The Great Museum

A very, very good game with a lot of replay potential

This is an excellent game. It grows as you play and I am looking forward to playing again. The many different aspects mean that there are twists and turns as the game progresses - and opportunities to be nasty to others- which always helps. Innovative and carefully designed

Playtest version but, given that there's one week until Expo 2011, I'm not convinced this one is far enough advanced to drum up much enthusiasm.

Players take the roles of museum owners who sponsor expeditions, buy and sell artifacts and trade on the black market.

As Richard Denning's follow-up to Great Fire of London, this is a much more fiddly game (yes, yes, Great Fire's setup was painful) with lots of moving parts and small components. I know Great Fire took a fair bit of flak on this site, but I liked it a lot. I still enjoy it and think it's a great family game, the fire-spreading mechanism being particularly simple and inspired. This, however, is a different beast entirely. Though you only have a couple of actions you can take on your turn, it feel like there's an awful lot of down-time. This may be because those few actions must be taken against an embarrassment of choice. There feels like there's too much to do with your limited actions and AP can quickly set in even among players who are rapid decision-makers. Needs a good deal more development yet.

• Own player board
• Different strategies possible, longterm planning needed
• Nice combination of known mecanics

• Luck with the dice at the black market needed
• The more players, the more player boards you have to keep an eye on.