I love negotiation games. Of all the game types, negotiation games are perhaps the games with the highest factor of player interaction. Having a game where you depend on the other players to win is always something special. From perhaps the grandfather of all negotiation games, Diplomacy, to the more recent Traders of Genoa, gamers have always been trying to outdeal the other players and come ahead as the winner. And it´s always a pleasure when you manage to achieve a sweet deal between you and another player.  

That´s why I like Chinatown. It´s a game totally based on negotiation, and it shows. The player with the most money at the end wins, as simple as that. But the fun lies in the way to get money. 

The board is divided into various blocks of properties, each property numbered. The first action to do in this game is to draw a number of cards that depict each property, choose which cards you want and then discard two cards. The cards that remain in your hand are the properties you own. After placing your markers in the properties you own, you draw tiles representing stores that can be placed on your properties. After that, it´s trading time, and it´s this trading that represents the heart of the game. After everyone has completed their trades, they can place the stores on the properties. After that, you receive money based on how many stores you have and if stores of the same kind are linked in your properties. You see, the stores come in variable sizes, from 3 stores to 6 stores, and if you manage to get and connect stores of the same kind to have a complete store you´ll get a lot more money from them. At the end of the game you draw bonus cards, but my group found this too unbalancing and adding too much of a random element to the game. So we decided not to play the bonus cards.

 As I´ve said, the trading is the heart of the game. If you follow the rules, the game is based on complete open-information, which may be of the dislike of some. But the trading certainly is fun! You can trade everything you have in your hand, be it properties, money or stores and you can trade them for the same things. The trading phase really does shine in this game, and those who love negotiation games will certainly be pleased to know that this game is about, almost entirelly, negotiating with other player through trade. It´s a game that´s been designed around the trading phase and it shows.

One thing I really like about this game are the rules. They are made in such a way that you can modify them almost anyway you want and the game will stil shine. Of all the boardgames I have, this must be the game that is the easiest to change the rules. So if you don´t like open-information trading, you can change it to adapt your tastes. If you don´t want to discard property cards or if you want to discard more than two property cards, you can do it. There are lots of variants for this game, which only shows how easy is to change the game´s rules.

 So is this a good game? Definetely! If you love negotiation games, then you simply can´t pass without having this game. It´s all about negotiation and trading. For those who don´t like negotiation games, then this boardgame probably won´t appeal to you at all. I must say, however, that this game is quite good as an introduction to negotiation games. Personally, I really like this game. You must be good at the art of deal-making, although not as good as if you were to play Traders of Genoa. It´s simple, fast, with games ending in less than an hour, and fun. What else could you ask from a boardgame? Recommended, even if it´s now out of print.

8/10