PARKS

PARKS

As nature lovers, when we saw this game on online, we just knew we had  to get it. That’s why we were so happy to stumble upon this game just a week later in our local game store.

How to Play.

PARKS is a beautiful light tabletop game for 1-5 players from Keymaster games, with art designed by 40 different artists.
The goal of PARKS is to earn the most points while you play over 4 seasons. Each player receives 2 hikers to travel along the tiles through each season. On your turn, you can move 1 hiker to get recourses, discover wildlife, take pictures or visit PARKS.

As you set your first step in the summer, you end your trail in the winter. Each season, one additional tile is added to the line, which gives you more decisions and strategy to play with. You will want to plan out your route, as only one hiker can stand on each tile. Players also get a campfire which they can use once per season to visit an occupied tile. To set up a new season, you flip over a season card, which gives everyone a shared advantage for the round, and seeds the trail more resources. These provide an added benefit for the first hiker to reach each tile. You can spend the resources you gather to visit or reserve parks or buying gear upgrades at the end of the season. Visiting parks gives the most victory points, while buying gear upgrades often makes it easier to get  recourses or reduce the costs to visit parks. At the start of the game, every player also gets a secret objective that you can complete, success will give you either 2 or 3 more victory points.

Playthrough of the game.

At first glimpse, PARKS looks like a nice light game. But when you start playing, you realize this game has so much more depth and strategy what also makes it more fun to play. I found, I had to plan my trail carefully to get the most benefits from the game so you can visit more parks, but also to block my partner from getting his resources. The game forces you to make strategical decisions and those decisions get even harder as the seasons progress.

Other than that, the art in this game is just amazing. You can fill up your side of the table with the most beautiful parks and pictures of wildlife. I noticed I was so happy not only to collect each park, but also to reveal a new park card whenever an empty spot was created.

As for the meeples in this game. Every meeple is made from wood which contributes even more to the nature feel of the game. They are easy to play with and beautifully made. We also loved the high quality of the cards. The colors are so lively and vibrant and the cards are the perfect size to play  with.

PARKS also comes with an insert which is brilliantly made. It not only makes sure everything fits nicely in the box. If you play with two players, you also get 2 cases with meeples. This insert also makes sure you can do the setup for this game in 3 minutes, or clean it up in 3 minutes when you are done playing.

Final thoughts.

My partner and I love to play this game and it remains to be one of our favorite light games. We highly recommend to add this game to your collection. The art alone is already worth the purchase, but also the way everything is balanced gives you a lot of replay ability and thus a good purchase.