The River

A streamlined tile-laying settlement builder: develop a pioneer town along the river while your workers settle down.

Designers: Ismaël Perrin, Sébastien Pauchon
Published by: Days of Wonder
Editions by: Rebel Sp. z o.o.

In The River (2018) you are a mayor building a pioneer settlement along a river, one tile at a time. You develop the land, collect resources, construct buildings and place workers, and every worker that settles shifts the burden onto your remaining ones. A good landscape matters too, because the town's aestheticians reward tidy layouts. It is streamlined and quick, with each decision costing something somewhere else, and the player with the most impressive settlement wins. Think a gentle tile-laying builder for ages eight and up, best at four, over in about 45 minutes.

Tiles extend your riverside townWorkers settle and shrink your optionsNeat layouts earn bonus points

Who it's for

You like gentle building games where each choice costs something, and want a settlement puzzle you can finish within an hour.

Not for you if…

You want heavy engine-building or lots of player interaction. Here you mostly sculpt your own landscape.

Vibe's take

Light, tidy and a bit thinky. You nudge your landscape into shape and wince whenever a worker settles and leaves you with fewer hands.