Let’s talk about games that you can play on an app. Not all of them are amazing, but some of them work quite well. The newest one that I picked up was the Point Salad app. Point Salad is a pretty simple game, so it should work well on an app, at least that is what I assumed. When I got around to playing it, was the Point Salad app good or was it a miss, because there have been some big misses.

How To Play Point Salad

I’m not going to go through all of it. Basically it’s an open drafting game. You either take two vegetables or one scoring card. If you take vegetables that is going to cause the scoring cards to change. If you want more thoughts on it and my full review, albeit from a while ago, you can find that here. The player with the most points from their vegetables based off of their scoring cards wins the game.

Simplicity of the Game

Point Salad is not a complex game. For that reason, I think that it helps how the app can work and how quickly you can pick it up and play. I did have the advantage of already knowing the game, but it is an easy game to sit down and learn. Though, the app doesn’t do Point Salad any favors in learning the game.

But the basic mechanisms of the game work really well. It’s a sit down and get playing game that the system can play against you. It doesn’t require too much complex development to where the AI feels like it’s good because it knows more. That means that the AI is not too easy for the game, but also that it feels like playing real people. Sometimes other people just get luckier on their draws.

Learning Point Salad

This is an area, though, where the app is lacking. Most games that I download offer one of two things. Either they integrate the rulebook into the app, or they give you a walk through. Now, as someone who knows most of these games, the integrated rulebook is fine. But I admit it isn’t as nice as a walk through or tutorial level to learn how to play.

Point Salad gives you a link to a PDF download. So, you leave the app. That to me is just weird. What is so hard about taking your rules, again pretty simple rules, and just creating a page in the app that looks like your PDF? I don’t want to leave the app. I close my apps that are open a lot, so what if after I read the PDF, I close and your app? Not a big deal, but not nice. And it doesn’t integrate into being a ruleset that I could look up during the game.

Final Thoughts

I like the app and I think that Point Salad works well as an app. However, I know the game so that gives me an unfair advantage when learning the game in the app. Mainly, Point Salad is such a simple game that I don’t really have to learn it. I already know it, and I don’t even need a refresher on it.

For people getting into the game, I do think that it’s a fairly big negative to not have the rules integrated into the app. So I can’t give it as high marks. And with the AI, I said that it feels like a person. I stand by that, the intelligence level and skill level feel real. The downside, again, is that they feel like someone who knows the game. That means if it’s your first time or first handful of times, it might thump you. Especially if the app is your introduction to drafting games.

Overall, though, I think as people learn it, it is a good game. I haven’t played around with the online mode. I rarely do because it takes a fast game and makes it slower. And I didn’t mention this, but on the app it is very fast, another good feature. I might play online or pass and play eventually, but right now solo against the AI works well.

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