Game: Pan’orama
Genre: Puzzle, Board Game, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (also on Steam (Windows))
Developer|Publisher: Chicken Launcher| Awaken Realms
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: US $19.99 | UK £17.99 | EU € 19,99
Release Date: January 11th, 2024
No review code was used; I bought the game myself
Pan’orama is a tile-placing town builder, in which you use tiles and structures to create landscapes. The better you place your tiles, the more points and new tile cards you get, and the bigger your town will become. With quests and booster packs that you earn in the game, your world will diversify and grow. Not just in size but in graphics, too. The world will look alive, and you can even see birds flying, wheat fields moving in the wind, and a cat lying in the sun. Pan’orama is a relaxing game with a bit of a challenge. Let’s take a closer look!
The Tutorial and Modes
Pan’orama has a short tutorial, which sadly could have been better. Loads of info are thrown at you in a few screens, leaving me a bit confused. Aside from being bare bones, it had some typos and grammar issues in there as well. Eventually, though, I got the gist of what to do for the standard gameplay. I’d advise you to do the tutorial a couple of times. Every time you choose “new game”, you’ll find it there waiting for you.
Aside from Standard Mode, you can choose Creative Mode or Challenge Mode. These aren’t explained in the tutorial, so you’ll have to find out for yourself. In Creative Mode, there are no quests, and you don’t have to unlock structures. They are all ready to use to make the most beautiful world you can think of. However, to me, it felt a bit empty.
The Challenge Mode has some built-in extra challenges by competing against other players by beating their high scores and creating even more impressive landscapes.
The Gameplay of Pan’orama
In Pan’orama, the tiles are randomly generated, and you have to find the best way to place them. Best way that when you get a tree tile, it will generate the most points when you can place two or even three sides of it next to other tree tiles. Placing more tiles of the same kind together influences the graphics: the trees in this mini forest get bigger, for example.
You will also get quest tiles to get more points in a certain theme. You are presented with a cluster of tiles that have their bases in houses, trees, rocks, etc. You have to match a certain number of new tiles to this cluster, and once you do, you get more points and new cards to your stack.
After you’ve gathered a certain amount of points, a Booster pack unlocks. With this, you have a choice of three structures that, first of all, look very good. But they also give you a bonus once you manage to fulfil them. There are 52 structures to collect! The problem is, when your new tiles run out, your game is through, so choose wisely.
Controls, Sound and Graphics
The music in the background is relaxing, not intrusive, while you puzzle your way through. The sound effects are great, too, when putting down a tile, from the points adding to your total. But also from the world itself, with birdsong, the wind, the water….it really is very soothing and relaxing.
The graphics look great; it’s a real pleasure to fill up your world. Zoom in closer, and you will see the grain sway, the tractor mowing away, and the mine cart running on the rails. You will even see animals that you can poke to see how they react for an extra point.
Pan’orama has ported over well to Nintendo’s console, it controls well on the Switch. You can even use the touchscreen, though it works better with the buttons.
Conclusion for Pan’orama
I’m guessing if you loved Dorfromantik, you would want to look at Pan’orama as well. I haven’t played Dorfromantik, but I read online that Pan’orama is the more relaxing game of the two. The mechanics of placing tiles to get the most points and extra tiles to play with worked well and had me puzzling quite happily.
The tutorial really could be better, but what made me really like the game was the graphics and the way the world you make comes to life. I loved zooming in to the max, admiring the structures I had built and seeing movement on the ground, an animal here and there or the tractor harvesting the grains. It’s fun just to sit and watch this colourful and detailed world come to life.
Final Verdict: I Like it a Lot