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With the constant release of new titles on the Xbox Live service, it's easy to get lost in the shuffle of mediocrity. Gaming gems are overshadowed by the flood of sub-par titles on a weekly basis. Such is the dilemma of Ticket To Ride, a fantastic title in danger of being washed away by turds.
Ticket to Ride is another popular European board game, arriving on XBLA alongside Catan and Carcassonne. The premise is straightforward. You get several destination tickets with two American or Canadian cities. Your job is to connect these cities with some of your forty-five train cars. Connections between cities are broken into smaller routes. The routes are color-coded, though, and to finish a particular route you must have cards of that color. Need to fill in a three-track yellow line? You'll need three yellow cards to do so. You only start with a few cards, so you'll need to draw a bunch to get enough to connect your cities. It takes a bit of luck to get the cards you need to complete the pieces of your routes. On the bright side, if Lady Luck isn't looking your way, there are wild cards to help you lay some track. Additionally, some routes are gray, which means you can use cards of any one color to claim them. Of course, your opponents have the same strategy. Connecting the destinations on your tickets earns you points, and the player with the highest total is the winner. You have to be careful not to bite off more than you can ride when unfinished destination tickets are subtracted from your total.
It's an easy game to learn. Even starting from scratch, there's a good chance you'll win your first game. The best part of bringing a board game to an online service is that there is always someone to play. No more having to convince your not-so-nerdy friends to geek out by playing your train game. There are plenty of options when it comes to your opponents as well. You can play against easy, medium, or hard computer opponents or face off against other players via Live. In a nice touch, you can also play on the same 360 against friends or family. Whether you prefer one opponent or four, you can always get a game.
Despite its simplicity and reliance on luck, there is strategy to this express. Some opponents will place their pieces in the way of your planned route to keep you from an easy win. The hard AI is particularly aggressive, especially when trying to establish a route anywhere in your area. Challenging opponents aren't the only things that can derail your road to victory, though. One hindrance to your travel plans might be the color palette itself. I don't typically have difficulty telling hues apart, but some of the routes here are just a too similar in shade. The colorblind are completely out of luck, as there are no symbols to differentiate the colors, unlike the board game on which this XBLA locomotive is based.
Color concerns aside, Ticket to Ride is a purchase well worth the 800 points. I can't wait for the European and 1910 DLC expansions to bring some diversity to the title, while hoping gamers are willing to sift through some of the digital crap to find it. |
