Awesome game, plays exactly like the board game and ensures that you won't make any rules mistakes. Random bugs do happen and would love to see a patch. It's totally playable right now and it's a lot of fun.

I enjoy this game. I haven't really had an easy time finding multiplayer games though... This edition has allowed me to correct mistakes I have been making with the rules while playing the board game so it was worth the price of admission for that alone! :)

Great boardgame gets a great videogame treatment! Local multiplayer makes a great alternative to getting out the box and playing tabletop when kids are around to grab at the 100+ pieces in the game.

As for the game itself:
It's a Risk-esque territory accumulation game, set in a fantasy world, but without the massive luck based elements of risk. Over the course of the game you'll control different factions (elves, orcs, sorcerers, etc.) all with different attributes that tweak the core rules. Each faction gets assigned a random special ability like flying, berserking or dragon master that further tweaks the rules.

Each territory requires 2 soldiers to conquer, with 1 additional required for each additional factor like terrain, fortifications or opponents troop occupation. Eventually your troops will wear thin and you'll have to put your active race in decline; all but one troop in each location is removed from the board. You still collect points for those territories; but special abilities & troop movement are no longer an option. At the start of your next turn you'll be able to select a new faction.

Play continues for 10 rounds with points being accumulated for each territory you control at the end of each turn. It's fast paced, with fun art and concept; and also scales very well. It supports 2-5 players, but has a different sized game board depending on how many people are playing!

Superb translation of the board game. The AI isn't too bad and often provides a good challenge, which is impressive given the number of different races and special powers they can be combined with. The online and local multiplayer options are truly superb. The game isn't without some bugs however, the android version often crashes but works ok when rebooted and the final scores occasionally disappear only to reappear a few days later. This can be quite frustrating when all you want to do is see who won. The DLCs only work on the platform they've been purchased on, so a steam DLC won't work on android or IOS - you can however, continue or join a game started using the DLCs on a platform where you don't own them. The game is great fun, particularly if you like the boardgame but I've introduced it to friends who've never heard of the boardgame and they've loved it too.

A well-written port of the boardgame by the same name. The AI plays well enough to not be boring, and the game itself plays well. This port works hard to recreate the feeling of playing the boardgame, and does so quite well. However, it's no substitute for having a few friends sitting at the table with you.

Exactly the same board game for the work days between the fysical smelly encounter with your frie....wait. Why do i still meet up with people when I can sit here naked without judgement? Excactly, neither do you! Get this game and laugh at them without ever seeing each other.

Due to the syncing via DaysOfWonder server you can play the same games turn based on android and steam. They sync is instant...man i love the instant sync. Did i mention you can just do a move via the steam client, go to the toilet with your android device in hand and do your next turn on the stairs while breaking your neck? I know what your thinking, easy win for the ranking.

Indeed.

Small World 2 stays true to the board game. The graphics and strategies remain. It keeps the game mechanics, so anyone who has played on the table can translate their experience to the game here easily. I chose to buy the online version for a couple reasons:
1) No set up and no accidentally missing or moving pieces.
2) No accidentally mistaking a rule.
3) The online experience lets me play with friends who have moved far away.
If you play German board games or if you like strategy, Small World 2 is fun because there are so many variations on the player’s character choices. You might play trolls or amazons out of habit, but the attributes they have in a given game can completely change the way you play them.

This is a very sloppy port of the mobile version of a very fun board game. The text has letters stuck together. The game runs in a window. When you choose a new race to play as, the description of their abilities needlessly covers the map (which you need to be able to see to choose the appropriate race to kill off your friend's filthy Merchant Orcs) and if you click "Show Map" then the races you can pick from also disappear along with the bloated help text. That's right - the area beside the map that's used to show the races you can pick just goes BLANK when you show the map. Just an awful, sloppy port.

Decent version of the boardgame experience, although latest version does seem to have some issues playing on fullscreen.

The digital version of this now iconic TableTop will definitely deliever on the co-op experience. If you are looking for turn-based fun for the whole couch party!

My fiance and I own the board game. This version is faithful, and has a lot of the fun elements of the board game, and plays very quickly versus the computer. The random attributes + race attribute combo keeps it from getting dull, and there seems to be a very active comunity. Additionally, it seems like they are putting all the expansions out as DLC over time, so there's gonna be a lot of content on the horizion. Its a fun time!

Fun, just like the board games, but without all the setup.

My review is becoming riddled with updates, as the developer has been fixing stuff. Rather than keep trying to patch it, I'm just going to add my latest thoughts up here.

They've been very good about fixing issues quickly, and in particular the fact that it no longer pauses or resets when it loses focus is a massive improvement. There are some lingering issues related to the game's touch-interface-heritage (e.g. the requirement to drag tokens around, rather than being able to just click on a spot), but overall I'm much more satisfied with it now.

To be honest, I still don't heartily endorse it at the current quality and price (especially considering the price of DLC), but the steam rating system requires a thumbs up or a thumbs down and I think it narrowly makes the cut. Hypothetically, it should only get better from here.

I also should mention that at the moment, my review says 164 of 197 people (83%) found this review helpful. Those ratings were from before these updates, when I was giving the game a thumbs down, and that negative review. Hopefully my review is still helpful, but I don't want those people to feel like I hijacked their endorsements or something.

------ Mostly-original review below ------

Board games are my thing. I have almost 500 board games, and Small World is one of my favorites. I even kicked in for the collector's edition in the kickstarter that brought Small World 2.

And... I can't recommend this. Besides being overpriced (the Android version is $10; no idea what DLC costs for Android), it's really poorly designed for PC.

Doing everything requires dragging tokens from one place to another, which would be fine on a touch display but is a huge hassle with a mouse.

The game pauses if it ever loses focus, which means you can't browse the web and such during the computer's turn. Also, if you're playing an online game, and you leave the window's focus, even if it's played every other player's turn for you and it's your turn now, the game rewinds and plays back every turn again. What the hell?!

UPDATE: Quick play is now working, although the sub-minute estimates are quite optimistic. Took me a couple minutes to find a game. I'd previously written that only quick play wasn't working at all (and it wasn't, at the time).

There's support for a friends list, but it uses Days of Wonders' servers to manage your friends. There's no way of seeing your steam friends, as far as I can tell, which is particularly baffling since it already goes out of its way to tie your steam account to a Days of Wonder account.

That said, the quick play issues is the only real 'bug' I've encountered in the hour or so I've had it. All the other problems I have with it are design issues. Technically, it runs well. There's no full screen option, but the window resizes smoothly to whatever size you want (including maximizing).

I'm enjoying it, but I've already sunk the money for it. I don't recommend purchasing it until at the very least the online issues are ironed out, and ideally some more thought is put into how the game should work on PC differently from tablets.

UPDATE: Match making for online quick play is working now

The core small worlds game is fun and a lot of people want to see a computerized version of it to play online with friends. However it's quite expensive for what you get, only took half a year to make and the DLC option is an insult to any other passionate developer that works his ♥♥♥ off to go that extra mile who truely deserves it. Back in my day DLC was called an expansion pack and it was worth every penny. Here we have a set of simple and over priced DLC packs on day 1, something alreay made & a number of fans could poop out in an afternoon if they spent that time to support mods. OK, It's understandable that a company seeks to maximize profits but this developer goes a little too far with asking consumers to purchase an aditional andriod version even after they have brought the PC one. Not sure if that also requires purchasing the DLC twice but its deserves critisim because the combined price tage is approaching a tripple A title.

As for the quality of the game itself, there are a few bugs with it. The race descriptions don't always render properly, it appears to use flash/html pages for that and suffer from a font issue on my machine. I also caused the game to freeze when attempting to read the rules as the bots were taking their turn. There are limited graphical options for resolution & sound. All said and done, its entertaining for an hour or so but for that price I think you can find something else that will keep you going for far longer.

*update* Some parts of the game looks nice, but the quality of developement feels rushed in how it responds, the screen doesn't scale well in places. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=203025847

The application must also be active at all times to play multiplayer otherwise you get a re authorization message followed by the turn replaying itself from start which means no browsing on your 2nd monitor to pass the time and even reading the in game rules causes this issue to occur. I like the game but the quality could be better.

I own the board game and most of the expansions, and my kids and I love it. This is a pretty faithful digital version. My son digitally crushed me twice in a row last night, and it took less time than it would have to play one game with the physical board game. We were pleased that it clarified a couple of rules that were not clear (to us) previously. The art is in keeping with Small World art, although the graphics don't scale well when maximized on a wide screen. Touch functionality is awesome, and using a mouse is not nearly as bad as some other reviewers have suggested. The AI is not 100% there: I've had AI opponents walk all over me, but I've also had an AI opponent play an entire game with their first-turn pick of Hordes of Amazons... Online play, Solo, and Pass 'n' Play all worked like a charm. I've had it crash out of the game twice during solo play, but I expect that will get ironed out in the near future. Overall, I believe it's worth the price for the base game and the DLC. I would really like to see Tales and Legends DLC.

Type of Game:

Virtual Board Game

Version Played:

PC version through Steam

Similar Games:

Settlers of Catan, Risk, and to a lesser degree Monopoly

The Good:

An exact replica of the board game version, which means that the players get the same engrossing and competitive game they would play on a board
A wonderful multiplayer game (when it works – see below) that balances different strategy mechanics
Race and special power cards can really change the way that each gaming session is played and will also change the player’s choices
It is really nice not having to pull out all the physical pieces of the game to play a quick round with a friend
Being able to play against other players on different platforms ( iPad, Android, & Kindle Fire) is a definite plus
“Turn-by-turn” is a neat feature that lets players play their turns without having all players present. You can exit the game and continue at a later time once your opponent has finished their turn
Steam has a notification pop up when it’s the player’s turn

The Bad:

The online multiplayer is bugged and glitchy, which leads to dropped games and nonstarters
Seeing as most players will be picking up this game to play with friends, it seems as if it could have done with some more quality assurance testing in the online multiplayer department
The overall user interface is clunky and not very intuitive
Trying to get a game going has far too many steps and the lengthy registration requirements seem unnecessary
Sound design is awful and really could have helped with the immersion should some decent music and sound effects been utilized

Can you play it while the children are awake?:

Absolutely. Had a good time playing locally with my seven year old.

Did I make time to complete it?:

I played and finished five multiplayer games. I would have played a lot more, had the online multiplayer not had so many issues.

Recommended Purchase Price:

The gameplay is a blast just like the board game, but the online problems really hinder the overall experience. I applaud Days of Wonder for implementing the oft-requested feature for video game versions of board games (so many come out with just local play), but just wish they’d spent more time fixing the infrastructure before releasing the game.

$9.99

or

67% of current retail value of $14.99

Reviewer:

MisterS42

http://www.gamersglance.com

I'm still of mixed minds about this game. I've watched let's play on youtube and Wil Wheaton's Table Top review of it, and it looked like a lot of fun. Thing is, I haven't had time to play this with others yet, and I wanted to really Learn the game first, so I've been playing only solo matches against the AI so far. I expect when I finally start playing with others, I may like the game even more.

Basically this is a conquest board game for 2 to 5 players, any of which may be live opponents or AI. A typical match shouldn't take even as much as a half hour and that's With the full complement of players. The game rules and procedure resemble Risk somewhat, though in a fantasy setting rather than the real world. It's all about conquering the world, though with a twist; your 'army' only has a short lifespan and will inevitably be replaced by another army that you also control. The goal is to build up gold units that you earn primarily at the end of your turn for holding territory, but also through special abilities your armies might have. The armies are very diverse and represent fantasy races, from hobbits to skeletons, giants, and dwarves. You get to pick which race you want to make 'active' but their abilities are randomized each game.

Strong replayability is built right in as no two games will ever play alike. The graphics are decent, though the game map/board is a little 'busy' with all of the counters, symbols, borders, and artwork vying for space and That can make things a little confusing at times. The music is fun and matches the light hearted tone set by the art style.

I don't have any major complaints, though I'm not fond of the nickle and dime aspect of the DLC. It'd be nice if the developers had just bundled the dlcs rather than parcelled them out as they did, but I'm guessing it had something to do with rewards for the kickstarter investors.

TL:DR? Bottom line, if you like board games that involve a good portion of luck, you should enjoy this. It's easy to learn the basics but has enough 'meat' to make you want to invest some time in mastering the strategies.

Very buggy, but at least gets the gameplay right. A problem occurs when you are in two games and it asks you if you want to switch. If it is your turn in both, it will take you through all of the other players' moves, even though they already went, and then if you switch to the other game, and back again, you have to watch all of those players' moves yet again before you can go, all the while everyone can't understand why you won't take your turn. Lots of crashes and disconnected player in multiplayer.

I have to chime in, this game has massive problems. There are a huge number of users who can't even start the game, and the dev has done little to address it with the latest patch. What can I do when I can't even start the game after owning it for a month?

I couldn't get this game to launch at all at first. Took me hours, and getting help from another user in the community forum, to actually figure out how to fix it so that it would install correctly.

Big disappointment in that regard and I urge some caution. "Only a few" users were allegedly affected, but there seem to be several issues beyond ones specifically like mine.