Near and Far

Near and Far is a game I’ve been itching to get my hands on for some time, so I was delighted to find it among the gifts I received for my recent birthday. As always Ryan Laukat’s distinctive art work does a great job of selling the game, but is what’s in the box worth the journey?

The TL;DR

• Beautifully Engaging

• Playing Two Games

• Slow Start

• Long Story Arc

Beautifully Engaging

There’s no mistaking a game by Ryan when you see it on the shelf. The art style is distinct without being too busy, clean but with real depth, I am, as you may have guessed, a bit of a fan.

I find myself asking questions about the characters and that draws me into his games. Near and Far includes the same wonderful diversity we saw in Above and Below as well as the glowgos and mechanical figures but adds pets and a wild-west edge that sit very comfortably in a fantasy space, a welcome change from the orcs and elves depicted so often.

Playing Two Games

The gameplays on two distinct boards; the town where you visit western staples like the saloon and the mine to prepare your group for travel and the wildlands where the action takes place and the story elements of the game come to life.

The Town board has an element of worker placement where your selection will limit other people’s options and potentially initiate a duel. This board remains constant through all games of Near and Far.

The second board is actually an atlas that unfolds and this is where the more adventuresome part of the game takes place. Each game you will use one of the eleven unique maps that contain different areas and paths for you to explore.

As you leave town you will emerge on this map with an amount of resources based on how well you prepared and the team you’ve assembled. These resources limit how quickly and how far you can explore as you spend them to reach further into the unknown. The result is that it’s likely you will return to town several times to replenish before setting out again.

As you reach various locations on the map you’ll build camps, encounter threats, create trade routes, find treasures and go on quests. This is the part of the game I really enjoyed. You need to plan which objectives you have the best chance to complete given the resources you have, where to build camps to increase your reach in the future and claim resources, but you also need to understand how quickly you need to do these things as the other players look to reach objectives first.

Slow Start

Overall the game has a lot going on and a great deal for you to learn before you start to play. The distinct differences between the two board’s means it can feel like you need to learn how to play two games before you start. There are also some rules, like duelling or the limitations on the types of explorers you can take adventuring with you, that I’m not convinced add to the experience.

Beyond the initial learning of how to play, the game starts with you woefully under-prepared and under-equipped to start exploring with any real chance of success. The first few turns are almost inevitably spent pottering around town gathering a team and adding to your ability to adventure. While this does build on the excitement and anticipation of your first journey out in to the wilds it does make for a slow start.

Long Story Arc

The counter to the concerns about how long you have to invest to learn the game is that if you do, it has a lot to offer with three different ways to play, the ultimate of which is the campaign mode. Played across 10 maps this gives you the chance to enjoy all the game has to give and is well worth the investment. It’s not a legacy game but it has a lot of story to tell and your character will grow as the tale of your adventures unfolds.

Unlike previous games that use an adventure book, in Near and Far these are all referenced directly on the maps, meaning you see the same adventures each time. While this may result in slightly less variety and replay-ability the upside is the ability for the game to tell a developing story that makes sense and interconnects in a logical way.

An absolute winner for me and a solid upgrade on his previous game Above and Below (which I still recommend highly).