Introduction
I've only logged two plays of this, but I feel obligated to review this, since Nefertiti is a great game, yet there is barely any activity in its forums. Please keep the small sample size in mind, and let me know if there are any inaccuracies in my review. I will post subsequent updates if needed. With all my reviews, I try to make it comprehensible for the person who stumbled into the gamespace, and just wants to know more about the game before deciding on a purchase.

Let's get some of the basic stuff out of the way, so you'll understand what I'm talking about later.

What is the objective/theme of Nefertiti?
It is the wedding anniversary of the pharaoh Akhenaton and his wife Nefertiti. The pharoah needs to find worthy gifts for Nefertiti and tasks nobles like you to find the best possible gifts from the markets in Egypt. Through the course of the game, you get to send your servants to 8 different markets in Egypt to bid for and acquire the rarest and most original gifts. At the end of the game, points are scored for the gifts each player presents to the pharaoh. The twist: the more original your gift is (i.e. fewer players present that gift), the more points you score for it.

What's a sample turn like?
Each turn, there is an optional action and a mandatory action. Optional action: spend a Royal Seal (acquired during the game) to hire and immediately use the abilities of a character. You can choose between the Vizier, Treasurer, Thief, Royal Servant, Scribe and Merchant, all of which give you a nefarious leg up over your rivals, if timed correctly. Mandatory action: place one of your 4 servant pawns in one of the 3 open markets. Each market has a number matrix associated with it, so which number you place your servant on also constitutes your bid in the auction for the wares of that market. If placement of your servant pawns causes the market to close (each market has different closing conditions), the auction is resolved and gifts are purchased. When an auction is resolved, the high bidder has the option to purchase 1 or 2 gifts from the market with Debens. All subsequent bidders have the option to purchase a gift from the market, or take half of the Deben supply in the market (thematically, perhaps from trading goods to the market; this is the main way to replenish your money supply).

What forms of player interaction are there?
Player interaction is very high. The "original gift" mechanic already guarantees that you'll be trying your best to obtain all gifts of one type and deprive your opponents of them. Player interaction also occurs through strategic servant placement and the market closing mechanism.
Example: I really want a gift from Market A, but I can't afford it right now. I can put a high bid in, but if I do, the other players could close the market before I have obtained the Debens necessary to purchase it. If I put a low bid in, other players could outbid me and get the gift to stop me from having it.

What skills are needed to do well in this game?
- Figuring out other people's strategy. With such high player interaction, keeping close tabs on your opponents' strategy is very important. Since there is no hidden information in this game, you are always able to figure out what your opponents want to do with each move, and react accordingly.
- Deciding on benefit now or later. There are many decisions here which have you thinking about cashing in a benefit now, or holding back for potential of a huge windfall later.

What game(s) is Nefertiti similar to?
- Nefertiti is a very unique game, but players familiar with worker-placement games and the psychology involved will catch on faster.

My take:

Worker placement and set collection. Those are the two core mechanics in Nefertiti. They might seem simple and familiar - believe me, I was deceived by the concise 4-page rulebook and the game's aesthetic similarity to Ra - but the game is so much more than that and twists the mechanics so cleverly that Nefertiti feels like a game in its own category. The clever twist with worker placement is that where you place your servant not only guarantees your spot in the market and deprives others of that spot (as with many other games), but also constitutes your bid in the auction and might close the market. This means that when placing your servant, you have to consider four to five different things, instead of two. Additional uncertainty comes from the rule that low bidders can either purchase a gift or take half the money from the market. This introduces uncertainty in your worker placement, as you sometimes have no idea if people are in the market to purchase a gift or to replenish their money supply.

Then there is the twist on set collection. Many other games have you collecting sets in order to score bonus points for yourself, and also to deprive other players of completing their sets. A couple examples that come to mind are the monument tiles in Ra and the civilization cards in Stone Age. But in Nefertiti, you are trying to collect all copies of each kind of gift (so it is more original); if somebody else has that gift, its value depreciates significantly. Hence the set collection mechanic is much more cutthroat. In games like Ra and Stone Age, there are situations where you block a person from completing his/her set, but these usually take a backseat to you trying to complete your set while your opponent is trying to complete his/her set, and seeing who is more efficient at the end of the game with more victory points. In Nefertiti, players have the incentive to actively block each other, because the benefits of breaking somebody else's set are huge, and the costs of losing your set are huge, so players will actively try to protect their set and break others' at the same time. In both my games, the winner won narrowly by breaking the leader's set very late in the game. Not only did he get points for himself, but he effectively subtracted points from the previous leader. If you don't protect your set, you subject yourself to huge point swings in the game.

The game itself is very simple, but the strategic implications are deep. Complexity comes from the character cards which you need to spend a royal seal to use. These cards are in very limited supply (1-3 copies of each character for the entire game), and when used at the right time, can turn the game in your favor. Some allow you to trade gifts with another player, some allow you to make every player discard a gift of a type you choose, some allow you to score points immediately etc. There is tension here, because the character cards are in short supply, and usually the earlier you use them, the bigger the benefit. Hence, there is always an agonizing decision about whether to go for royal seals early to use the powerful character cards, but at the cost of having a small gift collection. If you don't grab them early enough, somebody might use it before you. If you grab them early, you might not have the large collection of gifts to take advantage of the character abilities.

There are many delicious decisions to ponder at all times during the game. When the auction is resolved, should I buy a gift or should I take half the money? (a.k.a buy the gift now, or conserve money to have the resources ready for a better future buy?). If I'm the high bidder, should I buy a gift and a royal seal, or should I buy 2 gifts? (those are the only 2 options you can choose from as the high bidder) When I am placing my servant, should I bid high and risk not having enough Debens later to buy something I really want, or should I bid low and risk having somebody outbid me? What if somebody closes this other market I really want to bid in before I place somebody in it? There is always something to think about and fine-tune your strategy, and you often have to modify your strategy on the fly. The good thing is the decisions are never overwhelming, and the game is structured such that with every move, you are usually only choosing between two possible decision paths.

The components are fine, nothing bad, nothing special. The game board is nicely colored. There are big, sturdy cardboard rectangles used for the markets, and it's neat to close and open markets by sliding these around. The cards are really thin, and I'm not sure I'll be riff-shuffling them. The servants are just pawns. One disappointment I had is that Nefertiti is nowhere in the game, except on the box! At least have a Nefertiti figure, card...something to complement the theme! Speaking of the theme, people always seem to roll their eyes or scoff when I explain the theme to them, but I like it. It makes the objective of original gifts intuitive, and it's a good break from all those resource-gathering themes. The game doesn't do a good job of supporting the theme though. Heck, I could just explain it as nobles presenting gifts to the pharaoh to curry favor, and leave Nefertiti completely out of it, since she is nowhere to be found in the game.

In sum, this game melds familiar mechanics into something very different, and so far for me, wrapping my brain around the strategy and digesting it has been a very involving experience. There are always interesting decisions to make, and I'm never bored, since play swings by so fast, and you also get to ponder why your opponent is making certain moves. I will need more time to tell if these decisions get repetitive, or if they simply provide an illusion of control when there isn't, but so far, I am intrigued, and am always up for playing this.