Cargo Empire

I generally support MoIdeas because, even when it does not land, it at least tries ideas and experiments with mechanisms. Cargo Empire was its main Kickstarter for 2024 and, after the quite good Mini Rails and Mini Express, I expected a solid, shorter pickup-and-deliver game: something that brought a little of the charm of the genre’s heavyweights without demanding the time of an Age of Steam or Rolling Freight.

At its core, the game has you organising shipments: picking up cargo and taking it where it needs to go. It is a familiar foundation for the genre, with the satisfaction of seeing a transport network take shape on the table and having your decisions connect pickups to deliveries.

The flow of the game, though, felt more functional than exciting to me. You make your choices around those shipments, follow the development of your route, and coexist with the other players in the same puzzle, but I did not find the tension or interaction that would make every turn feel genuinely weighty.

Unfortunately, it does not quite get there for me. It is an extremely dry game; yes, it plays pleasantly enough, and I would not say no to another session. It simply does not hold my interest as I expected, nor does it leave me eager to bring it back to the table.