If you’re itching to visit new locations, taking tours and collecting souvenirs along the way, then you’re ready to trek the world! What will you encounter on your journey? And will your trip be more impressive than everyone else’s? Let’s get moving, and fill those suitcases!
What Is It?
Open Drafting + Point to Point Movement – Each turn players will draft an itinerary card which gives them a number of movement points they must move along the connected lines, a dollar amount they collect, and the potential to earn souvenir cubes if they end their movement in the right region. Then players can take an encounter or tour card if they are in the exact right location, and can pay for the tour.
In & End Game Abilities – Players can collect encounter cards throughout the game which have various abilities. Some will be one-time in-game abilities, while others may help them score points at the end of the game if they meet the conditions. Players can also earn itinerary tokens while filling their suitcase which they can use for bonus abilities like extra movement, money, and more.
Set Collection – Players need to collect sets of all 4 different types of souvenirs to increase their suitcase points.
Who Is It For?
- 1 to 5 Players – Solo is good, very streamlined. I like the multi-player a bit more; it scales well at any count
- Ages 10 & Up / Light Game Fans – Very approachable rules and gameplay. Great welcoming game, or great for players who enjoy minimal rules with strategic play
- Fans of open drafting and a wide variety of in and end game abilities
- Players who are open to a different experience from the 1st edition of Trekking the World
Variants
Solo – Set your difficulty and play against an opponent deck that will place tourists on the board who will collect encounters. If they collect 7 encounters, they win. If you collect the right number of tours + suitcase points based on your difficulty, you win – It can be kind of tricky depending on the locations of the tours you need to collect, and the encounters since you need to prevent the tourists from grabbing them too quickly. But it does play very smoothly and it works well. It’s fun to try out if you like the game. I like how the difficulties scale, so you can see how well you can do as it goes up.
PROS
- Aesthetics – Very clean graphic design; nice art on the tour cards
- Components – Love the dual layer player boards; nice quality cards
- Rules are well-written and clear
- I like that the solo rules are separated
- Handy/clear reference cards
- Very smooth gameplay; turns are snappy
- I like that you always get movement and money and you have the potential for additional things (cubes, encounters, tours) depending on where you move to, so you never feel like you have a dead turn
- Plenty of variability with dual use encounter/tour cards
CONS
- Luck factor of itinerary cards; depending on player count and how the drafting goes, money or cubes can be hard to come by which can be frustrating
- I think the game title is confusing because it is very different from the 1st edition, so I think it may get, unfortunately, overlooked by some players
Final Thoughts
I enjoyed this one quite a bit. It has very clean gameplay. Light strategy, but you always feel like you have something to do – you’re always moving, and always working toward collecting tour cards. It can feel lucky at times, but it’s usually not bad because you do have a lot of cards to choose from.
It’s a very different game from the 1st edition, which I think is worth noting. Regardless of how you feel about that one, you might like this one more (or less) depending on what you like in a game. I found this one more thematic, and overall very approachable, streamlined, and a good balance of simple yet strategic. Check it out!
Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 7/10
Designers -Nick Bentley, Charlie Bink
Artists – Csaba Bernáth, Marta Danecka, Sebastian Koziner,
Aleksey Shirokikh, Alexey Shirokikh
Publisher – Underdog Games
MSRP – $50.00
Website
*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*
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