Pacific is a game by Donald X. Vaccarino, best known as the designer of Dominion, which already suggests a straightforward game that still leaves players room for various strategic moves. This time, players invest in tourism, industry, transport, and nature, while the game gives them space for some light business-minded scheming, wrapping the whole thing in a neat card-and-board puzzle for 2–5 players. Let’s take a closer look at what it is all about.
Gameplay
Setup is quick. Each player receives their player board, a scoring marker, and a set of choice tokens in the colors of the players taking part in the game, each marked with the appropriate letter. The shared cardboard goes in the middle, the deck is shuffled, and everyone receives 10 cards. The game lasts exactly 10 turns.
A turn consists of several steps:
- First, everyone chooses one card from their hand and places it face down next to their spot on the shared board;
- then the cards are revealed, and everyone secretly chooses which of the available cards they want to resolve—we do not have to choose our card; we can play an opponent’s card if it happens to fit our plan better;
- after the choices are revealed, players carry out the effect of the chosen card, and then “run” the areas on their player board that correspond to that card’s colors.
This is where Pacific starts to show its character. The cards are tied to regions and types of actions: Japan is responsible for transport and boats, California for business and money, Peru for industry and factories, Polynesia for tourism and hotels, and the Coral Sea for nature and fish. The cards have actions connected to these themes, but they also activate tokens in the indicated areas.
On our player boards, we collect various tokens. Hotels give money, fish move between areas, factories allow us to remove other tokens for profit, and boats score for the presence of fish in a given area. Moreover, there are special tokens, such as the Hatchery, Port, Balloon, Headquarters, or Path connecting areas.
After the tenth turn, the game ends. The player with the most money wins.
Review
For us, the most interesting element of Pacific is the card selection. Simply playing a card from your hand does not mean that this is the card you will actually use. We put something onto a shared market, then everyone looks at the revealed options and tries to choose the best one for themselves. This creates a very nice tension: we want to offer a card that is useful to us, but at the same time we have to remember that others may use it as well. Occasionally we play a card whose effect is not particularly good for us, hoping that our opponents will add something more appealing.
This also creates a certain side effect. Games with more players are more interesting and easier, because there is a greater chance that one of the opponents will put out a card we care about. On the other hand, there are also more opponents to keep an eye on so that we do not accidentally hand someone a small fortune with a card that was unfortunately played from our perspective.
Because a game lasts only 10 turns, there is no time to build elaborate long-term strategies. It is difficult to assume that the path to success we have imagined will actually be enabled by the cards available to us. Every so often we need a specific effect, while at other times we care more about activating particular areas on our player board. It also happens that a card appears that gives a better result despite not fitting our previous schemes at all. This is very satisfying, especially when we manage to prepare a small engine and then watch the tokens do their job.
Interaction is present, but rather indirect. We observe what others put out, try to predict what may be useful to them, and take advantage of opportunities. This kind of interaction usually works very well for us, because it gives the feeling of playing together without too much nastiness.
Randomness appears mainly in the cards. We receive a hand and have to squeeze as much as possible out of it, but because we also see other players’ cards every turn, we are not limited only to our options. Thanks to this, the game does not feel as if everything depends on the draw.
Pace is a big plus. Simultaneous card selection limits downtime, and the fixed number of 10 turns keeps the game nicely under control. Pacific does not try to be a grand, epic strategy game. It is more of a compact combinational game, in which over several dozen minutes we build increasingly interesting connections on our player board.
Scaling seems best with a larger group, because the more players there are, the more cards we have to choose from each turn, and the more interesting the shared market becomes. In a 2-player game, players add 2 extra cards from the deck each turn to widen the pool of options, but this is not a perfect solution. It increases the game’s randomness, because those two cards were not selected by players with the current table situation in mind. We think Pacific works best with 3–5 players, when the choice of cards is broader, but the need for caution also increases.
Summary
Pacific is a pleasant, light game about choosing cards, building combinations, and making use of opportunities. What we like most about it is that every move has two levels: the card effect and the activation of the appropriate areas. Because of that, even a simple decision can be interesting.
We recommend it to players who enjoy games with simultaneous action selection, a gentle engine-building element, and indirect interaction. It should work best with 3–5 players, and the more, the merrier. It is a good title for those who want to do some thinking, but without the weight of a grand strategy game and without spending half the evening on a single turn.
