I don’t do Kickstarter or Gamefound, not because I don’t agree with the concept, but I’ve never felt I could give up a chunk of money for delivery x months or years in the future. It’s part cash flow and part instant gratification when I do spend money on games.
Nonetheless, I do follow the game campaigns that are posted there, mainly through preview and play videos on YouTube. A lot of the time, I start them, get a feel for the game and go “Ah, that’s probably not for me”. Other times, I make a note of something for when it hits stores probably a year in the future. Once in a great while, I get really excited about a new game and follow its progress until I can get my grubby little hands on it.
Qualifying for the latter is Trekking Through History. I watched the playthroughs (a few of them) and was really attracted to the gameplay and the general game design.
For those who haven’t seen info on the game, it’s the latest in the Trekking series (Trekking the National Parks, Trekking the World) from Underdog Games but, in this one, instead of traveling around a map to obtain stones and souvenirs, you are in a time machine going out on three separate journeys through history.
The key is that you must do each journey chronologically and the only dates you can visit are from five draftable cards on the table. Each chosen date gives you experience tokens which you can use to try and fill up your itinerary. It also will tell you how far you have to advance on the clock.
There are also ways to manipulate the hard and fast rules of time travel. Crystals let you save time on the clock and Ancestry Cards can let you alter the timeline.
Currently, the game is rated 2.00 out of 5.00 on the BGG weight scale, a bit harder than the other two entries in the Trekking series.
The art for the game is impressive, ranking it up there with Parks and the back of each card has a short history of the event being displayed.
Then there are the choices made for each of the points in time.
Here we see the first man to ever miss his plane flight:
The first duel at forty paces on the moon:
The first time a man was hit in the crotch with a ball:
Madame Currie toasting her work with radium and the long life it will give her and others:
Native Americans giving directions to settlers on the way to the cliffs:
The first time the words “Oh, Crap!” were uttered in the western U.S.:
It really looks like Underdog Games has nailed it with this one and I can’t wait to play.