Pactopolis game review by Mark Gruber

About Pactopolis, from BoardGameGeek:

In Pactopolis, players represent 4 leading industries that have been tasked by the Council of the lands (Aka - the government) with developing a vast natural land area consisting of various types of terrain (mountains, forests, lakes, grasslands, meadows and the sea). In a game with asymmetric information - each industry has their own needs and bonuses - the players will have to smartly negotiate to balance their needs, others needs, environmental needs and government needs. In this game the level of cooperation and/or collaboration is determined by the players themselves. Resources are dependent on each sectors growth. Each sector is also dependent on the growth of the other sectors. Land may seem plentiful or not - depending on your situation (and sometimes a little luck). Every game plays different and if you play with different people you will have to learn to adapt your stratgies based on how your opponents play! Is it a cooperative or a com,petitive game. It is both. There is only one winner but if you dont learn to cooperate - everybody loses. This is also a game where even the losers don't always feel bad about losing as they do win something! The negotiations get more complex as the game progresses. Time limits are set for the negotiation rounds (which are free-for-all type of negotiations). Plan ahead what you need as you can ONLY negotiate in the negotiation rounds! Sustainable technologies (based on real-world information) can be unlocked with clever negotiations to earn you rare negotiation points (this is the only non-tradeable item in the entire game). This is an edge-of-the-seat negotiations game where as the game progresses the negotiations get more complex! It is a long(ish) yet highlighy addictive game (feedback from multiple gamers)- easy to get started but tough to easily end as the game continues over 5 rounds to find out the winner! You can simply win or win smart! Welcome to Pactopolis - a world where smart negotiation meets sustainable innovation! -description from the publisher