Waterfall Park

Waterfall Park is a trading and negotiation game about building the best, most exciting amusement park possible. I tried this at the UK Games Expo with my family and we all loved the fun-filled, colourful theme juxtaposed with the ruthless, cutthroat negotiation mechanics. Simple enough for my young daughter to understand the rules, engaging enough for the adults to enjoy, this game is a shortish, lightweight game that nonetheless can make you feel like a top deal maker, or a gullible idiot who gave away the family cow for a bag of beans.

COMPONENTS AND SET UP

Repos Production have produced a vibrant, colourful game with good quality components. The plastic bases fit nicely into the location spaces on the board, and the storage tray in the box fits everything well, even providing stands for the bases. Everything is well organised, and this makes set up quick and simple. The board depicts 81 numbered locations in the park, each with a corresponding location card. The cards are shuffled and a number dealt to each player, depending on the round number and the number of players – displayed on either the board for 3 players, or an overlay tile for 4 or 5. The attraction tiles are shuffled and placed face down, then each player takes a set of coloured bases to use when claiming locations, and 5 coins.

GAMEPLAY

To start with, each player chooses two location cards to discard face down in silence. Then, everyone reveals their remaining cards and places a base at each location they have. After this, attraction tiles are dealt to each player, with the number dependent on the round and player count – once again, clearly depicted on the board or overlay tile. Everyone reveals their attractions, then negotiations begin! This is the meat of the game, as literally anything can be traded – locations, attraction tiles, coins – and you are allowed to intervene in other players’ negotiations as well, maybe offering a better deal for something you REALLY want. An important point is that promises for the future can be broken, but immediate trades are binding. After the haggling is completed to everyone’s (dis)satisfaction, construction begins – every player places their attraction tiles onto the locations they now control, trying to place sets of tiles adjacent to each other. After this, each player then takes income based on the value of their built attractions, and the next round begins by dealing a new set of location cards. After 4 rounds, the person with the most coins wins!

THE ART OF THE DEAL OR THE LUCK OF THE DRAW?

One issue with the game is that some players can get adjacent locations or sets of attractions dealt to them, while others get cards that are nowhere near each other, weakening their negotiation power. However, there is almost always something you have that someone else wants! Waterfall Park hinges quite a lot on the people you play it with – some players may delight in stopping an opponent getting something they really need, even if it costs them something they need, while others may be a bit too generous in their offers! However, it can be educational for younger players to learn how to haggle effectively! The gameplay is fairly simple, the majority being striking deals with other players, but this makes it easy to play with a range of people, from young to old, making it a good family game. It also doesn’t outstay it’s welcome – with only 4 rounds, the game is quick and fairly pacy, and even if a deal seems to be taking too long, you can just interrupt with a better offer!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Waterfall Park is a colourful, streamlined negotiation game with solid components, an interesting theme, and a robust core mechanic. It is simple to grasp yet can be ruthless to play depending on how good your opponents are at deal-making.