Abstract games aren’t my normal type of board game. I don’t have anything against them, but often I want them to pretend that they have a theme. Stuff like Calico, Kohaku, or Sagrada, they are abstract games. But they pretend to have a cat/quilt, fish, and stained glass window making theme. And they do a good job of infusing that. That is all to say, Quarto is a straight up abstract game. A nice looking one but very abstract.

How To Play Quarto

The game is pretty simple, you are trying to get four in a row based off of one of four different things. You can get your four in a row by height, color, shape, or top. By top, some tops have a divot cut out of them, others don’t. That isn’t too complex for what you are doing.

Where the twist comes in is that I pick the piece you place on the board. And you pick the piece that I place on the board. So I need to look through all my piece options while placing to make sure I can still keep you from winning, and vice-a-versa. The player who puts down the piece for four in a row wins.

What Doesn’t Work?

If I had a complaint about the game, it is that the decision space of the puzzle can be a bit limited. You make a decision or two really. Place a piece, give a piece. Now, that is an interesting decision on where you place or what piece you give. And that’s the point, it’s supposed to be a strategy game of picking what won’t let your opponent win and make them give you a piece to let you win.

What Does Work?

I like the giving of the piece to your opponent. That feels different. I am familiar with the game connect four, and that is simple. Quarto feels like more depth is happening but all the while keeping the simple systems in place.

I also like that the game is fast. This might sound like a negative, but when I play an abstract game, I want something that gives me good decisions and a short time frame. If I want to play something longer, I want there to be a lot of theme. And Quarto definitely doesn’t have theme, so make sure the game plays fast.

Who Is This For?

The abstract gamer in your life (or that might be you), will likely like this game. There are fun but simple decisions to make in the game. I actually think that Quarto is probably a good game to introduce to middle school kids or upper elementary. It’ll help them think through things in a different way, but also is simple enough to learn. It almost feels a bit like a light Chess, if Chess were Connect 4.

Final Thoughts on Quarto

I don’t like Quarto that well. I think it is a fun abstract game, but I don’t find the decision space interesting enough. And I don’t think that there is enough variety in play. BoardGameCo did a video talking about that a while ago where even though Chess isn’t variable, it feels different with different players. Quarto doesn’t give me that feeling. The games that I’ve played, they feel the same.

And that’s the knock that I can’t get over. The decision space is just limited too much for it. I can sit down and puzzle out every piece and how it could be used to create a row once there are enough pieces on the board. And I’m sure a very good Quarto player could start laying a trap early. But I don’t think it’s interesting enough to get that good.

That said, I don’t think it’s a bad game, I can see what it is doing. I can just say that Quarto isn’t a game for me. I think that a lot of abstract gamers would love it, but I want theme. Even if it is basically an abstract game, give me some sort of theme on it.

My Grade: C
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: B

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