Review
Great Western Trail: El Paso
Great Western Trail: El Paso compresses the parent game into a cheaper, portable package, but mostly feels like a reduction. The cattle-card poker is still pleasant; it just has better siblings.
- Published
- 2025
- Designer
- Johannes Krenner, Alexander Pfister
- Publisher
- Lookout Games, Arclight Games, Delta Vision Publishing
- Players
- 1–4
- Playing time
- 90 min
German design has found recycling, and Alexander Pfister appears to be in charge of the bin. Great Western Trail: El Paso is bargain-bin GWT, with production that says “cheap” before asking to be called portable. It is a nice idea. So is a lava lamp.
At its core, it cuts down the original Great Western Trail: fewer buildings, less room for the machinery that made the larger game breathe. Then it attaches a few mechanisms borrowed from elsewhere in the series, as though spare parts were left on the workbench and somebody objected to waste.
Great Western Trail: El Paso is bargain-bin GWT, with production that says “cheap” before asking to be called portable.
EdgyJellyfish
The engine building and deck building remain, along with the familiar cattle-card poker that is still agreeable. Its new approach to acquiring workers gives El Paso its own small twist, but not enough to pull it clear of the shadow cast by its own title. You play, build up your little operation, study your cards, and remember how much more the full game had to say.
It is not bad, and anyone new to Great Western Trail could reasonably be taken with it. But for players who know its bigger siblings, El Paso is more a reason to play those again than a reason to exist on its own.
But for players who know its bigger siblings, El Paso is more a reason to play those again than a reason to exist on its own.
EdgyJellyfish
Source: BoardGameGeek
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