Review #2 - Welcome To

'Welcome To' is a roll and write (or flip and write in this case, I suppose) game about creating your own little suburban town in the 50s America. It is also a game that, along with Ganz Shon Clever and Railroad Ink, is spearheading the resurgence of the genre as a whole, with everyone and their grandma releasing these types of games left and right. But is being part of the latest trend in board gaming all there is to 'Welcome To'? Does it have what it takes to stand the test of time or will it fade away into history just like the majestic mullet hairstyle did? Well, let me go over my impressions of playing the game and we'll see what answer I come up with by the end.

The first thing that got me interested in 'Welcome To' was the artwork. I'm a sucker for good board game art and the picture on the box, clearly inspired by retro ads of the 50s, instantly caught my eye. This art style permeates the rest of the game too, with lovely illustrations building the distinctive sense of suburban America during that time period, and bright, vivid colours giving a warm and welcoming feel to the whole game. Of course, at the end of the day, gameplay is more important than artwork, but you have to admit that it's a lot easier to bring a game to a table if it looks like you will be creating your own small town and not filling in something resembling a lottery ticket.

When it does come to gameplay, 'Welcome To' is quite straight forward, though it does change things up from your usual Roll & Write by swapping dice for three decks of cards. These get flipped every round, revealing new combinations of house numbers and effects which range from things like pools, parks and fences to abilities which allow to slightly change the flipped house number or even add a house with the same number in a street. Each player then selects one of these combinations, writing down the house number in one of their streets and resolving the effect. Overall, I really like the puzzle this creates - all of the houses in a street have to go in ascending order so while you may start the game thinking it's easy and casually writing down house numbers, you are soon left meticulously planning the placement of each house, weighing up how valuable each effect is and whether it's worth taking the 5 that comes with a pool if the only space you can fit it in doesn't actually have a pool to cross out or if it's better to leave the space open in hopes of a better combination.

'Welcome To' certainly rewards a forward thinking player, but I like that it also understands that mistakes happen and has mechanisms in place to help you out. Screwed up your maths and left 5 unfilled houses between a 6 and a 10? No worries, here's a card that let's you duplicate a house number! Totally messed up your house placement and have nowhere to put the low digit numbers? Just demolish a house and stick a roundabout in there, splitting one street into two! None of the flipped cards match what you need? That's okay, you can just not pick anything this turn! Of course all of these come at the price of some victory points at the end of the game, but having the options available adds an extra layer of strategy and makes the game more forgiving for new players.

There is however one major negative when it comes to this game. The box says the player count ranges from 1 to 100 and while I suppose you could pack a hall full of people and hand a sheet to everyone, at it's core 'Welcome To' is an inherently solitary experience. Don't get me wrong, it is still a nice puzzle to figure out, but, at least to me, there is barely any difference whether you are working on it alone or with a group of people as the only real example of player interaction here is everyone racing to be the first person to complete an objective card (and perhaps an occasional group sigh when none of the revealed combinations work for anyone).

It is hard for me to wholeheartedly recommend 'Welcome To'. It gets a lot of things right - it is prettier than some of other Roll & Writes, it is also not too reliant on pure luck as you will always 3 options to pick from, the puzzle it creates is interesting and the gameplay is solid. However, at least for me, the best thing about board games is the player interaction and as 'Welcome To' barely has any, I just can't see myself getting it to the table all that often. If I'm organising a game night, I want people to be talking, laughing and interacting with one another and not simply looking down at their individual player sheets in silence.

I will keep 'Welcome To' in my collection for the time being - I think it is still a very good game for a quiet night in. However, I don't think I will be taking it to any more game nights as the experience is not really enhanced by playing it with a group, nor does the game do anything to strengthen the bond between the people in that group. Therefore, in my opinion, 'Welcome To' falls behind many other board games (not necessarily of the Roll & Write genre) you can choose from for a good time with your friends.