Around the World in 80 Days - Review

I like to travel. I like to get away from the routine of daily life and
escape to another place where my biggest concerns are what I'm going to
eat for dinner or what museum or theme park I'm going to visit today. I
have grown to enjoy the process of getting to the destination. So, it
probably doesn't come a huge surprise that I enjoy a good travel game.

And while I don't have plans to travel much past either coast in the
United States in the next few months, I can at least play like a world
traveler with the new Kosmos game brought to our shores by Rio Grande
Games: Around the World in 80 Days. Unlike actual travel, however, this
game is never dull and is much easier to play than trying to make that
connection at Chicago's O'Hare.

Based on the classic book by Jules Verne, each player is part of a large
bet with the other players to see who can race around the world in the
least amount of time. The layout of the board includes several stopping
points in various large cities. Between those cities, the route is
marked with some combination of train and ship cards. To travel between
those cities, players need to play the appropriate cards. For example,
to travel the first leg of the trip from London to Paris, you need to
play a ship card and a train card. Players place those cards on the
discard pile and move their token to the next stop.

The cards in addition to having a ship or a train on them also have a
number. That number indicates how long (in days) you spend using that
particular type of transportation. In our previous example, if my train
card had a three and my ship card had a six, it would take me nine days
to travel from London to Paris. I would move my day tracking token
forward nine spaces to indicate the number of days I have taken so far.

One nice mechanic in the game is that if a trip takes two of a
particular card, I can play a pair of matching cards and take only one
card's worth of days to travel. If I had a pair of ships with a six and
I'm traveling from Hong Kong to Yokohama, I would only move my day
tracking token forward six rather than twelve. This is a huge bonus to
planning for later in the game.

However, the game is not just picking cards and playing them. Also
thrown into the mix are event cards and the detective. Event cards are
pretty basic in that they give players a bonus, but lurking in the deck
are cards that not only add days to your trip but force players to
return their unused event cards to the deck for reshuffling. Since
there is never a good time to loose a potential bonus, it makes each
turn of the event deck, well, an event.

The detective is even more of a hindrance to moving on in the game. If
you end your turn in a city with the detective, you add two days to your
day tracker that you spend in 'questioning' with the good detective.
While I will not go into depth on how you move the detective, let's just
say that he is a valuable tool to keep your opponents from racing too
quickly to an insurmountable lead.

As with most Kosmos / Rio Grande games, the components are fantastic.
The board is big and fun to look at, the cards are slightly above
average, and the other bits are solid and well made. Definitely, they
designed the game for repeat playings, which is a good thing considering
how enjoyable the game is to play. If anything, it almost feels a
little over produced, but I am of a mind, it is better to over produce
rather than under produce a game.

Around the World in 80 Days is a great addition to anyone's gaming
library, especially families who are looking for another game that is no
more complex than Ticket to Ride. Elegant mechanics lead to an
enjoyable gaming experience where players don't need to concentrate so
hard conversation stops during the game. This makes it an excellent
bridge from more social to more strategic games. While this isn't going
to crack my top five games, it is a welcome addition to my game
collection and should see many plays as my friends and I see if we can
make it back to London in less than 80 Days.