Parks: Second Edition Review

"Parks plays over three rounds-spring, summer, and fall. Players move two hikers along a trail, with each space yielding resources to stash in their backpack. Eventually, you'll trade these to visit a park or gain end-of-season bonuses. Visited parks score points at game's end, and sometimes grant bonus resources. Like any well-prepared hiker, you can also acquire gear, share a campfire, and fill your canteen."

"I am a longtime fan of the original Parks, as well as the Nightfall expansion and I often play. With the new version, the iconic National Parks poster art was gone. The game trays (meant to look like logs) were now cream instead of bark brown. And for purely sentimental reasons, where was the Cuyahoga Valley National Park box cover? I turned away from Keymaster's booth and went exploring elsewhere."

Initial impressions were negative because the second edition removed the iconic National Parks poster art, changed game tray color from bark brown to cream, and omitted the Cuyahoga Valley National Park box cover. Subsequent play revealed the second edition preserves and refines the original gameplay. Parks is a light-to-medium worker-placement game played over three rounds where players move two hikers to collect and trade resources to visit parks and earn end-of-round bonuses. Gear cards, campfire tokens, and canteen tokens modify resource flow and interaction. Early acquisition of gear and canteens is advisable. The new edition includes an excellent rulebook that improves learning and setup.

Read at Board Game Quest