Dominion Digital Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review the digital version of Dominion from Temple Gates Games. This digital app sets the gold standard of what a digital board game conversion should be.

I’m not sure any game in the modern era has aged as well as Dominion has. Despite coming out in 2008, Dominion is still very popular and one of the best deck building games out there. It was the one that started it all and hasn’t really been surpassed for its gameplay (in this reviewer’s opinion).

This year saw the launch of a new Dominion digital app. However, it’s not the first iteration for this game. Over the past decade, we’ve seen versions of Dominion from now-defunct publishers like Goku or Making Fun. While those apps have long since moved to abandonedware, a new challenger has entered the arena. In what feels like it’s been years in the making, publisher Temple Gates Games has tried to bring this beloved card game to our tablets and computers once again. Did they succeed? Let’s find out!

As Dominion is old enough to be driving a car if it were a person, I’m just going to give you a high-level overview of the game for any new players here. If you want the full details, check out our review of the card game here.

The basics is you start with a deck of 10 cards— 3 estates (one victory point card) and 7 copper coins (worth 1 coin each). Each turn you play every card in your hand and buy cards from the market. The goal is to buy better cards that give you actions, victory points, and high-worth coins. Anything bought goes in your discard pile and is available to you after you draw it into your hand after a reshuffle of your discard pile.

At the end of the game, the player with the most victory points wins.

I’m going to start this off with a bang. This version of Dominion is the new gold standard of what a board game app should be. It’s flat-out amazing from its smooth gameplay with nary a loading screen, to its powerful AI, to its wealth of content. If you are a fan of Dominion, you can sink tons of hours