Tabletop Simulator Review (first impressions from about 3 hours played)

tl;dr:

If you have a group of friends or a community you can reliably find people to play online with, I think this is a fantastic game. You can import or make up so many games with this simulator. It's really a physics simulator, so it allows things like shuffling, rolling dice, importing images, and really playing almost any real life or fake tabletop game you can think of. I played about 3 hours before returning it, but that was because none of my friends owned this, and it was hard to find people interested in my niche games. The actual experience, learning, and gameplay itself was all excellent.

Pros:

- you truly can replicate and play just about any tabletop game. RPGs like DnD, boardgames like Agricola or Pandemic, classics like chess or checkers, and countless other games can be played in this simulator

- there's a lot of communities to find players, an easy to learn tutorial, and a pretty clean and functional interface for finding player and games

- allows you to try out of print games or super expensive games for free. For example, I saw several people playing old games like the Pokemon Master Trainer board game, and it also allows players to try out super expensive games like Kingdom Death Monster or Gloomhaven to wet their feet before buying

- seems friendly on lower end computers, like my weaker laptop. Screens loaded smoothly, and images were sharp and easy to read or zoom into

Cons:

- need to find other players. Some Discord, Reddit, and other communities are great for this, but some more niche games may be harder to find players for

- some players can be a bit rude, even if you ask questions nicely. Other players can break rules relatively easily or cheat, while others may troll or mess around a bit much. Thankfully, these cases are very much in the minority

Neutral (depending on your tastes):

- some of the controls may take some getting used to, and some players may prefer automated scripts and such. It is also possible to accidentally cheat in some games or forget some controls now and then. Others, though, may learn the controls quickly and find them intuitive and easy to remember

- not all of the games/mods/assets/etc are technically legal; a lot of players use assets from games they don't own, illegally. Usually, if a player owns a game, they can scan it, and some board game companies/developers don't seem to mind as its "free exposure", but I suppose some gamers may have moral qualms about this

Overall:

It fits its namesake; it truly is a great "tabletop simulator". Once you've learned the basics of the controls, you can join and play almost any game, as long as you can find the players for it. I've tried a variety of online and digital board game apps and websites like boardgamearena, iOS apps like Splendor and Agricola, and some other implementations, but this is by far the best tabletop simulation game I've ever experienced in terms of freedom and flexibility.

I highly recommend it for board game or tabletop fans who want some tabletop games to play on their computer or who can't meet up with people in real life as easily to play games with.

Tabletop Simulator Review (first impressions from about 3 hours played) tl;dr: If you have a group of friends or a community you can reliably find people to play online with, I think this is a fantastic game. You can import or make up so many games with this simulator. It's really a physics simulator, so it allows things like shuffling, rolling dice, importing images, and really playing almost any real life or fake tabletop game you can think of. I played about 3 hours before returning it, but that was because none of my friends owned this, and it was hard to find people interested in my niche games. The actual experience, learning, and gameplay itself was all excellent. Pros: - you truly can replicate and play just about any tabletop game. RPGs like DnD, boardgames like Agricola or Pandemic, classics like chess or checkers, and countless other games can be played in this simulator - there's a lot of communities to find players, an easy to learn tutorial, and a pretty clean and functional interface for finding player and games - allows you to try out of print games or super expensive games for free. For example, I saw several people playing old games like the Pokemon Master Trainer board game, and it also allows players to try out super expensive games like Kingdom Death Monster or Gloomhaven to wet their feet before buying - seems friendly on lower end computers, like my weaker laptop. Screens loaded smoothly, and images were sharp and easy to read or zoom into Cons: - need to find other players. Some Discord, Reddit, and other communities are great for this, but some more niche games may be harder to find players for - some players can be a bit rude, even if you ask questions nicely. Other players can break rules relatively easily or cheat, while others may troll or mess around a bit much. Thankfully, these cases are very much in the minority Neutral (depending on your tastes): - some of the controls may take some getting used to, and some players may prefer automated scripts and such. It is also possible to accidentally cheat in some games or forget some controls now and then. Others, though, may learn the controls quickly and find them intuitive and easy to remember - not all of the games/mods/assets/etc are technically legal; a lot of players use assets from games they don't own, illegally. Usually, if a player owns a game, they can scan it, and some board game companies/developers don't seem to mind as its "free exposure", but I suppose some gamers may have moral qualms about this Overall: It fits its namesake; it truly is a great "tabletop simulator". Once you've learned the basics of the controls, you can join and play almost any game, as long as you can find the players for it. I've tried a variety of online and digital board game apps and websites like boardgamearena, iOS apps like Splendor and Agricola, and some other implementations, but this is by far the best tabletop simulation game I've ever experienced in terms of freedom and flexibility. I highly recommend it for board game or tabletop fans who want some tabletop games to play on their computer or who can't meet up with people in real life as easily to play games with.