I don't think anyone would argue that— with the exception of Magic: The Gathering— no game has generated as much excitement in recent years as Klaus Teuber's Die Siedler von Catan. That game of trading and development on a randomly-generated island won the Spiel des Jahres, sold like rosaries at Armageddon, and will soon be produced in English by Mayfair. It's only natural for all eyes to be on Teuber and his next creation, Entdecker. It's also no great shock that lightning hasn't struck twice.
It's not that Entdecker's a bad game. It's just not a particularly good one. It's attractive and can be entertaining, but it won't generate the level of excitement of a Siedler, or even an Adel Verpflichtet, another Teuber success. The biggest criticism against the game is its almost complete lack of player interaction, which is usually the kiss of death for me (cf previous discussions of the Mayfair nRails system). Entdecker is spared that kind of derision because it plays in under an hour and that time passes quite pleasantly, albeit randomly.
Entdecker puts 2-4 players at the helm of sailing vessels exploring the new world. The board, a large rectangular grid, begins completely empty (unexplored). The world gets discovered by flipping over island tiles and placing them on the board. Players receive a random income at the start of each round and may spend money to set sail. A ship can start from any location which has access to an unexplored square of the grid. From there, a player spends one gold for every tile he intends to flip. There are five different types of tiles representing various landforms and sailing lanes. A tile can only be placed onto the board if all of its sailing lanes and landforms match those on the tiles it touches— kind of a geographical domino system.
If a tile fits in one of the spaces adjoining the ship's location, it is placed there. If it fits in multiple locations or orientations, the player can choose which to use. The ship then sails onto that tile, and if there is land there the captain can spend more gold to establish a presence on that island. If he does so, his turn ends. Otherwise, if the captain has paid for more tiles this turn, he may continue exploring.
When an island is completely discovered, meaning that its coastline has been defined, it is scored. Its base value is the total number of tiles which make up the island. Scoring tokens, carrying a value of 1-4 points, are awarded to all players with more than a minimal presence on that island, and the most valuable of these tokens adds to the island's value. The player with the strongest presence scores the island's full value, the next scores half, etc.
Some tiles have a question mark on the back, indicating a special feature which will effect an explorer if that tile is played onto the board. Half of these are good (3 victory points, an extra scoring token, 3 gold) and half are bad (building costs double, lose half your gold, immediately end your turn). Tiles are chosen from five randomly-dealt piles, allowing courageous captains to take a risk when question marks appear but letting cautious captains avoid them.
The game ends when all spaces on the island are filled. The player with the most scoring tokens earns a bonus of one point per token, and the winner is determined.
The competitive scope of Entdecker is mostly limited to whether or not to build on an island on which an opponent is already established, giving the game the feel of multi-player solitaire. Nothing much happens in Entdecker. In games with lots of small islands, there isn't even the climax of completing a large island and seeing who emerged with the big score. The endgame bonus has made the difference in virtually all games I've played, which makes the winning strategy one of scoring lots of small islands (thus earning more tokens) rather than going for a big one.
For some, there's nothing to hold their interest. I find it to be fairly brainless, but a fun diversion. I suspect, however, that its appeal will be short-lived and will soon find itself banished to a desert island in my closet.