end, a couple of minutes for opinion... For that 85% of game explanation there are always a couple of videos if people are interesting for.

[@JonGetsGames]

I see your criticism, and I do try to cover mechanics/rules for as little time as possible. That being said, I should probably try to go even lighter on them especially for some of the more complex games discussed. I don't see myself going away from this though because I don't want to assume/rely on my viewers having to watch other content before my content makes sense for them.

[@M3tabolic]

JonGetsGames I think the format of this is bang on. If you’ve never played -or perhaps even seen - the game before, then understanding some key mechanisms is crucial to be able to understand the context of the impression. If Jon just said “well I thought the dice mitigation was cool” that doesn’t give much information, but if he instead explains briefly how the dice mitigation works and why it is cool, that is far more useful to help me form my own impression based on his. Keep doing what you’re doing Jon. :-)

[@Nain1982]

I actually have little interest in getting Marco Polo 2. Both feel very similar. It's disappointing that they release a game with basically the same theme instead of doing something else. Especially when they release so much content for the first one. If anything, that was the fun of Marco Polo: the difficulty of being able to accomplish your city goals. The expansions where just ok, maybe more fun at a high player count.