During 2025, Parks, the popular and highly rated game on BoardGameGeek, is a Top 200 game. This Edition makes some welcome updates to the game, including adding some of the expansions and improved components. Like many other Keymaster Games, Parks is wonderfully designed with custom-coloured wooden pieces. From the orange mountains to the individual wildlife tokens which feature eagles, bears, and of course, bison! The artwork of this game is wonderful, capturing each national park in its unique light and beauty. One look at the artwork paints the picture of Parks’ distinctive theme, from fish to huge canyons and extra-terrestrial landscapes.
Parks takes place across the spring to fall seasons in the vast US nation. Each season, players collect resources like trees, mountains, water, and sun to be able to purchase parks. These parks have unique requirements of resources and provide the bulk of points a player achieves. Alongside these, you can purchase germs, which give additional resources or actions at various locations on the board. Additionally, pictures can be taken, as well as refreshment gained from a personal canteen. These canteens allow for even more resources or actions to be triggered on a turn.
Parks has that slow-building engine feel. While different from more pure Euro-style games, the collection and spending of resources wonderfully tie the theme into the mechanics. Having use of two workers each turn and making the decision to move forward is always a tough call to make. Hikers cannot backtrack and have to move towards the end of the season, so timing of each element is crucial. You may want to speed ahead to grab a certain item, but it might mean you skip a lot of good spaces along the way.
Parks is a game for anyone who likes nature and interesting places to visit. Outside the theme, the gameplay is certainly a worker placement but has similar feelings to Wingspan or Flamecraft games. A touch lighter than heavier titles but still strategic and fun for new and old players alike, the randomisation of different locations each season and objectives makes this game have a huge amount of variety. Plus, the addition of the camping module allows for an interesting spin to games. Once added, you’ll be playing every game with this expansion!
I cannot wait to try Parks out a little bit more before my full review – but expect a gold-rated game; it’s just a delight to discover vistas of possibilities.
