The first time I saw Santorini, I was unimpressed. It looked like a game for kids. A game with simple mechanisms and cute artwork. A game without much strategic depth. Well, I was half right.

Starting configuration, each player places out their two builders. I couldn’t get Merlin to pose for the picture

Santorini is a game with simple mechanisms and cute artwork, but the depth of strategy goes way beyond most games you can teach in 30 seconds. Each turn, by itself is easy. Move one of your two player pieces and build a building. You can move up one level on your turn or you can move down as many spaces as you need. First person onto the third level wins. Easy enough, right?

We got our copy of Santorini home at about 2:15 and by 2:45 we had played five games. Santorini plays very quickly but the games are full of tense moments, balancing when you make a go at building for your own benefit versus making a move to stop your opponent from winning. There is both long-term planning and short-term risk mitigation which you have to consider.

Our end position (except my opponents didn’t jump onto the top space even though he won). I was playing as the god Atlas which let me put the blue tops out at any time.

Beyond the base game, there were “god” cards added in which give you special powers. In our five plays, we each played as one of the ten different basic god cards. There are also twenty advanced gods that we did not play. For me, the gods made the game. When you play as Pan, if you jump down two levels you win the game, if you play as Demeter you can build in two different locations on your turn, Prometheus lets you build, move, and then build again. Each set of gods played in the game dramatically changes the way the game is played, making no two games feel the same.

The ten basic gods available in the game

At its core, Santorini is an abstract game, but most abstract games I’ve played don’t have nearly the aesthetic appeal that Santorini does. Games in like GIPF, series like YINSH and DVONN, are more commonly disks on a game board. Santorini has nicely 3D pieces which stack nicely on top of each other. The player pieces you’re moving around are nicely designed minis representing the builders in your city. All of the components could have been more abstract, but the designers and publisher did a nice job making the pieces high quality. Also, the artwork on the god cards is adorable and the symbology is well designed and makes sense after you see it once.

One of the most interesting parts of the game to me is how your moves aren’t necessarily for you. As you build up the city, your opponent may use your spaces to climb their way to victory. In most other abstract games I’ve played, your moves are typically all about you and that is great. In Santorini, the ability to use your opponents infrastructure in ways neither player foresaw or intended is an incredibly fun aspect of the game.

All of my plays up to this point have been with two players, though Santorini has pieces to play with three players and a variant to play with four where players work in teams of two. The manual states that the game is best at 2, and I can see why it feels like that. The game was very tight and I could pay attention to what my opponent was doing. With three, the game may become too close quarters, but that has yet to be seen. I do want to try the four player variant, because each player gets their own god card and I think it would be a lot of fun to see how the god powers interact.

I highly recommend this game. There are so many fun decisions to be made and so much variability in the box between the god cards. Since the game plays so quickly, its easy to get it to the table for multiple plays in a row, and each play will feel different from the ones before. Santorini is easier to teach than any other game I’ve played before, but it is by no means the simplest to win. The decisions you make early in the game effect the late game in ways you won’t be aware of until the game is over.

There is an expansion coming for the game which I have not looked into yet, but I am excited for it already. Whether you are an abstract person or not, at least give this game a try and consider picking up a copy.