One of my non-gaming hobbies is road trips. Specifically, motorcycle road trips. My husband and I own a big touring bike that we’ve loaded up and ridden through multiple states (17 and counting if anyone was curious). So when I learned there was a game celebrating California Highway 1—a road legendary as a road trip destination—I couldn’t pass it up.
Highway 1 is a bucket list road for road trippers for many reasons, it’s the longest state road in California and has some of the most beautiful and varied scenery you can imagine. The game Big Sur invites you to build this beautiful road and highlight some of its famous landmarks. I haven’t had the chance to ride Highway 1 yet. So I was excited to get a crack at Big Sur.
Rev your engines and let’s get started!
Soundtrack for this one:- your favorite road trip playlist of course!
Gameplay Overview:
At the game start you are dealt two road cards. Five additional road cards are placed face up on the table. These five cards are the ‘depot’ and are available to players at the start of each round.
Each round starts by selecting two new road cards from either the deck or the depot, or one of each. You spend cards to play cards. Road cards require resources to build them onto your road. They also provide the resources you need. Once you’ve spent the resources, you add the played card to your road and discard the spent cards into your own personal discard pile.
The goal is to build your road with stretches of scenery. A stretch is three or more of the same scenery icon on consecutive cards. There are five total scenery types. Once you have a stretch of a particular type of scenery, you can place corresponding landmarks selected from the line of landmark cards.
Two options exist for additional resources. Some road cards have persistent resources; these are available for use once per turn once they are played into your road. You can also recycle the top-most card of your discard pile. Taking advantage of these additional sources means that you can play multiple road cards in a single turn.
You score your road based on miles per stretch and bonuses from road cards and landmark cards. Highest score wins.
Game Experience:
This game reminds me strongly of PARKS in its overall feel and pacing. It’s not an overly complicated game, with just the right amount of strategy and planning to keep you focused. It helps that the resource provided by the card in the face-down deck is on the back; it lets you know what resource is coming up to help you plan your move. There is still a luck factor, though, since you don’t know more than that first card.
If you play your cards right (literally), you can stack up resources from persistent resources and recycled resources for some really impressive turns. My husband is especially good at this. I will still play with him, though, even if he does regularly win.
Those persistent resources can be a huge help, and it’s really beneficial to have multiple persistent resources available. It can get a little confusing which persistent resource has been used, especially if you have multiple of the same type. I wound up using wood discs from another game to keep track of what I had already used.
It’s a lighter game with engaging artwork and a fun theme. For a small box game, it can be a surprising table hog. Once you get the hang of the rules, you can build long roads if you can keep track of which resources have been used and which remain available. Each corner of the road cards has important information, which means you can’t easily stack them or slip one partially beneath or over another to save space. If the game were a little smaller (or the table on my deck was a little bigger), this would be a great game to play on the patio on a summer evening.
Final Thoughts:
Big Sur is a good game for a lazy afternoon or evening. Short rule set, quick to learn, accessible to non-gamers. The deck is built based on player count and is balanced so that all players have the same number of turns. A competitive game with no take that aspect keeps it an easy-going game. Big Sur is light, fun, and has an appealing theme. This one will stay in the collection to get played while we are revving up to plan the next road trip.
Final Score:
Final Score: 3.5 Stars – I am ready to hit the open road after playing a few rounds of this game. Box is small enough it can travel easily, just hope there is a table long enough for it at your destination.
Hits:
• Persistent resources and recycle option adds good flexibility
• Artwork links nicely between cards
Misses:
• Some rules have awkward wording
• Needs more table space than you expect
