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Strap on your boots and let's go for a hike. A hike through iconic sites and national parks across the US. Observe beautiful landscapes, nature and grab a photo or two whilst you are at. Trails is a standalone squeal (of sorts) to Parks. In Trails, players will be hiking back and forth along a trail, collecting rocks, acorns and leaves, taking pictures and encountering wildlife to gain bonuses. At the end of the trail you can exchange your resources to earn badges and then head back down the trail.
The trail are made up of different tiles. On a player’s turn they can move one or tiles along the trail in the direction you are facing. Where you stop will dictate the action you can perform but they involve gathering resources, exchanging resources and taking photos. Photos will grant you points at the end of the game. Once you reach the end of the trail you can exchange your resources for badges which count towards end game scoring. As the sun sets throughout the game it moves from the end of the trail to the beginning of the trail and makes the action spots on the trail more powerful.
Players have a resource limit of eight and the game ends when one player reaches the trail end and the sun token is on the leftmost spot on the sun track. Each other player gets more turn. Points are awarded for the player who has the most bird icons (gained from photos and badges), from badges earned throughout the hike and photos taken. The player with the most points is the winner.
The above is an overview of the rules and hopefully gives you a good idea of how the game plays.
Final Thoughts
There is one thing for sure about this game and that is that the artwork is gorgeous and the overall presentation of the game is very nice indeed. But what is the gameplay like, well, lets find out.
First off, Trails is a fairly straightforward resource management, set collection game. The action spaces themselves are very easy to understand and the gameplay is light and breezy. Combine this with the lovely looking artwork and you have a game that is accessible and nice to look at. Parks is ideal for family gaming time or an end of night filler.
The decisions you have to make in the game are relatively straightforward with respect to what you can do on your turn. This keeps the downtime to a minimum and keeps the engagement levels high. I enjoy the changing action spots as the sun sets and the spaces get more powerful on your return trip. There is some luck involved in drawing the photography cards, but you have the option to draw from the discard pile or draw two and discard one which adds some nice decision space in the game.
The badges are on display so you know what you can aim for with respect to resource gathering. You can also see what your opponent has and is possibly aiming for. This adds a race element to the game which can be quite fun. Players can get lucky when new ones are revealed that perfectly match what resources you have (or not) which can make it feel a bit swingy. There are ways to mitigate this so I would not consider it a major issue.
Overall, Trails is a light, accessible, lovely game. It is quick to play and easy to teach and you can’t go wrong really. It may be too light for some but taking the game for what it is, it does what it sets out to do very well.
