Top positive review
Fun, and quick to teach coop!
By AnotherVineReview on Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2023
My wife gave this game a try. I watched a how's it played, and that was easily enough to be able to teach my wife (not the manual seemed pretty clear, but I'd already seen a video on how to play, so I'm not sure if that made it easier or not). She commented that it had a nice flow to it, but was still super fast to get started with. Quicker than most games in our collection I enjoyed that it's setup so that each player uses the same board pieces, and it really helped collaboration and strategy, as upgrades meant that we could still move vehicles, but plan around each others efficiencies. I'll admit, the game was harder than we expected, and we lost pretty quickly on our first run after failing to keep up with demand. I also like the scenarios to try once we have mastered the standard "free play" mode. I feel that there is a lot of game here to keep us interested. My one big gripe about the game play is that the demand doesn't seem related to distance between locations. We had a game where our initial setup (which is based on picking a card of demands 1 through 5) where all the packages had to make cross map journeys. Demand quickly built as we had bad draws (this was in one of our first games, so we could also have just been poor at handling the situation). It just feels weird that the demand seems arbitrary like that... but it could just be me. It gets you into a place where it feels easy to ignore a couple low demand packages with long destinations, but then they build quick! Also, major props for the solo play. This looks like it'll be pretty easy to play solo, which is a big perk for me. Another thing - this game takes up a decent amount of table space. Nothing crazy, but definitely more than I expected. We used a standard dinner table, and it fit two players well... we may have been tight for more (in that case, moving the upgrade cards to a side table would have helped). Onto the negatives - The first is the box. Half of it seems well designed, with space for all the cards, however the other is just a couple large spaces for components. However, it's way oversized. There is so much wasted space in the box, and box space can be a premium for me. Also, I'm used to other games (Spirit Island for example) that include tons of baggies to help with your storage. I made the mistake of popping everything out of the cardboard without organizing it... and ended up spending at least twice as long on initial setup with sorting all the packages. The other thing to be aware of: this game feels like it would be easy to have an "alpha gamer" take over, if your group has that. This isn't uncommon issue for co-op games, and with sharing responsibility for manipulating the tokens on the board, it seems like it'd be especially easy for this to happen here. This hasn't ever been a problem with any game I've played, I just hear it talked about a lot in the community. All in all - this is a fun game, and I'm enjoying it. It could be better packaged to take up less shelf space, and falls into the trap of other co-op games. I'd definitely recommend it if it looks interesting to you!
Top critical review
Awesome idea for a board game that is a great value, but way too difficult to be enjoyed
By Zenkoto on Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2025
Express Route is a board game set in the 1950s about a brand-new automated package delivery company designed to keep up with the increased shipping demand with the popularity of catalog shopping. The large gameboard is a map showing cities across the United States. The gameboard is also used to keep track of the Demand, Active/Incoming Callers, Events, and Delivered Packages. Players begin by laying out their player boards (Control Panels) and placing Range and Load Tokens on their Vehicles. These tokens determine how much a Vehicle can move or how many Packages can be Loaded/Unloaded at a time. From there, players choose from a variety of Specialists, each with unique abilities and starting bonuses. The goal is to have eight Packages Delivered at one time before the Demand Tracker maxes out or the Event Cards run out. After set-up, players will take turns Moving across the map, Delivering Packages, and Upgrading the system. At the start of each turn, Orders are taken from the Active Callers depending on the current Demand Level. Then, the Demand Level is adjusted to reflect the Packages added to the map. Next, the top Event Card is revealed which may impact the game for that turn. A player may now perform their Actions by placing their Batteries (players start with three) into their Control Panel, choosing to Move their Vehicle(s), Load/Unload Packages, or Deliver Packages. At any point during this Action Phase, a player may use their Specialist Ability if applicable or spend Delivered Packages for Upgrades. At the end of the turn, the Batteries are removed from the Control Panel. Throughout the game, I enjoyed discussing with other players how to optimize my route to best deliver packages in a timely manner. The rule book also known as the New Employee Handbook provides an exciting intro for the game and explains how to the play the game with plenty of useful diagrams and gameplay examples. There are also convenient reference cards known as the Turn Order Checklist. The gameboard is a high-quality large six-fold board. The game’s components are also excellent quality with the Vehicles, Demand Pawn, and Batteries being made from wooden pieces. The rest of the components are made from thick cardboard pieces. The playerboards are great for tracking Actions with cutouts for the Batteries and current Upgrade Levels. The cards are top-notch with the Specialists being full-sized cards with a nice gloss finish and the Event Cards being mini-sized. I have a lot to praise the game about such as how the game offers a lot for the price. Besides the standard (Free Mode), there are multiple Scenarios that can be played that provide new challenges. Unfortunately, the game was way too difficult for my 2-player game. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the Demand Track filling up quite fast. Then, there’s the issue with some deliveries being spread far out. I tried playing this a second time after learning how to play and failing on my first playthrough. On my second playthrough, I still found my Demand Track filling up too quickly and struggling to meet the Demands. I went all out on increasing my Vehicles’ Range and Load with no luck. Sadly, I can’t recommend the game for now but I may come back to it with more players to hopefully figure out how to play better.
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