Game Review: Acquire

Key Designer: Sid Sackson
Distributor: Avalon Hill

After my Settlers of Catan post, I realized I should make my gaming preferences clear if I were to continue writing game reviews. What one enjoys depends largely on what he or she values in a game. For the sake of clarity, I will outline exactly what makes a great game for me:

I believe great games are attractive and fast to play while creating or conveying a story for the player. Furthermore, great games generate player interaction (but not too much that it overpowers the game) and engage everyone (not just one or two players at a time depending on whose turn it is or who is trading at the moment). Finally, great games give players a sense of achievement in either winning the game or in investing their time enjoyably – a feeling that usually results from the aforementioned factors.

The above standards are those with which I judge all games, and Sid Sackson’s Acquire is no exception. Due to Acquire’s first two, early-in-the-alphabet letters, it is the first game reviewed in Hobby Games: The 100 Best – a great book recommended to me by Jesse Scoble, my co-worker and a contributor to the book.

Players of Acquire assume the roles of real estate tycoons vying against others to manipulate hotel construction and capitalize on mergers. Players buy, trade, and sell stocks to get the greatest return on investments. The player with the most money at the end of the game wins.

A turn in Acquire consists of three parts: (1) placing a tile on the board, (2) buying stocks (and, if a merger occurs, receiving bonuses and trading/selling stocks), and (3) drawing a new tile. A new hotel is created when two tiles connect on the board. Players may purchase stocks for any hotel in play and become primary or secondary shareholders if they own the majority of a hotel’s stocks, receiving bonuses when hotels pay out at the game’s end or are acquired during a merger.

Acquire’s play time is relatively long (about 2 hours) and a lot of math is required (calculating how much stocks cost). I’m not the biggest fan of calculating stock prices or even counting each tile on the board to assess a hotel’s size. These processes are especially tedious when hotels grow to 41 tiles or more.

That being said, Acquire still manages to be fast-paced and engaging. Turns fly by because they are limited to the three straightforward actions mentioned above and the game only pauses when hotels are acquired and bonuses are paid – an excusable interruption because all players are on alert, wondering who will earn what and how it will affect their claims on existing chains. The game never falls into long-winded negotiations (though players could easily tweak the rules if this interaction is desired). Since foresight and technique is displayed through investment decisions, players are never pitched against each another in the direct, vocalized conflict that often bogs down game play. Instead, they subversively scheme against targeted opponents by buying into prized hotels – a welcome form of opposition to a player who easily tires of trade discussions and resource debates.

Taking all this into consideration, Acquire’s design and quick, turn-based play makes it one of the more enjoyable games I’ve encountered. Despite the two-hour investment required, Acquire somehow still feels like a “quick” game. To top it all off, the game is attractively designed. Despite the end-of-game mess hotels sometimes become, Acquire’s money and stock cards are simple yet attractive and its tiles conjure up the nice, official feel of game-specific pieces. There’s also something satisfying in the fact that hotels and shares pay out at the end of the game. Even if you’re not winning, the feel of “money” in your hand is always pleasing, especially since stocks often pay out more than expected when hotels become unwieldy beasts to track. So, stock options? Bonuses? Payouts? The likeliness of “having” at least $30,000-40,000 by the end of one game? If it can’t be so in real life, why not experience it in a game at the very least? Great! Count me in!