Colt Express Review

Time to being the train robbery!

Quick Info
Reviewed by:	Mark Goninon
Developer:	Asmodee Digital, Frima Studio
Publisher:	Asmodee Digital
Release Date:	18 Nov 2016
Time played:	3.7 hours (INCOMPLETE)

I was a big fan of board games in my youth and still love playing them (when I manage to get the time and friends/family over) but about two decades ago, a friend of mine introduced me to the world of Eurogames or German-style board games with one of the best known in this genre: Settlers of Catan. Over time, I introduced my friends and family to these games and played Carcassonne, Agricola, Dominion, Puerto Rico and Ticket to Ride with like-minded friends who were also board game addicts. About a decade ago, a couple of my friends raved about this Western-themed board game called "Colt Express" where each player represents a train robber following a sequence of commands you planned prior to your turn. The goal of the game is to steal the most money but the reason it's tricky is that you can't assume that anyone or anything will be in the same spot after you've already given your instructions.

The game was a big success and won the "Spiel de Jahres" award in 2015 (one of the most prestigious board game awards). Colt Express, like many other board games, would eventually receive a digital adaptation that you could play on Windows. I acquired a copy through the Humble Board Games Bundle back in November 2018 which also included Pandemic, Splendor, Harald: A Game of Influence, Abalone and Agricola.

Each of the six characters have five chapters of their story to unlock

Luck of the Draw

The game offers you the ability to play the game solo or multiplayer (more on the multiplayer, or lack thereof, later). In terms of the single player, the very first thing the game does is teach you how to play through a tutorial. It seems effective at teaching you the ropes and after completing the tutorial, your single player options are either playing Story Mode or a standard mode where you get to play the game against bots.

In Story Mode, you get to play different levels with a specific character. There are six available characters in the game and each gains a special ability they can use during the game. For example, Tuco can shoot people through the roof, Belle cannot be targeted by a gun or punch if she is standing next to another bandit and Doc can draw seven cards instead of six. Each of the character's stories are split up in five chapters and as you progress through them you'll unlock extra pages of a comic that details their origin story. Much effort has gone into getting the art style and music for this game just right, and it's clearly inspired by spaghetti westerns in terms of the moral ambiguity of the characters and music. Best of all, every character in the game even has their own unique theme music which I thought was a nice touch!

Just like the real board game, there is a heavy reliance on what cards you draw and due to the random nature of drawing cards, you might get a hand that is not entirely suitable for the situation. This isn't too much of a problem in a standard game where the goal is simple (i.e. earn the most money) but when playing the story-based missions, sometimes you require a particular card in your hand to complete it, and despite being able to draw cards multiple times, you can still be unlucky, meaning you have to restart the mission and hope you get the right cards and the AI-controlled players are in the right positions. It can get frustrating.

Certain rounds could potentially help or hinder your chances of success

Cowboy Coding

The fact you're essentially providing instructions to navigate your character around the level means the game feels like an exercise in programming at times. The only problem is, other players are running their own "programs" in parallel meaning things can get messy real quick. Thankfully, the entire game isn't just blindly following instructions since it would get rather boring if that were the case: you do get some choice when playing cards, such as which direction to travel, which direction to shoot or who to punch. This means there is at least an opportunity to change your plan mid-way and still gain some kind of benefit, although other times, you just have to bite the bullet and accept you've wasted a turn.

Sadly the multiplayer servers seem to be down permanently

Past its Best Before Date

In general, the game is fine as a single-player board game adaptation but single player isn't generally the reason you play board games: what you want to do is play multiplayer! Unfortunately, at the time of this review, it appears the multiplayer servers are down meaning it's impossible to play with another human being (although even when I tried playing this game when the servers were still active, there was still hardly anyone around).

Another problem is that it doesn't appear you can actually buy the game anymore off Steam. It looks like the only way you'll get a chance to try this out is if you buy the game from a key reseller.

7

A well done digital adaptation of the Wild West train robbery game "Colt Express". Story Mode is fun but does rely on the right cards in order to successfully complete them, meaning there are many times where you're simply unlucky and will need to restart. It's not a bad single player game but I unfortunately can't recommend it as there is no multiplayer anymore.

If you like this game, you might like…

• Ticket to Ride (2012)
• Spendor (2015)
• Pandemic (2018)