Sobek Review

Sobek from Pandasaurus Games is a 2 player exclusive game where each player is collecting tiles from the marketplace in order to amass the best goods available to them. The market board is filled at the beginning of the game and each player gets a starting tile. In order to select an item, the active player will place the Ankh marker and grab the tile. They must angle the pawn so that the shadows on the tile are aligned with the edges. They can also sell their goods or if they have it, they can play a character tile for some unique abilities. When the next player goes, they have the opportunity to select anything that is in line with the Ankh's sides. If you jump over anything, all of the jumped tiles must be placed in your corruption area. The game ends when a player cannot do any actions. Then both players tally and whoever has the most points will win the game.

The Good: I really loved the selection method of Sobek. Because you know what you'll be allowing your opponent to get ahold of, you have to pivot often or make concessions. It's really unique. I also love the bonuses that come into play from Pirogue tokens. You get these when you sell a set. They can range from points to eliminating things from corruption. It's random but all of them are beneficial.

The Okay: Final scoring is a little strange. It felt unnecessarily complex to me. In order to score your sets, you calculate the amount and multiply by the number of scarab icons on the set. It can inflate the scores in a way that can make the game feel not as close. You'll add in your bonus points as well which you simply add to your totals. It's a fine way to do it but I didn't care for it.

The Not So Good: I found the game to go a bit long for what it is. The board isn't overly large or convoluted but it took a while to get through each game. Maybe it's just because of how much pivoting you need to do but it never felt like the quick game that I was expecting.

Final Thoughts: Sobek is a straightforward set collection game that does some really nice things. The selection system is one of the coolest ones I've seen for a game like this and there's a nice amount of tension that comes into each turn. It's not without its flaws but it's a really interesting set collection game in the end.

Thanks to Pandasaurus for providing me with a review copy.