I’m going to start this by saying that if you want to play a board game with your friends but don’t have the ability to/don’t want to meet up in person then this is practically the only option. At least for playing a variety of board games. However, that does not give Tabletop Simulator a pass for its flaws which I will get into for this review.
But I always start with the positives. Tabletop Simulator is great in concept. An online platform that allows for you to play a variety of board games online with your friends sounds amazing on paper. And it does have the potential to be great in practice. There are online servers if you wish to play an available game over the internet with strangers. Not exactly my cup of tea, but there most definitely is an audience for that sort of thing and I try to be objective. The host does have more power than other players so if someone is just there harming the play experience for everyone else they can be kicked. An amazing part in concept is Tabletop Simulators ability to allow you to create your own custom board games. You can go through and design pretty much anything so long as you have the skill and knowledge to do so. You can even import your own 3D models. However, even this has flaws which I will get into in my next section. The best part though, is definitely the fact Tabletop Simulator has a Steam Workshop. As such all creations can be shared, and you can download the things other people have created.
I do really wish Tabletop simulator was good. That would be amazing. But it's not. First and foremost its monetization strategies are abhorrent. This game has 43 different DLCs. All ranging from $4.99 to $12.99 USD (€4.38 to €11.41 for those who live in Europe.) This is unacceptable. If you wish to play, for example, Unearth, you will have to pay $19.99 for the game itself, then pay $5.99 for the Unearth DLC, then your friend will have to do the same. Or worse, if your friend happens to be me who is busy spending all their money going to college, you will have to spend $39.98 to get the game then $11.98 for the DLC. It's simply unacceptable. If you do not do this the base game will have 20 games. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Well, it gets better, those games include such hits as “RPG”. Which is a set of random figurines, slabs of stone, corners of stone, tables, chairs, chests, and barrels. For the record if you want any of these pieces to go together you will have to resize them. The chair pieces are smaller than the rat figurines the game gives you. Or perhaps you will want to play a game of “Sandbox”. Which is a bunch of colored blocks and a singular metal marble. Perhaps a game of “Tools” suits your fancy? Also included in that count was “custom” which is just where you're supposed to make your own games. Cards, Poker, and solitaire are also counted as separate things despite the fact you could set up and play all of those with just cards. But I suppose Poker gives you chips as well so there’s that if you want to really get into roleplaying as a gambler. There are a few others like that, discounting all of them leaves you with just 13 games. Even if you didn’t discount them there would STILL be more DLC than regular base games. That is just the first problem. If you want to make a game you will have to source all your textures from the internet for some reason. Now, its not hard to upload images to proper hosting sites, but why? No other game I have does this. You have to download the config anyways if you install it from the workshop. Why not just have it download some images as well? It's just annoying. It's also hard to get entire card sets working, not that you need multiple images to do so, you can combine all of them into 1 so long as they're evenly spaced. It's just difficult in general. Making a game is just very difficult so unless you know you're going to get a lot of fun out of it or are just a generally very kind and hardworking person I wouldn’t suggest making your own game or porting a game. I have a lot of respect for those who make workshop items. The games physics system, while not bad, sometimes gets in the way of what your doing. I don’t know what I would suggest as a fix. The only real way I can describe it is “Wonky”. Every other game I’ve played where you drag 3D objects around does it better.
Overall this isn’t exactly a “Bad” game but the flaws make it difficult to truly recommend to anyone who isn’t just the target audience. If you read this review and can see yourself enjoying the game despite the flaws I would say get it. There are really no other options. But just because the presence of a gap in the market for this sort of thing doesn’t justify the one and only thing attempting to fill that gap doing so poorly. It especially doesn’t justify it doing so greedily. Perhaps wait for a sale.
