Players: 2-4
Ages: 14+
Official Playtime: 30-75 min (which is pretty accurate)
Released: 2024
Publisher: Roxley Games
BGG Link: here.
Reviewed by Edward.

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Disclosure and foreword

1. I own a copy of the standard edition "Skyrise," which I bought myself. At the time of publishing this review, I don't have any affiliations with the game's creators or publishers. The opinions in this review are my own. Find the Review Policy here.

2. I try to be as objective as possible, but the review is based on my personal experience and includes opinions that you might disagree with. If you do, let us know in the comments below.

4. The review does not teach how to play Skyrise. This review does not fully detail all mechanics or teach how to play the game. It looks at the most important aspects, elements, and mechanics, providing an overall idea of the game's value so you can evaluate whether the game might be a good fit for you.

5. The article includes our original images. If you want to use them in your blog or socials, use attribution by linking to this article and "Joyful Games" as the image's creator.

Let's Find Out How Good And Fun "Skyrise" is!

Skyrise is among the buzz-games of 2024. As of early 2025, it already has almost 5000 reviews on BGG, so that is not a small number for a game released less than a year ago.

Its publisher - Roxley Games - has published other excellent games, like Brass: Birmingham (we rated Brass: Birmingham at 5/5), the Dice Throne series, Radlands, and other great games, but how good is its latest creation - Skyrise? Well - let's find out!

Skyrise, Explained to a 10-Year-Old

In this steam-punk-esque board game, you are playing the role of a real-estate baron who is competing and outbidding other barons (players) to build your real estate empire! But there is a twist - you need to build the buildings in the neighborhoods that give you the most bonuses!

p.s. Skyrise is not a particularly difficult game. Yes, some nuances make it interesting for strategy seekers, but the core mechanic is actually super simple, so it is a game I could easily see playing with a ten-year-old.

Skill Level: How Difficult Is Learning Skyrise?

Difficulty Rating: 2/5

• The game has some nuances (mostly regarding scoring), but the underlying mechanic is very simple. 
• A player who is proficient in board games could learn it from scratch in under an hour.
• You could teach it to other players in under 30 minutes.
• The rulebook is well-written, and you can also find many tutorials on the internet.
• Overall, the game is relatively easy to learn and easy to teach, so I give it a complexity rating of 2/5 (higher means it is more complex). 

Related: Methods for Learning Complicated Board Games.

Social Interactivity of Skyrise

Social Rating: 4.5/5

Skyrise is an auction/bidding game, so you cannot play it without interacting with other players—it simply is not possible. 

On the main board, players compete for neighborhoods where to build their buildings - but only one building can be built each turn - the one with the highest bid. Each building has its unique value - this value represents your bid. So, in a nutshell, all players take turns trying to outbid each other - or skipping their turn if they no longer want to participate in the bidding process. 

However - while it is a social board game at its core, you may still play it without speaking to each other if you don't want to.

Skyrise, Best Number of Players

Skyrise can be played with two to four players, and it provides rules for aligning the setup for each player count (the most significant adjustments are for two-player games), so it is as engaging for two players as for four.

But, of course, even with these adjustments, two-player games feel different from three- or four-player games.

While I personally enjoyed 3- and 4-player games as they provided the most excitement, dynamic, and strategy, the game is fun for all player counts, including two-player games.

Replayability of Skyrise

Replayability Rating: 3/5

When it comes to replayability, Skyrise somewhat falls short. If talking purely from the fun aspect, we easily had a blast playing it 10+ times, and it still kept being fun!

However, from a novelty standpoint, Skyrise provides little replay value (sure, Panorama and Wonder cards add a bit to the replay value, but not much) - for the most part, you'll be doing the one thing over and over again. Yes, as I said - that one thing is fun, but if you are looking for a game that could keep "surprising" you for multiple playthroughs - you might be disappointed.

Overall, I give it a replayability rating of 3/5.

P.s., at the time of writing, Skyrise does not have any expansions that could improve replay value.

What Did I Enjoy the Most About Skyrise?

Simple Yet With Depth

I mentioned this earlier, but on the surface level, Skyrise is an exceptionally simple game - in the best way possible. Yes, there are nuances, but if you'd like to teach the game by playing, you could do that in under 5 minutes because the bidding mechanism is super simple and satisfying!

While it is simple on the surface, Skyrise also provides strategic layers. Just get your expectations right - it's not a strategy game, per se. 

Buildings, Tokens & Playing Board

The standard edition includes wooden tokens as your buildings. The buildings are separated into three height categories and four colors (each color for each player). While the individual buildings are quite simple - after building them on the playing board, they look really good, bringing the playing board alive!

Also, the paper tokens are simple on their own, but placing them on your player board feels just right - not too small or convoluted. Just right.

Organized & Well-Written Rulebook

Sure, instructions are not the most exciting thing, but a bad instruction book can break a good game, so it's important nonetheless. Skyrise does not disappoint in this regard. While there were one or two minor rules that needed some quick googling, overall, it's well-written and well-organized.

Quick Setup

Sure, the first setup might take a bit longer, but the instructions give clear directions on what and how the game needs to be set up. And the next set-ups are a breeze. The longest part of the setup is placing the small tokens on the main board (it's a bit tedious), but I'd say getting everything ready takes about 5-10 minutes.

To recap, the key highlights of Skyrise

• Simple gameplay with strategic layers;
• Quality components;
• Great production value;
• Quick setup;

What Could Be Better?

Overall, Skyrise is a great game that brings a lot of fun, but it's not perfect.

Lack of Missions

The game has the Secret Objective, Panorama, and Wonder cards, introducing randomness and letting players think of strategies to fulfill these missions. While these cards are great by themselves, the variety is disappointing.

The Secret Objective cards basically are one objective with one slight variation. If there are 3-4 players, you can actually quickly figure out which player has which objective - making them barely a secret. These objectives are soooo easy to fulfill; we did not have a single playthrough where even one of us did not complete it, making these cards redundant.

While the Panorama Cards and Wonder cards are much better than the Secret Objective cards, they still lack variety. There are only 5 Panorama cards and 20 Wonder Cards, meaning that at least one Panorama card will repeat over 3+ playthroughs, and almost definitely, you'll get a repeat Wonder card after four playthroughs.

While I enjoyed the idea of these cards, the implementation and variety made me feel like this part of the game was overlooked.

Missed Opportunity: Main Board & Player Boards

This is not particularly a bad thing, and frankly, many board games have this issue, but I simply do not understand the decision to print out double-sided elements without actual functional differences (i.e., A and B sides).

I mean, Skyrise (like many other games) has main boards and player boards that are printed from both sides - why don't you make the A and B sides different? Sure, the player boards have different illustrations, but why don't you introduce some asymmetry on these boards? Sure, not all players want asymmetric elements - but including these elements would make many players happier. I, for one, would really like to have to see this option present.

Personal Opinion: Quick Mode

Firstly, I'd like to point out that the following point is not a negative - it's just something we tried ourselves, and I think it could be a fun thing to include as an optional mode.

Respectively, our playgroup made up a home-brew rule that after the first bid is placed, all players need to make their bid within 5 seconds. If they don't make the bid, they automatically withdraw from the auction. While we still enjoyed the game more than the normal rules intended, this quick mode was refreshing and engaging and an excellent way to play if you want to mix things up or don't have a lot of time.

Skyrise - Components and Art

Components

The core game of Skyrise includes a decent amount of goodies - 50 wooden building tokens + 4 scoring tokens, a game board with five island boards, four player boards, 30 playing cards, a bunch of paper tokens, and a good-quality bag.

P.S. If you want to increase the bling value, you can buy the collector's deluxe edition that has the aesthetics on steroids, providing dual-layer player boards, 3D ilands boards, and stylish & unique building miniatures.

Art and Design

The game is illustrated in a painting-style design depicting a steam-punk-esque future where cities are built on floating islands. 

The illustrations - from playing board to cards and player boards, are professional, consistent, and, quite simply, look nice!

In addition, the elements and text on the cards are clearly visible, the buildings are color-coded (and height-coded), the tokens are small but with distinct illustrations, and the cards are printed on quality paper, so overall, Skyrise definitely holds up in the art and design department.

Value & Final Rating of Skyrise

To know how good of a value a game provides, we must consider its price. 

Skyrise is a relatively new game, but it is available worldwide and across multiple stores and platforms, so when it comes to price, your mileage might vary. I bought it for 65 USD (including shipping), and I also see that 60-70 USD is the average price right now, so for this review, I'll use 65 USD as a reference. 

Skyrise: Value For Money

Value Rating: 4/5

The game includes a fair number of cards, a cut-out element, a big playing board, professional illustrations, and 50 wooden building tokens, making it a decently packed game, given its price.

And if we consider the polished mechanics, nice-looking art, fun gameplay, and many tokens, I give it a value rating of 4/5, making it a great value game.

Skyrise, Overall Rating: 4.5/5

Skyrise is beautifully illustrated and decently packed, and it offers simple yet satisfying and fun gameplay mixed with some strategic options. 

So, while it's not as good as the exceptionally great Brass: Birmingham, Skyrise is still an excellent game—especially for players who like board games without a million sub-rules and conditions.

It takes one board game mechanic (bidding/auction) and mixes it with area control and an engaging theme, making it a really fun time - for newbies and experienced players alike. 

Yes, it is not the most sophisticated game or the most innovative, and it has some drawbacks, like low replayability and lack of missions, but what it does - it does really good, and bottom like - we had a blast playing it! Overall, I give Skyrise a near-perfect rating of 4.5/5!

Most likely, Skyriseis not for players who:

• Strictly enjoy complicated, deeply strategic games;
• Dislike auction mechanism;
• Like games that require low interactions with other players.
• Want a game that has expansions.

Otherwise, Skyrise is an excellent choice for players who:

• Enjoys relatively laid-back games;
• Likes the auction mechanism (in a simplified form);
• Wants a game that can be easily taught to others;
  
• Like the steam-punk theme.

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