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Brad Cummings
United States
Connecticut
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The Stats:
Compatibility: iPad.
Current Price: $7.99
Developer/Publisher: Codito/Ravensburger
Version: 1.0
Size: 16 MB
Multiplayer: Pass & Play, Online Realtime
AI: Yes
Itunes link: http://itunes.apple.com/app/puerto-rico-hd/id438437326
Introduction:
Andreas Seyfarth's Puerto Rico was the number one game on Board Game Geek for many years. It is a pure Euro game and fits almost every definition of that genre (there is to my knowledge, only one random element in the game). It combines mechanics of role selection and variable phase order to create a streamlined engine building game. There are many excellent reviews and overviews of the game rules on Board Game Geek and so I will not belabor the point here.
For the release of Puerto Rico on iOS, we have had the opportunity to receive the game early and give you an accurate review in advance. I am relatively new to the hobby and have yet to play the print version of Puerto Rico. Because of this, I asked Gabe to join me in another joint review. We have broken the review into specific topic headings, with a discussion on each. I hope you enjoy the format and the information.
AI and the Single Player Experience:
Gabe: Having played the physical version number of times, I think it does a great job and does not disappoint. The action and pacing of the game feels very right to me. There are 7 different AIs (2 easy, 3 medium, 2 hard) to play against and I have yet to see any one of them pull any stupid stunts. But then I'm not a hardcore Puerto Rico expert. I know we have some of those on BGG.
Brad: As a new player to this game I agree with you. I still get beat occasionally by the simple AI players but I feel like I can see their strategies. This helps me learn and, hopefully, improve. Also the AI plays very quickly and the pacing is spot on, like you said.
Gabe: What strategies have you seen them employ against you?
Brad: I guess just the basic strategy of choosing Captain after I chose Craftsman for example, forcing me to discard many of the goods I just collected. And so I began to think more closely about what my role choice would encourage the following opponents to do. I feel like single player is the real strength of this app. It is great for playing alone while commuting or for practicing and honing your skills. When I play this in real life I will be ready, haha.
Gabe: I really like the hint feature. If you click the ? icon in game it will tell you what it thinks you should do. It's like having one additional AI in the game that you can choose to listen to or not.
Brad: I wonder if it ever misleads you (i.e. a Cylon)?
Gabe: I usually like to click it just to see what it is going to say. Feels reminiscent of the rampant table talk in the print version where everybody wants to help you take your turn, which I hate. 
Multiplayer on one Device
Brad: My initial reaction after playing Puerto Rico is one of wonder at the amount of information present on the screen. For example the building name text is exceptionally small. This could be a challenge in tablet play, but if you are familiar with all the buildings and actions then it should not be a problem. Also there are many features to aid in pass and play or tablet play. You are able to mix AI and human players. Also in the game set up screen you can change the automatic orientation by clicking the Arrow next to the players name. So on their turn it will automatically reorient everything in the game to their position (you only have the choice of the landscape sides of the device). Also the fact the their is mostly no hidden information (except for victory points) in Puerto Rico makes it a perfect tablet play game.
Gabe: Multiplayer on one device is very good. Multiple people can sit in front of the tablet or on either side and it's easy to see when to take a turn. The only bad thing I see is that if sitting side by side your opponent might see your victory points when they appear quickly at turn change. They are meant to be hidden. Though certainly there are people who play with them open and prefer it that way, I tend to think that open scoring slows down a game due to all of the calculating and recalculating that hardcore gamers tend to do.
Brad: Does that mostly effect just the final turns?
Gabe: I think it could affect the mid-game too because like in many Euros, PR has an early "build your engine" phase followed by a mid game where you start to kick your machine into gear. So seeing somebody start to accumulate VPs when they formerly had none could be a clear sign. It seems like this could be easily fixed in the UI by simply making the VP only appear when a player touches it with a simple popup for the players VP. But really, accidentally seeing your opponent's score can be easily avoided with a little discipline or simply sitting on opposite sides of the iPad. I don't want to make too big a deal out of it since it's pretty minor.
Brad: Right, so far the local play is great.
Online Multiplayer
Gabe: Well, the first thing, is that it uses Game Center and can support from 2-5 players. That's better than advertised on the print version box. There is, however, a well known 2-player variant that is well regarded. When you pick your players in Game Center, that process does not use the app's normal multiplayer set up. This seems like a big departure from what we've come to expect from Codito games. The downside to this is that ONLY humans get to play with each other. This is fine if you want only humans, but it doesn't give you the option for a smaller group of online players to mix in the AI if they want it.
Brad: Well technically when one of your players leaves, they can be replaced by an AI, but yes, you can't set it up that way.
Gabe: Good point. I'm really glad that a player would be replaced by AI if somebody drops out. That's much better than a game simply stopping, as we've seen with at least one other recently released app.
Brad: I think the move to Game Center ensures that games are very stable. The game we played worked well and was fast. It was clear to see whose turn it was. The only downside to Game Center is that it does not support async, so hopping into a game may prove challenging. However, the system is still great for playing preplanned games with friends from around the globe. Perhaps async will show up with iOS 5?
Gabe: Perhaps. And I will be very eager to see if iOS5 brings async goodness so at the very least I can pause a game halfway through and come back to it later. That said, I know there will be people upset that it doesn't have async, especially since Codito said it would. But on the other hand there is plenty of good gaming in this app. I haven't tried random matchmaking yet, but I hope there will be many opportunities when the app is released.
Brad: Very true. Perhaps we want to touch on achievements real quick. I personally am not sure if there are any... I know there is an ELO leaderboard.
Gabe: I didn't see any achievements. Would be cool though. Achievements are a great way to point out different strategies to new players. Yeah, the app does have local ELO rankings in its Stats option and would appear to keep track of any local humans, online humans, and the AI's history. Pretty cool.
Graphic Design:
Brad: I actually have less to say on this than the others. I think that everything is well done and clear. It has the right tone for this type of game. I am really happy to see the board game logo in the app icon and the splash page.
Gabe: Oh man! Right from the opening screen you get the actual art from the print box cover, complete with the Ravensburger corner logo. I mean its nothing, right? Oh, but it's everything! And even the app icon is the actual game title logo and colors. It fills me with admiration, and dare I say, nostalgia! And then the game uses the same colors from the game and the same font too. These things are important! They were initially chosen for a reason and while they are obviously not the main reason that this game spent years and years as the number one game on BGG, they are no doubt important to the overall look and feel of the game and add quite a bit enjoyment on their own.
And then there are the in-game graphics. Codito made some subtle but important changes from the initial screenshots in early development where they actually tried to represent game pieces and colonists with colored discs. That stuff is completely foreign to the print version. Thankfully, what we get in the final version of the app is more subtle but a lot better.
Brad: I agree on all points, and I am happy to see that the Windows 95 matte backgrounds have been replaced with interesting and fitting backdrops. I also agree with you that they chose great symbology, the goods and colonists are easy to determine.
Gabe: The backdrops look like they were inspired directly from the print game player boards, a good thing. The role icons are the EXACT pictures from the print board game. Very nice drawing-style symbology. The main differences are the buildings and plantations which I think we should address in UI.
User Interface:
Gabe: Early on Codito has these horrible playing pieces in their UI. just blaring colored discs that just looked all wrong. They were foreign to anybody who had ever played the game. Ultimately, however, they used some very subtle and small icons for resources and colonists are not represented as discs (as they are in the print game and early screeshots) but as lit up doorways when they are placed into buildings or animated once into fully developed plantation pieces when they are added to or removed from the plantation. I think this is a master-stroke of UI in the game play.
Brad: The animation is kind of fun as well, on the plantations
Gabe: Very well done. And when you put colonists in the buildings they light up and the chimneys belch light smoke. really cool. And yet they are subtle enough to fade into the background until you need to know about or observe them, then they are just right there when you need them. But by the same token I think these intentionally subtle choices could cause problems on a smaller screen like the iPhone/iPod where they would be even smaller.
Brad: I agree, I have heard that Codito plans to bring the game to smaller devices, but I agree that it will require a lot of change in the play experience. Another important part of UI for me is the easy access of information. Puerto Rico is a complicated game and it takes a while to learn the functions of all the roles and buildings. Luckily, Codito has included a question mark symbol that can be dragged and dropped over almost any icon or game player area and an explanation will immediately pop up. Also for the roles and buildings you can temporarily extend the view in a drawer-like fashion and a list will appear explaining the function of each building or role. I found this very useful as a new player, as many of the buildings look similar.
Gabe: I'm glad you mentioned the help icon. Very useful, even for an experienced player trying to get used to the app. It's the first time I've seen anybody use drag and drop that way. In an app.
Brad: I also agree with you that symbology of the goods is well done, with both a color and a symbol it was easy to recognize what I was getting.
Gabe: But yeah the buildings. They do kind of look similar, but again there are some subtle differences that are actually pretty easy to get used to. In truth, almost all of the buildings have some kind of small distinguishing icon or characteristic that can serve as a shorthand for identifying them quickly (the only real exceptions being the Hospice and the Hacienda, but that's just a measly two out of nearly a dozen different and mostly distinguished buildings). After a while I began appreciating the more subtle design even if it's not so easy to get at first. Things get crowded quickly in San Juan! Which by the way is where I think people got their ideas about what the buildings SHOULD look like. The print game of PR doesn't even have pictures for buildings!
Roles, buildings, and buildings extended to show building descriptions.
Brad: Interesting. I have played San Juan and that is an interesting note.
Gabe: Finally, for as well as it plays, the board does seem just slightly cramped at times, I think they missed an opportunity to offer a portrait orientation in addition to the landscape orientation. It would have been some high polish to see! Perhaps in version 1.1? 
Comparison to the Print Version:
Gabe: As for an overall comparison to the print game I think the app compares very well. From graphics, to symbology, to buildings as well. It in fact improves against the print in the building dept. One big advantage the app has over the print version is that you can clearly and very easily see what every player is doing in one place by a mere glance. Not so with the print version where every player has their own player board in front of them at some distance away from you. For a strategy game of PR's caliber, being able to consider all points of information at once is very important!
Brad: Just curious, would you ever play the app instead of the print version?
Gabe:I'd probably go with the print because of the player boards and the physical logistics of sitting at a table. But on the other hand, if I were in a car, on a plane, on a boat (with my swim trunks and my flippy floppies), in a restaurant, or pretty much anywhere where Sam I Am does not like his green eggs and ham, I'd go app all the way.
Extra Features:
Brad: Right, that makes sense. So I think there are a few small cool features we should mention. For example the app offers support for I think 5 languages. Also you mentioned something about sounds?
Gabe: Hell yes. Primo! 5-language support is no small thing! Yeah, I like the sounds. Which, by the way can be turned off too. The app's got LOADS of options. Let's also mention the Tutorial, Rules, and Almanac.
Brad: Oh right, I forgot to touch on those earlier. The tutorial is amazing.
Gabe: Indeed. Really great tutorial! It's a whole game, just shortened enough for a start, mid-game, and end-game setup. It even points out some basic strategy tips.
Brad: I agree. And the written rules as well as the almanac compliment the tutorial while giving an in-depth explanation of every item in the game. It will give players that greater level of understanding they will desire.
Gabe: Or just when they need to refer back to the rules once in a while. My only beef, and its minor, is that there is an awful lot of white space in the almanac that they could have used up to depict the buildings in larger size. But that's just a trifling quibble.
Final thoughts:
Brad: I think that Codito has really proven (and perhaps vindicated?) themselves this time around. Yes, the online play is still not the greatest around, but they have pursued a more stable method. The game has tons of features and really is fun to play. Puerto Rico can stand with many other great iOS apps. It takes a complicated game and manages to present it satisfactorily on iOS. It is a fun game to play and can act as both a tutor and a play space for one of the most popular games on BGG. I would give it an 8.5 out of 10.
Gabe: I agree. This is a really solid effort for a fairly complex game. Rather than get in the way of playing the game, the app enhances the play of the game in new ways. The graphic design combined with the UI make it a joy to watch and play the game. It is among the best of Codito's releases, if not THE best. I've never given any app a 10 because it would need to have the FULL feature package and then some to attain a perfect score. The best I've given are 9s and those have full feature sets. So without a full feature set I've got to give this game a very solid 8.5 as well. I'd say it's right up there with the biggies and could even be the best come Fall 2011. Let's hope!
Rating:  3/4 Good
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, not a chance my non-gamer friends could give it a try with this look of game.
