So despite being developed and fawned over by Eurogamers, there’s tons of luck involved and a very huge, pronounced collectible card game influence- the whole concept is that you’re building a deck through card drafting and playing it on the fly. And there is, if you play with certain cards, some pretty nasty player interaction even though development is pretty solitary and there’s not really any “take that”. The Witch, for example, lets you stick -1 VP curse cards in your opponent’s decks and the Militia lets you knock two cards out of a player’s hand. It’s less than 45 minutes a game if you play with people who’ve played at least once and it’s extremely easy to teach and learn.

And I’ll be damned if it’s not brilliant. DOMINION is one of the most fun, interesting, and unique game systems I’ve played all year. Even with only one game’s experience, I knew that Mr. Vaccarino’s design was something singular and I totally understood why people were calling it “addictive”. It’s an arresting design that startles with the way it contextualizes deck building and card drafting into a Eurogame-style efficiency game. I think it’s also particularly noteworthy that the kinds of processes, decisions, and situations that this game offers are exactly the same kinds that you might see in a game like PUERTO RICO- but this is a much more stripped down, elemental game despite its originality. With a 45 minute playtime, the lack of theme and the limited player interaction are not as egregious as they are in the two to three hour Eurogames that fall apart under the weight of their own abstraction and structure.

I think the deck building-on-the-fly mechanic is something that should have been conceptualized years ago. Before, deck building in CCGs like MAGIC: THE GATHERING was a separate activity from the actual gameplay- a “metagame” element. With DOMINION, Mr. Vaccarino has made the building of the deck an actual part of the game. I think this could have been released fifteen years ago as a CCG and it would have gone over well. But now in 2008, we get this idea as a Euro release.

And that is where I think a lot of the problem with DOMINION lies, and it’s why I fall tragically short of declaring it the best game of 2008. This is not a game that should ever have been in the hands of Eurogamers or amateur developers who likely helped steer Mr. Vaccarrino away from some of his more baroque and ambitious ideas and the game feels like a real competitive element has been stripped away in favor of the kind of passive-aggressive play that Eurogamers favor.

Regardless, when I play the game, I’m struck by how DOMINION appeals to the side of me that really got into MAGIC: THE GATHERING but also how it doesn’t have that sort of intense competitive streak or that wild, unrestrained feeling that I got from it. DOMINION feels too safe and overbalanced, overdesigned and overdeveloped. Maybe there were too many fingers in the pie or maybe somebody somewhere convinced Mr. Vaccarino that it needed to be reigned in to appeal to a certain audience. DOMINION needs not only that sense of competition but also that spark of chaos, that feeling that every game is a wilderness where you’re going to be exploring something new to really soar.

But it doesn’t have that at all, and part of it is because the game is so damn dull and lifeless when it comes to the narrative and story department. There isn’t any. And no, I don’t count the stupid “you are building a castle” thing because it’s so vague that it may as well not even exist. By failing to tell a story and by completely ignoring the necessity of creating a world in which this game occurs, DOMINION winds up being an amazing set of mechanics- a great game on paper, at least- in search of meaning, setting, and context. It’s like watching a tech demo of a computer program- you’re blown away by the razzle-dazzle technical stuff but it’s all so very pointless in the end because it doesn’t transport you anywhere, it doesn’t have any meaning, and it exists just to show you what it can do.

I’m sure that expansions are on the way (reportedly the designer has something like 500 cards designed for the game) and it will be interesting to see where it goes from there. If the game is going to grow and develop into what it needs to be, it’s going to have to bring in some cards other than the most predictable castle buildings (I’m betting a Stable and an Armory will be in the first expansion- oh boy) and really sort of establish wider parameters with new action types, deeper card interactions, and things that change the game play in both subtle and dramatic ways.

But these deficiencies don’t stop DOMINON from being a great game. I can not stress enough that it is an extremely fun, very rewarding game that offers more than most do in twice the length and twice the rules. It’s very accessible and immediate so I can see non-gamers even getting into it if they don’t mind the fact that there is no narrative whatsoever and the competition is very passive. The much-reported addictive quality is definitely present and I know that the first time I played I wanted to play it again immediately afterwards and I’ve found that some fifteen games in I’m still pretty excited to get it out on the table.

Questions or comments for Michael? Send them along to gameshark.feedback@yahoo.com .

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