I’ve always hoped (sometimes successfully) not to be shallow as a shower. I like to read. I try to know my philosophers. I try, at least in theory, to keep my responsibilities ranked higher than my hobbies. Because of that, I’ve learned I have certain instincts about what pulls me in and what doesn’t. But it turns out, I’m totally capable of being swayed by the glitz and glamor.
Okay, I’m not that surprised. I do love the board game hobby, after all. But it’s a bit like love. Most of us carry around a quiet sense of who we might fall for. Not because other people aren’t wonderful, but because our own wiring leans a certain way. Perhaps we know that it’s just simple common sense we’ll never fall for anyone who uses emojis, smokes clove cigarettes, dislikes children, has a bar code tattoo, or watches too much tv. We will fall for someone who’s got great taste in literature, who has beautiful arm muscles, who also can’t dance, who’s memorized Lord of the Rings, and is useful in a bar fight. We don’t wait to test every possibility; we just feel the boundaries.
For these reasons and more, I really wouldn’t think I’d gravitate toward games that lead with bright colors, markers, stamps, and scratchers. Not because there’s anything wrong with them but just because they rarely speak to whatever it is I’m listening for.
Which is why it’s worth noting that Tend doesn’t quite fit that box.
And whaddaya know…here I am, swept off my feet.
I won’t go into all the details here but it’s a midweight X and write with a futuristic space-farming theme and many directions to explore. One of the things I love about the game is how hard it leans into the toy factor. There’s a very real childlike joy in stamping things or using colored pencils, fiddling with the huge chunky dice, and scratching the scratch-offs.
But what really keeps me coming back is how differently each game can unfold. I seem drawn to mining every time, but when I force myself to go all-out on tending or fishing, it reminds me every path is genuinely fun.
There’s also many objectives and action cards that meaningfully change the game each time you play. And even beyond that, there are the online challenges. These are specific setups with a target score to beat. That kind of variety is exactly what I want from an X and write. If I can’t have a campaign like The Anarchy, I want ever-new puzzles. They provide a fun, focused, self-contained experience that actually changes how you play, and I hope they keep releasing more of them.
I also don’t think Tend is without its flaws. The ending, in particular, feels a bit arbitrary. What gives a game a satisfying finish? For me, it usually involves some sense of culmination and climax, and that’s where Tend falters slightly. The game ends not because your farming empire has reached a natural conclusion, but because the deck runs out. It’s a little hard to see what you actually did. But maybe that’s the corporate nature built into the game. You are farming for the (totally not evil) Zenith Corporation after all.
Part of this may be the fact that I find it very difficult to achieve the badges. I usually feel forced to choose between earning a badge or scoring objectives, and the objectives generally feel like they pay off more to me. If there’s a way to do both well, I haven’t found it yet.
I guess the moral is this: I still like what I like. I just didn’t realize stamps and scratch-offs were on the list.
Turns out, I’m not immune to pretty things. And Tend is a very pretty thing indeed.
Thank you to IV Studio for the review copy.