Jason & Susan

In recent development, Ticket to Ride has become a popular game to play among our circle of friends. The game was created in 2004 by Days of Wonder. The premise of the game is pretty simple. Players collect various types of train cars to build routes linking different cities together. The goal of the game is to earn the most points by accomplishing goals (building connecting various cities), building train routes, and/or building the longest route.

The original game is the North American edition. There are other versions including Ticket to Ride: Europe and Ticket to Ride: Märklin. The game also has several expansions that add interesting dynamics to the game play.

Being a huge fan of Settlers of Catan, we find that Ticket to Ride lacks the interactive component that makes Settlers of Catan such a great game. In Ticket to Ride, the most interactive part of the game is sabotaging other people’s mission(s) by blocking their route(s). This happens when one player purposely or unintentionally build train tracks on routes that another player needs. As a result, that player is forced to take a longer detour to accomplish his/her goals.

Nonetheless, Ticket to Ride is a fun, easy game to learn and play. It takes about 5 minutes to learn the game and approximately 45-60 minutes to play. It is a great family game and can be used as a teaching tool to introduce the general geography of North American (or whatever edition you’re playing).

Our rating: 4/5