Puerto Rico Review

Intro

Puerto Rico stands as one of the most celebrated strategy games of the early 2000s, and for good reason. This economic powerhouse puts you in the shoes of a colonial governor developing the titular Caribbean island through plantation agriculture, trade, and construction. With its elegant role-selection system and multiple paths to victory, it's earned a reputation as a modern classic that still holds up more than two decades later.

The game accommodates 3-5 players (though 4 seems to be the sweet spot) and typically runs about 2-2.5 hours once everyone knows what they're doing. With a BoardGameGeek rating of 7.9 and countless awards including the Deutscher Spiele Preis, it's clearly struck a chord with gamers worldwide. Don't let the accolades fool you into thinking it's intimidatingly complex though. While there are certainly strategic depths to explore, the core mechanisms are straightforward enough that most players can grasp them within a game or two.

How It Plays

The heart of Puerto Rico lies in its role selection system. Each turn, one player chooses from a set of role cards like Settler, Mayor, Craftsman, Trader, Captain, or Builder. Here's the clever bit: when someone picks a role, everyone gets to take that action, but the person who chose it gets a special bonus.

Let's say you pick Builder. Everyone can construct a building, but you get yours at a discount. Pick Trader? Everyone can sell goods to the trading house, but you get an extra doubloon for your trouble. This creates fascinating decisions because you're essentially giving your opponents opportunities while trying to maximize your own benefit.

Your individual board starts mostly empty, with just a small indigo plantation. Throughout the game, you'll add more plantations to grow crops like coffee, sugar, tobacco, and corn. But plantations don't work by themselves - you need colonists to operate them. You'll also need production buildings to process raw crops into sellable goods.

The economic engine is beautifully simple: grow crops, process them into goods, then either ship them to Europe for victory points or sell them in the trading house for doubloons. Those doubloons let you buy more buildings, which give you new abilities and more victory points. Buildings like the Harbor give shipping bonuses, while the Guild Hall scores points based on your production buildings.

Victory points come from three main sources: buildings you construct, goods you ship to Europe, and bonus points from certain large buildings. The shipping points are kept secret, which adds a delicious layer of uncertainty as the game winds down.

Highlights

The role selection mechanism is genuinely brilliant. It creates this constant tension where you want to pick roles that benefit you most, but you also need to consider what you're giving your opponents. Sometimes you'll pick a role just to deny it from someone else, or because it's accumulated bonus doubloons from being ignored.

Puerto Rico offers multiple viable strategies, which keeps it fresh game after game. You might focus on shipping goods for points, constructing expensive buildings, or finding some hybrid approach. The large buildings provide different end-game scoring opportunities - the Guild Hall rewards production buildings while the Residence scores based on filled plantation rows.

The pacing feels just right. Early on, you're building your basic economic engine. The middle game opens up as you gain more options and your production ramps up. The endgame becomes a race as shipping spaces fill up and building supply runs low, creating natural tension and excitement.

There's also something deeply satisfying about watching your little colonial economy come together. When your coffee plantation, coffee roaster, and colonists all align to produce valuable goods, it feels like you've built something meaningful. The component quality helps sell this fantasy - wooden goods, chunky doubloons, and sturdy player boards all contribute to the experience.

Criticisms

Let's address the elephant in the room: the colonial theme. Puerto Rico was designed in a different era, and its treatment of colonialism and the people who worked these plantations feels tone-deaf by today's standards. The "colonist" pieces represent enslaved people and indigenous workers, but the game treats them as resources rather than acknowledging the human cost. Some players find this completely off-putting, and rightfully so.

From a gameplay perspective, Puerto Rico can suffer from analysis paralysis, especially with players prone to overthinking. Each role selection impacts everyone at the table, so some folks will agonize over every choice. This can drag the game well beyond its listed play time. The game also has a reputation for being somewhat dry - while the mechanisms are elegant, there's not much narrative excitement or surprise.

The learning curve, while not steep, does exist. New players often struggle with their first few games, not because the rules are complex, but because understanding the strategic implications takes time. It's also worth noting that player interaction is mostly indirect. You're not attacking each other directly, but rather competing for limited resources and shipping space.

Conclusion

Puerto Rico remains a masterclass in economic game design, even if its theme has aged poorly. If you can look past the colonial setting (or if that doesn't bother you), you'll find one of the most refined strategy games ever created. It's perfect for groups who enjoy medium-weight euros with meaningful decisions and minimal luck.

This is ideal for players who like games where every choice matters, where you're constantly weighing short-term gains against long-term strategy. If your group appreciates tight resource management, indirect player interaction, and games that reward multiple playthroughs, Puerto Rico deserves a spot on your shelf. Just be prepared for some longer game sessions as players work through their options, and don't expect much in the way of theme or narrative excitement.