From the sea to the river
In the box decorated with great graphics you will find a lot of hexagonal tiles, 4 pieces per player, and a few additional tokens. The components are legible and solidly made, although the cardboard tokens and tiles could be thicker. Not everyone will like the graphic style, but it suits my taste. The table game looks good and encourages you to play.
Higher and higher
During their turns, the players spend movement points by moving the salmon tokens on the tiles in the shape of a river. You can swim or jump out of the water – which is especially useful for avoiding obstacles and other fish. At the end of the round, we add new tiles upstream and remove the lowest ones – which means that we cannot delay in the race. After a few rounds, we add the destination – and the scream, which will be our point track. The earlier we get to it, the more points we get for a given chip. The player with the most points wins.
Lest it be too easy, we will encounter many obstacles and dangers on our way Against the tide . These will be waterfalls to jump, stones and eddies blocking movement, water currents not always directing us where we want, and hungry predators. Bears will catch our salmon when we jump out of the water, eagles when we enter their fields, and herons when we stay in the wrong place at the end of the round. A limited number of salmon can fit on a given tile, which may result in the path selected in the previous turn being blocked by opponents.
Watch out for the bears
After the first enthusiasms, the weaknesses of the game become apparent. The need to use all traffic points and a simple route analysis allows you to narrow down the decision to move to a few safe spaces that we can reach. As a result, in Against the Current, every move will be calculated and we will not experience unexpected, clever moves. After a few games, we will easily notice the optimal route, which is not worth escaping from, and the variability of the layout of the tiles will not introduce enough variety.
In the game, it is quite easy to block other players, making those left behind have to make less optimal moves, slowing them down even more. Without sacrificing a few of their fish, they are unlikely to outperform the peloton.
The proposed variants of the game change little: movement tokens do not actually affect the game, and the whirlpools and currents only slightly diversify.
Nevertheless, the Race Against the Tide requires a lot of thought and gives you a lot of satisfaction in avoiding obstacles without losing fish.
The end of the road
Upstream has an interesting theme and an inviting appearance – if the game does not require the depth of decisions made, it can work as a short racing game. I believe that children younger than those suggested on the box of 8 years old will understand the rules and will be able to play on their own. The game works well for two people, and the more players, the more going on and the more interesting it gets. With a full five in the river it can be very crowded and you can lose a lot by getting stuck.
