Ticket to Ride has a new PC game, but it’s not going down well with fans
Players will need to re-buy all expansions and are unable to play the previous app online.
Train game classic Ticket to Ride has received a spruced-up digital adaptation on PC. Unfortunately, though, it’s not going down too positively with players - and for good reason.
While a digital Ticket to Ride has existed for years, this latest adaptation adds new 3D graphics and animations to Alan R. Moon’s venerated game of collecting routes and completing tickets to score points.
On top of the new look, there’s a solo mode against AI opponents, which developer Marmalade Game Studio describes as having an “adaptive” difficulty level based on the gameplay of over a hundred real-life “master” Ticket to Ride players and millions of simulated matches.
As well as facing the computer, you can play against your fellow humans online in real-time or asynchronous matches. Both Ticket to Ride’s original North American map and its European map - from Ticket to Ride: Europe, unsurprisingly - are included in the game.
Unfortunately, despite the list of fancy new additions, the new Ticket to Ride is currently sitting at a ‘mixed’ reception on Steam, with just over half of players giving it a positive review.
Among the complaints noted by players are reports of crashes, a lack of features including end-game scoring, a cluttered user interface and the new animations making matches longer than they need to be, with no option to speed them up.
“You can play the game on [Board Game Arena] for FREE and the version there is better than this game,” one player wrote.
“This new version just made the graphics (arguably) better but made worse almost every other aspect of the game,” added another fan, who claimed to have over 600 hours in the previous version.
It’s worth noting that if you already own expansion maps for the original digital Ticket to Ride, you’ll have to buy them again (Europe aside) once they come to this version - something that has also raised the ire of players. That’s not helped by inclusion of a £30 piece of DLC for the new game in the “Round the World Ticket”, which will include the European expansion (which can be bought separately for £6.49) and nine more expansions. Your friends will all have to own the maps to play with you, too - you can’t buy once between you.
Making things even worse is the fact that the older Ticket to Ride - listed as Ticket to Ride: Classic Edition - and its DLC (which cost £15 for the lot) are no longer available to even buy on Steam as of October 3rd. While the game can still be played against AI or in local multiplayer if you already own it, the online multiplayer will be switched off in 2024.
At over £12, the new Ticket to Ride is almost twice the price of the older game’s £7 app too - and it sounds like you’ll be getting quite a bit less for your money, if reviews are anything to go by.