Great Western Trail: Argentina

Great Western Trail: Argentina feels like its designer returning to the high plains to remix one of his biggest hits without turning it into something unrecognisable. The spirit of classic GWT remains intact, but this is a distinctly different and heavier game: its additions ask for more thought than the systems they replace.

The key shift is grain, produced by the workers you need to collect. It takes over the role once played by progress on your personal engine in the original: that useful brake which stopped large payouts arriving before the little train had moved far enough. The economy is consequently more demanding to read, and less willing to let you settle into a comfortable rhythm.

The ports are a more abstract take on Rails to the North, and they give the game a clearer racing edge. It is tighter in some places and strikingly more open in others; the rules are broadly familiar, yet the range of viable strategies is wider, while player interaction comes from getting to the available opportunities first. The interesting decision is always whether to take the immediate return or commit to a route that may be closed by the time you reach it.

As a remix, I can only applaud the design. As a finished game, I am more divided, and I slightly prefer the original because it is less verbose. Even with that preference for the original, Great Western Trail: Argentina remains warmly recommended.