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Heavy Euro2018
Underwater Cities box art

Box art via BoardGameGeek

Heavy Euro

Underwater Cities

A tight little card puzzle wearing a city-builder's costume.

3.9 out of 53.9/5

Designed by Vladimír Suchý · 2018

Players1-4
Play time80-150 min
WeightMedium-Heavy
Ages12+
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The verdict

A genuinely clever optimization puzzle that earns its fans, as long as you came for the math and not for a thriving ocean metropolis. It shines solo and at two, and sags at four.

Best for: Solo and two-player optimizers who love a tense card-and-action puzzle

The full review

What it is

Here's the pitch. You're building a sprawl of domed cities on the seafloor, linking them with tunnels and propping them up with farms, labs, and desalination plants. Every turn you slap down one of three cards and grab an action slot ringed around the board. Match the card's color to the slot and you get both the action and the card's bonus. Miss, and you just get the action. With only three cards in hand, that tiny choice is the whole game.

The catch

Now the honest part. The engine you're so carefully building only pays out three times all game, and really only twice in a way that matters, so it can feel anemic if you expected a snowballing tableau. The theme is thin too. Your grand ocean city ends up as colored discs and domes, and the art leans weirdly corporate. Shut Up & Sit Down called it ambitious but a near miss, and at four players the three-turns-per-round rhythm gets stop-start and slow. The analysis paralysis is real.

Who it's for

So who's this for? Puzzle people. If you like quietly optimizing a tight knot of decisions with barely any elbows from other players, this is a good one, and reviewers like Zatu and Meeple Mountain rate it highly. Play it solo or at two where it's sharpest. If you wanted a lively, interactive city you can show off, or you've got an AP-prone group of four, look elsewhere. Margot's read: a smart puzzle, not a spectacle.

What other players say

This write-up is grounded in real reviews and player discussion, not just one opinion. A few worth reading:

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