Keystone North America Review: An Ecosystem of a Down

Tom Vasel, Mike DiLisio and Camilla Cleghorn take a look at Keystone: North America, a game where you build a card-based ecosystem!

0:00 Intro
1:20 Overview
7:36 Review
16:26 Tom's Final Score
18:52 Camilla's Final Score
19:20 Mike's Final Score

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[JamesOrr]

The multi-reviewer format is excellent and doing exactly what people want from reviewer's: points and counter points that they can contrast against their own to figure out if a game would likely be or not be one they would want to try. I love hearing multiple views, it adds more good with zero downside. I also appreciate the effort considering I assume it takes more coordination and organization to have multiple people on a review. I also loved Tom's casual and smooth phone fatality!

[JamesOrr]

I also appreciate the Mike DiLisio Solo experience perspective included on some of the reviews. Really adds value.

[thelumberginger]

"An Ecosystem of a Down" = pure gold. I'm loving whoever is writing these titles lately!

[desireerudolph]

Really like this multiple-reviewer format. The lively discussion with point/view and counter point/view is really helpful.

[angelafortunato]

A 2nd Edition has just been announced that changes that game to 1-2 players and fixes issues from feedback that was given. I'm excited to try this new 2nd edition. It should be crowdfunding soon in 2024.

[hamakakun]

im loving this new style of reviewing where you put 2 extremes of reviewer giving opinion the same product as people might lean towards an opinion instead of the other. This way viewer cab accurately align their decision before pulling the trigger.

[Leiderg]

Huh? This made me think the seals of approval can't be trusted, if you see future printing of this showing it, people will not know it's only for a SP review from Mike, while Tom and Camilla actually gave it bad reviews. There needs to be a different Seal for SP maybe?

[BrandonGraham]

Knowing how it plays is definitely the most important part of the video, but it is also super helpful to see the quality of components that we will be playing with.

[jasonpmathew]

Really loving the multi-reviews. Sometimes I watch a video I normally wouldn’t just because there are multiple opinions.

[dandehaan]

I was at GrandCon yesterday and this game was a hit. It was rented from the library a lot and the BG vendors mentioned people were buying it immediately after playing it. I bought it and my table all loved it. Probably a 7 for me.

[montyfarris]

I was a bit worried, but just played a 2 player game with my wife and we both enjoyed it. Is there hate drafting/discarding potential cards the other may need, yeah(Sagrada can be just as mean). Maybe we weren't as mean to each other as we should've been.
Final score 65-65(I won owning one more synergy point than she had)

[DarthPizza]

i love the way you guys are doing reviews now. Not just one person but as a group

[bigg]

Have you considered taking an average of the scores and then giving it a seal based on that with Tom's Hammer at the end? I miss Tom's final judgement 😂

[mmmmatthewwww]

Wow I've been trying to design a game using the same market + grid scoring system as this game, and have encountered the same issues Tom and Camilla are describing. Thanks for helping me playtest Dice Tower lol.

[blankname-pwsk]

Maybe it's time to add Seal of Approval for Solo, like kids approved?

[VickyLu]

Played it multiplayer tonight and unfortunately did not enjoy it for the reasons mentioned in the video. However I’m interested in trying it solo!

[LouisChora]

Nice tagline. Chris' musical taste shining through :)

[hunorheim]

8 out of 10 from me as well. Absolutely wonderful solo game.

[DannyvanHolten]

Casually flipping the phone of the table because it lights up ... + 10 points :P

[BOHDominator]

I actually thought this was better than calico. The puzzle in this game is trying to maximise your personal goal card score, and maximise 1-3 of your rows/columns for scoring but it's impossible to score every row and column well so it's about making the best out of what you can. It's very possible to score 0 on a row but sometimes just getting a few points on a row could really get you the win. 4 seems a harsh score. I don't thi k the game gets less fun it just gets more puzzley