Base price: $XX.
2 – 5 players.
Play time: 20 – 45 minutes.
BGG Link
Check it out on Kickstarter! (Will update link when Kickstarter is live.)
Logged plays: 2

Full disclosure: A preview copy of The String Railway Collection was provided by Play for Keeps. Some art, gameplay, or other aspects of the game may change between this preview and the fulfillment of the Kickstarter, should it fund, as this is a preview of a currently unreleased game. 

I’m writing this review in a bit of a hurry since Spider-Man 2 and Super Mario Bros. Wonder dropped tonight and, whoops, would you look at that: I’m still a little behind on reviews. I never quite got back ahead on reviews after I got sick, and then video games are going to make this whole thing a mess with scheduling and such. It’s going to be a thing. But, we abide, and my rule for myself is that I can’t start Spider-Man 2 until this review is complete, and … well, it’s going to take like an hour to copy over to my console, so I’m pretending like this is an impressive display of willpower and not just a convenient excuse for passing time while I wait to play Spider-Man. Who’s to say? Either way, let’s dive into The String Railway Collection and see what’s up!

In The String Railway Collection, players can play one of two different games. The first, String Railway, is a game of connections and collections as players try to gain points by connecting various stations with string but avoiding crossing over their opponents’ strings. The second, String Railway Cubed, adds additional complexity by introducing a pick-up-and-deliver subgame where players work actively to create connections and move cubes to try and fulfill contracts and earn even more points! That one’s a bit more complicated, as it adds additional features around turn order and, as I said, contract fulfillment. There’s a lot of game in a little box, though, and the real-space components of the game make sure that every player is going to create a landscape that’s all their own each time they play! So start your engines (though it’s not a racing game) and get ready to lay out your rails. Will you be able to pull out a win? Or will you end up getting strung along?

Overall: 8 / 10

Overall, I think the whole String Railway Collection is pretty great! For me, there’s some mild frustration in that I think the games tend to play a bit better at higher player counts; there’s more interesting things happening and more inter-player interaction. More cubes to get moved, more stations to get played, and more string to lay on the board. I think there’s a certain amount of string you kind of want to see on the board from game to game, and (Cubed, at least) is a bit empty-feeling. In String Railway proper, you do play as two separate players, but I’m always a bit annoyed by games that claim to be 2+ but the two-player game is a two-player variant. It’s a pet peeve.

That said, let’s talk more about what I liked! I think both games are very flexible and dynamic to play. You’re going to get very novel landscapes from game to game, which I kind of love. You can engage a bit with it, thematically, if you want: name your town, name your trains, talk a little bit about what the place is like. You could even use the completed game as a setting for a little RPG, if that’s your kind of thing. I love games with a sense of accomplishment after you finish, and the expansiveness of it has a bit of a tiny garden energy to it, since it’s cute and friendly (even if it can get a little mean as you lay track to block players or, in String Railway, connect to certain stations to cost them points). I also really enjoy the player colors! They’re fun and a little pastel. We love that kind of thing. High interactivity makes for a lot of fun, even if you’re trying to dodge around other players’ nonsense.

All of this is to say that I think there’s a lot to like about The String Railway Collection! If you’re looking for something where you lay track and kind of see what happens, String Railway is going to be right up your alley. If you love that but you want to add a bit more complexity and dig into the game thematically and mechanically, String Railway Cubed is going to be more your speed. Even though reviewing games that have multiple games in them is, to say, a bit annoying as a reviewer, I do think it’s nice to have two games in a box that exist in conversation with each other. Neither is an expansion or anything; they’re two distinct games with some component overlap. I kind of wish there was some organization in the box to make that clear, but I really have been enjoying the experience in the moment. If you’re looking for a couple games that do some interesting stuff with string, you want to create dynamic landscapes with a fun game attached, or you just really enjoy trains, you’ll probably enjoy The String Railway Collection too! I certainly have.

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