Happy National Park Week! It’s hard to believe, but it’s been nearly three years since Parks was first released. I’m delighted that players are still finding joy in our game about hiking.
Last year, Parks received its first expansion, Nightfall, which allows you to camp out underneath the stars. Parks’ second expansion, Wildlife, adds variety in all things to the game and lets you encounter wildlife in a totally new way.
For the first time ever, we are adding new trail sites to Parks. This means that some advanced trail sites won’t be seen each game. The trail is full of surprises! Here’s a look at Memory Cliffs, a new trail site where you must let go of a photograph to truly live in the moment.
That’s right, you must lose a photo to gain one of each resource. This is the only situation in Parks where you lose points (other than losing the first hiker marker). Fortunately there’s a great reward to make it worth your while, especially during the Season of Chance:.
Those four resources can be used to visit a park straight from the top of the deck. Taking full advantage of the seasons is necessary for a successful hike. That’s why we’ve doubled the size of the season deck in Wildlife.
Along with new seasons you’ll also find plenty of new gear. Here’s a look at the Planner.
Planner lets you instantly reserve a park and you gain a wildlife each time you visit a reserved park (not just the park you reserved with Planner). Making reservations is a smart move, especially since some of the new park cards are quite enticing.
This new Acadia National Park is part of the iconic wildlife series featured in Wildlife from the Fifty-Nine Parks Print Series and Tom Whalen. All of these parks requires wildlife tokens to visit, which is another first for Parks. But don’t worry, there are some exciting new ways to gain wildlife (more on that in a moment).
Visiting Acadia also allows you to gain a canteen, which works differently in Wildlife. Whenever you gain a canteen, draw two canteens and choose one to keep and one to return to the bottom of the deck. This will make it easier to find the perfect canteen for your hike. Did I mention there are brand new canteens?
Finally, Wildlife introduces a bison wandering through the available parks.
Whenever you visit the bison’s park, you can trade a resource to gain a wildlife. Then, the bison moseys along to the next available park to the right. Once the bison reaches the end of the available parks, it loops back around to the park on the left and you get to replace one of the available gear cards (or all of them if you play with the Stampede variant). This ensures that new gear will always be on display.
Parks Wildlife releases this summer. Want to get it to your table for game night as soon as it comes out? Click here to sign up to be notified when it's available for order.
Enjoy the trail!
