I have been considering this game for years!  this year I finally bought it for my 8 and 10 year olds.  I wasn't sure what all the hype was about and could hardly believe that there're were so many positive reviews.  It is like no one gives it negative reviews.  Well, after playing, I can understand why.  It is a really fun game and has a lot of replay value.  The instructions were fairly clear, although I had to reread a couple of the sections because I was confused.  The best thing is to read them and start playing and some of the confusion clears up as you go and refer back to the instructions.  I think we will play this game quite a bit.