Review: 7 WONDERS ARCHITECTS Makes For a Fun and Quick Game

7 Wonders Architects is a simplified version of 7 Wonders that makes for a fun, quick game. I was sent a copy to review and it did not disappoint.

Unlike 7 Wonders, in Architects you have pieces of an actual wonder to build up. Once one player has finished building their wonder the game ends immediately. You build by collecting resource cards from your left and right neighbors or from the center deck. You can also collect military cards, science cards, and blue victory point cards. Military conflict is generated somewhat randomly and while you aren’t penalized for losing, you can get a lot of points for winning. Science cards can be used to get powerful upgrades such as being able to draw extra cards in a turn or making your other cards worth more. Blue victory point cards can also have a picture of a cat statue, this will give you the cat statue and let you look at the top card of the middle deck at the start of your turn before drawing which is really helpful.

Each civilization has different abilities which you’ll get to use when you build certain pieces of your wonder, but you’ll want to avoid some in smaller player games. For example, Alexandria’s ability will let you draw a card from anywhere on the table. In a 2-3 person game this is not very useful as the only previously unavailable deck it opens up is your own. But in a larger group this could become very powerful. Overall I felt like the abilities weren’t super well balanced, it isn’t so bad that you can guarantee a victory with any one civilization, but some civilizations let you draw more than one card or automatically give you science tokens which feels unfair to the ones that only let you draw one card. 

The games themselves don’t take very long and are really easy to score at the end. This is a good casual game for when you want to be able to chat with your friends and family while playing since each turn you just draw a card and then complete any actions you can, like build a part of your wonder or take a science token. This would also make a good game to play with the family and a good way to introduce older kids to more complex games.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game. It’s fast, fun, and really well made. I would give it a 9/10.