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The root of all evil... but you can call me cookie.
United States
Gainesville
Florida
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Where to begin? I guess a review like this should rewind a couple decades. I was a young boy in a thrift store with mom. As always I make a beeline to the board games. Standing out in the pack is a bright red box and my young impressionable mind forces my hands towards this box. Even back then my first priority was inventory and sure enough it's all there. "Neat." I think to myself followed by "the rule book looks long." Never the less Career's was that first game that me stop and think to myself "I always though Monopoly kind of sucks." The resounding proof was here in my hands. The game instantly became my favorite roll and move game. Even then I realized the chance of the dice was being mitigated somewhat by the Experience cards...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
My friends who came over who were use to playing board games or Atari 2600 for hours on end were finding themselves subjected to this game. "Wanna know how you win?" I'd ask with a grin "I can't tell you how to win, only you know that." I've been mentioning this game for years to my gaming group but got little interest though to be fair there was some. Now a group of friends here on the geek have been talking about it and and it's a weekend my girlfriend and I have our kids so faimly night...let's play Career's. We ended up playing 3 in a row (and they were very cut throat at that) and there were requests for more...maybe tomorrow.
Alright so a quick overview of the game as I'm not one to reivew a game with full rules explanations. Roll and move as has been ascribed to this game certainly. You are attempting to achieve your own personally set victory conditions. You are given 60 points to which you must divide up amongst Fame (stars), Happiness (hearts) and Wealth (dollar signs). All the times are equally easy/difficult to achieve so a pure strategist is going to go 20/20/20 but what fun is that? Besides it's my nature to run most games money poor so I tend to have 7 on Wealth, 23 on Fame and 30 on Happiness but I've been known to change it up just to have fun. You run through this game chasing down different career paths to earn these things and also gain experience cards. Experience cards allow you to forego rolling the dice for movement by discarding the card and moving that many spaces. The cards are a value of 1 to 4 so this allows you a level of control over your movement that Monopoly never dreamed of. Opportunity cards are awards like candy and allow you to jump about the board to run down a new career path. There are bonuses for learning the same career more than once. College is available which increases your annual salary (the amount you get for passing the "GO" space which in this game is called "Pay Day" and you get double salary if you land on the space so use those experience cards wisely.) The first person to achieve their 60 points in their specified categories reveals what the wrote at the beginning of the game and wins. Simple as that.
There you have the crux of the game. Now can I honestly say this is a luck free game? Hell no! You still roll them bones and they can be cruel. Never the less that feeling of control you have from time to time is sweet in a simple little game like this. I guess some of the things that make this game stand is certainly some of the things mentioned above. Yet there are other things. Like no two pawns can occupy the same space so if you land on the space where another players pawn is you bump them to the Park Bench...but you can always be bought off. Name your price and if the player is willing to pay you they can stay there with you. Retirement in which if you have already been through one career path 3 times you may instead of rolling jump your way to the Florida Vacation where you earn happiness.
This is simply one of those little games that came out and was over shadowed by Monopoly's already secure place in the board gaming market and therefore because of the basic look of the game being similar to Monopoly didn't get the chance is so rightly deserved. Careers' is the game Monopoly masturbates to and whishes it could be. Is it a cutting edge game? No, not by any stretch of the imagination but it's a fun little game that plays really fast and should be given a opportunity to "wow" you. Winning Moves saw fit to reprint the game in with updated colors and and pretty box etc. but this game can always be found in a thrift store for cheap so it's just how you want to indulge. Perhaps you even have a copy on the shelf. Dust it off and give it a go, you'll have fun with this one from time to time.
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"L'état, c'est moi."
Canada
Vancouver
BC
Roger's Reviews: check out my reviews page, right here on BGG!
Who let this guy become wargame subdomain moderator anyways?
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Thanks for the review. It's always nice to see some of the older games get some love.
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Gordon Adams
United Kingdom
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Aaaaah, dear Waddington games: I love them. 
Well, I love all vintage games (and collect them), but the Waddington ones have always a special place in my heart.
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martin blackham
United Kingdom
belper
derbyshire
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Aaaaah from me too! Waddingtons! Such memories. This is the first 'proper' game I remember playing, (with my babysitter) aged about 4. It's got a lot to answer for!
And great to have a reviews of older games.
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thoia wrote: Where to begin? I guess a review like this should rewind a couple decades. I was a young boy in a thrift store with mom. As always I make a beeline to the board games.
That sounds excatly like me
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Marc Gacy
United States
Lafayette
Colorado
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Thanks for the review!
I just played a game last night and agree with you 100% on all counts (including the getting it cheap at a thrift shop part, which is where I got mine about a week ago!) We went into it with a settling-in-for-the-long-haul Monopoly mindset and got to a point where we went, "Wait a minute! This game is almost done! I better get some more hearts!" and then Boom! it was done. My 12 year old son ran to victory with a 15/15/30 mix. You are so correct in that you cannot underestimate the importance of the experience cards. Manage those well and you're in much better shape. We don't really use the "nasty" parts of the rules, but even so it was a great game.
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