Last year, Carcassonne and Catan proved that board games could survive the
transition from tabletop to television. Xbox Live, with its integrated voice
chat and massive community, turns out to be an ideal place to stage a virtual
GenCon. Now it's just a matter of schooling videogame fans in the ways of the
board-game renaissance that's been quietly bubbling in Europe for the past
couple of decades. Ticket To Ride's cobwebbed rainbow of rail lines looks complex,
but the game is a close cousin of the newbie-friendly Catan. Players collect
color-coded cards until they've hoarded enough rail cars to connect cities.
It's easy to learn, but not totally Care Bear; players have plenty of
opportunities to channel their inner Daniel Plainview. Quick builders can drink
their opponents' metaphorical milkshakes, forcing them to find alternate routes
to their goals, or freezing them out entirely.
While the core experience is solid, Ticket To
Ride
misses more than a few opportunities. The game's tutorial teaches little more
than rudimentary controls. Catan catered to Poindexters and social butterflies alike
by providing detailed game statistics and animated emotes for expressing moods. Ticket To Ride
makes few concessions to either camp, recreating the board-game experience with
few additional frills. Sometimes simply making sure the trains run on time isn't
enough.
Beyond the game: In the years since its
release, the board game has been expanded with maps of Europe and Germany.
Hopefully we'll see these alternate scenarios pop up as downloadable expansions.
Worth playing for: The Xbox Live community
isn't always polite, but it does bring together players from three continents.
In the case of Ticket To Ride, international connectivity provides the
opportunity to trounce Germans in the kind of game they helped popularize.
Frustration sets in
when: Want
a hint of what colorblindness is like? Try discerning between Ticket To Ride's red and orange rail
lines.
Final judgment: It's hard to derail a
board game this good.