Cult of the Old. I mean New.

Generally, there's always a large number of games a year that copy mechanics from a few previous games while providing little new themselves. I usually stay away from these games, because I'd rather dedicate my shelf space to something newer. Lately, however, I've playing a large number of this type of game. I think they've been more common this year. Here's some thoughts about the play-alikes of early 2010:

(Warning - All ratings are tentative and may change on further plays)

Opera: Opera's main mechanic involves picking your role from one of six choices, and in some cases having your opponents follow the same role before they get to pick. To differentiate itself from Puerto Rico, there's a stock market that sets the price for the things you want to buy. Although there's a lot to think about and lots of room for tricky moves, generally the player who bought low/sold high wins the game. In addition there's a blind bidding mechanic that essentially determines who gets to pick a role, in what order, and how many roles. 8/10

I love this game, but I don't know why. It's 2 hours long. Provides little new, and has a theme that interests me none. But everything seems to fit together very well and the opportunity for clever moves is there.

Homesteaders: A near perfect description of this game: take Phoenicia. Add the bidding mechanic from Evo (Vegas Showdown / Amun Re). There's really nothing else new.

The thing that makes this game rise above the rest is the solid testing work that the designer has done. Everything is balanced very well and the opportunity for a multitude of strategy lines is obvious from the very beginning. Also, I like Phoenicia, and haven't seen a game like it since. 8/10

Thunderstone - Everyone compares it to Dominion because it stole the bidding mechanic from Dominion. Which is true, but it also feels like Runebound. You're trying to gain more power to kill this set of monsters that are randomly determined mid game.

This one has fallen flat for two reasons. The first may be simply a question of balance of the cards. So far, I've played games where a few of the cards were obviously better than other cards - making the strategy incredibly obvious. This game was not playtested enough I feel. In particular the Trainer and the Pawnbroker are insanely powerful and make the rest action pointless. In addition, there were a few weapons in the pile but some (Flaming Sword) were clearly better than others. In any case, with the Trainer and Pawnbroker cleaning my deck, it didn't take long for me to be able to buy or kill anything I wanted.

Which brings me to my second problem: Once you have a finely tuned deck, the game is decided by who got lucky enough to find the toughest monsters when they drew a high point hand. Both games I won by killing a few major monsters, and although there was some good strategy on my part, I think a lot of it was the luck of them being revealed at the right time. Unfortunate. 6/10

Dungeon Lords - This, while not a bad game was a huge disappointment to me. Every other Vlaada game has been refreshingly original. This... Just your standard worker placement. Except now it's blind worker placement, so you're never sure exactly what you're getting. On top, add a resolution round that is reminiscent of Space Alert or Galaxy Trucker. In the end it's a game with lots of theme, but seems too shallow in depth for it's length.

Vlaada games have a way of making me like them more on the second and third go around, so I'm still keeping my hopes up but overall, I wish this game was not a me-too. 6/10.

Vasco De Gama - One last comment on this game that I've never played. It was a big hit on Essen, but all I hear is that it's a standard worker placement game with a luck mechanic added that feels very much like the provost in Caylus. I do hear that there's a lot of clever play in this, which is why I like Opera. However, despite my recent successes in playing me-too games, I just can't get myself to play this.