Yellow & Yangtze Game Review

Yellow & Yangtze is the sequel to Dr. Knizia’s popular board game Tigris and Euphrates. Both games are an area management style tile placement board game that rewards players by allocating five game resource categories (Governor, Soldier, Farmer, Trader, Craftsman) so that they all accumulate enough resources for each to score the maximum score.

The score you have at the end of the game is the number of points in your weakest resource category. Therefore, in order to succeed, you must balance these categories while solving the challenges that other players face (online multiplayer, local play, and play with AI bots are supported). These problems manifest themselves in the form of warfare with other players, building monuments, bonding treasures and internal rebellions, to name a few.

The physics-based board game has been positively received by critics and gamers alike, with a solid overall score of 8 out of 10 on the popular website Game Game Geek.

So, how well did Dire Wolf do with the digital adaptation? In a word, great! In addition to capturing the game’s exceptional rule set and providing simple guidance to keep players within those rules, the game picks up much of the complex token and dot salad management needed in a physical release. And one aspect that Dire Wolf continues to nail with each of its digital transformations is audiovisual.

Beautiful animation accompanies the theme music and sound effects, which greatly enhances the gaming experience. Android, iOS, and PC versions play and display the same regardless of platform. Also, check out YouTuber Dad’s Gaming Addiction for a great guide and quick walkthrough. The PC version it showcases is identical to the iOS and Android versions, although I find the tablet to be much better suited for digital tabletop gaming due to its portability and obvious screen touch capabilities.

Speaking of Android and PC versions, the game is multi-platform compatible. iOS gamers can play games with friends who can use the Android, iOS, or PC versions since Dire Wolf uses its own account management servers. If you have registered for other Dire Wolf Digital games in the past, such as Eternal or Lanterns, you already have a Dire Wolf Digital user account. Just sign in with these credentials or create a new account and you’ll be ready to play online with others on iOS, Android or PC.

I really had a great time playing the game thanks to the excellent presentation and skillful handling of the wolf in the rules and game mechanics. While I sometimes find that playing physical board games is a daunting job with all the time-consuming setup, token management, rule interpretation and asset tracking, that’s not the case with this well-done digital transformation.

Indeed, by managing all this busy work in the app, I was able to focus my time solely on strategic positioning and goal achievement. I had much more fun playing this digital adaptation than I ever had with the original physical version of the board game. And that the single player campaign of this digital game is not even possible with the physical version!

Pros

• Gorgeous animation and breathtakingly colorful graphical presentation
• Easy to learn, hard to learn
• AI opponents offer challenging gameplay
• Cross-platform multiplayer with support

Cons

• Expensive

Final verdict

If you like games with fairly easy-to-learn rules that also require masterful strategies to win, Yellow & Yangtze’s digital adaptation of Dire Wolf is beautiful, entertaining (kudos to the AI ​​bots that play a convincingly smart game), and a thoroughly entertaining game. Since the company has clearly shown how much it can greatly improve the game experience with source code, I can’t wait to see what it does for the future popular board game titles it’s working on.