Lost Cities (1999)

Lost Cities is a personal favorite, and is also a favorite of my wife’s. Indeed, after first playing the game back in 1999, it was the very first game my wife every told me to purchase. That alone is high, high praise!

Tom Vasel reviews the classic two-player card game Lost Cities, discussing its simple yet tense gameplay, components, and overall appeal as a favorite in his collection. He also touches on the optional sixth expedition.

Lost Cities is a highly recommended two-player card game, praised for its easy-to-learn rules and surprising strategic depth, offering great replay value. The reviewer highlights its engaging balance of luck and strategy, alongside excellent component quality and compact design.

The reviewer enthusiastically praises "Lost Cities" as an exhilarating two-player game, highlighting its simple design packed with tension and risk-taking, and how it fosters continuous excitement through its round-to-round scoring and dynamic gameplay.

The reviewer praises Lost Cities as a quick, tense card game that masterfully creates anguish through limited choices and significant implications. It effectively captures the mental challenge of an expedition despite its abstract design, improving with repeated plays.

This video from Grant Lyon provides a review and explanation of the physical board game Lost Cities. It focuses on the game's accessibility, highlighting its ease of learning and suitability as a two-player experience.

The reviewer initially avoided Lost Cities but found it a surprisingly exciting two-player game, praising its balance of risk and reward, strategic depth, and unique timing mechanism. They recommend it highly, despite minor issues with theme and scoring.

The reviewer highly recommends Lost Cities as a fun, strategic, and simple two-player card game, particularly suitable for quick sessions before other activities, though they note it's not ideal for more than two players.

The reviewer highly recommends Lost Cities for its beautiful artwork, adventurous theme, and competitive 'expedition chicken' gameplay, praising it as a well-aged classic that still holds up. While acknowledging potential score swings and tedious scoring, they consider it a superior two-player card game.

The reviewer found "Lost Cities" to be a casual and simple game suitable for beginners and families, but questioned its long-term replayability and overall contention compared to other available games, citing a significant luck factor in card drawing.