Ticket to Ride: First Journey (iOS) Review

The junior edition of the famous track building game Ticket to Ride has made it to the app store in its full glory. It offers everything the physical copy has, but in digital format for easier on-the-go gameplay, as well as the ability to play solo, which is a really great feature for this version.

The goal is to build tracks by playing same coloured cards to connect the cities on the tickets given to the player, first to six tickets wins, and there are some bonus points to be gained by a feature called coast to coast which rewards players for connecting the coasts, a feat that is sure to cost more than a couple of turns normally. Ticket to Ride: First Journey is a light version of the original, similar to Monopoly Junior. While this might make it into a great entry point to board gaming, it comes at the cost of the gameplay for more seasoned gamers.

Experienced players might get annoyed by the fact that too much of it all is going to be settled due to luck of someone drawing into two or even three scoring tickets in a row, snatching victory out of nowhere. Others might also be annoyed that many choices given in the full game has been removed, such as the train line that players can pick from instead of drawing from the train deck if desired.

It can easily be argued that the gain in simplicity due to these changes is minor as the original Ticket to Ride is by no means a complicated game to play, and if holding back a bit can easily be enjoyed with children as a grown-up. However, as this is an app it is quite easy to let the child play and learn the game on their own in a neat manner, or simply playing with a sibling without having to worry about any of them swallowing those colourful train pieces.

There is, however, a couple of problems with this. First, the sometimes really long animations that show which line has been created, and, second, the difficulty to see one of the most important parts of this: wow many train cards the opponent has in hand. Both of these issues can become really annoying after a while, especially as this part is very relevant later on in the game to weight in whenever or not to draw trains or digging for better tickets.

All in all, Ticket to Ride: First Journey is a faithful digital version of the board game that is extremely good as an application as it removes tiny parts, and makes it easy for children to play on their own versus AI opponents if the parent is busy. It is a good entry port to the franchise. Experienced or older players, however, are strongly recommended to try the original Ticket to Ride, as victory in Ticket to Ride: First Journey is a little bit too dependent on luck and there are a couple of choices too few for people looking for a deeper experience.