Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 60-75

The Game Components

Journey to the Center of the Earth comes with a set of attractive game components, including:

The Game Board: A four-panel linen-textured gameboard that shows the three parts of the Journey to the Center of the Earth: the trip down the dead volcano, across the underground sea, and out the erupting volcano.The first two parts of the journey have grids full of obstacles and finds, which create an interesting gameboard, but also look a bit busy.

Plastic Bits: These include three small explorers, in red blue, and yellow, plus a raft used to carry them across the underground sea. They're all nice bits with good detail.

Water Stones: A set of blue glass stones.

Cards: There are a total of 120 normal-sized cards (including explorers, equipment, sea adventures, and bonus cards) and 80 half-sized cards (including fossil cards and event cards).

They're all glossy and of medium weight. The majority of them contain gorgeous artwork by Franz Vohwinkel. Only the equipment cards really need iconography, but these icons are easy to read and beautiful too.

Rules: A 4-page glossy rulebook with plenty of illustrations and some examples. I found it a bit intimidating to read because it's got lots of text, but it was OK once I sat down and plowed through. However I felt like there were a number of ambiguities. For example, which equipment you could use once on a turn and which more than once wasn't as clear as it should have been. I was also never sure if the multipart skeletons required an exact match of parts to earn points. We came up with rulings for these (and a few other) issues, but I would have preferred not to have to.

Overall, the components of Journey to the Center of the Earth are good quality and attractive. The abstractness of the board and the relatively small quantity of bits kept it from earning quite a perfect score, but I still give it a strong "4" out of "5" for Style: very good.

The Gameplay

The object of Journey to the Center of the Earth is to earn the most fame by gathering fossils, exploring new terrains, and surviving sea adventures. It's mainly a game of card management.

Setup: The three explorers are placed at the top of the dormant volcano. Each player is given 6 explorer cards and 3 equipment cards. The explorer and equipment decks are shuffled and then 3 equipment cards are placed face-up.

The Explorer Cards. These are cards that show one of the three explorers by color: blue, red, or yellow.

The Equipment Cards. These are cards that show one of the five types of equipment: rope, pickaxe, compass, hardtack, or electric lamp.

Order of Play: On his turn a player either takes 3 cards-which can be face-up equipment cards, face-down equipment cards, and/or face-down explorer cards--or else plays explorer cards to move.

Moving an Explorer: Any player can move any of the three explorers. He does so by playing up to five cards of the appropriate color. Each card can be used to move an explorer one space, orthogonally, except when certain terrains override these basic rules. Over the course of a turn, an explorer must be moved at least one space forward (down the volcano) and as much as desired to and fro, but never backward.

Obstacles & Other Special Spaces. There are several types of obstacles. Granite prevents movement altogether. Ravines can only be crossed with ropes. Rocks cost 1-2 extra cards to enter the space.

In addition, some spaces give special benefits. Crossing a Hansbach space gives a valuable water stone. Crossing an event space gives an event card, which could offer an immediate bonus or might be something you can save. Ending your turn on a discovery space allows you to collect fossils.

Equipment. Most of the equipment can be played with your explorer cards to improve movement:

• A pickaxe allows movement through rocks without extra cost.
• A compass allows a diagonal move.
• A rope allows the crossing of a ravine.
• A hardtack allows two extra cards worth of movement.

Making a Discovery: Each discovery space shows between one and three equipment icons, one of which could be a wild card. If a player ends an explorer's movement on a discovery space, then he may discard the depicted equipment to make a discovery; he takes a number of fossil cards equal to the number of equipment cards he played.

Using a Lamp. Playing an electric lamp with the discovery cards allows the player to draw 2 extra fossils, but he must discard 2 of them. (It allows him to more easily collect sets.)

The Fossils. There are a variety of fossils. Unique fossils are worth 2 fame. Skulls come in sets, worth 0 or 5 points, depending on whether you have both parts. Skeletons come in 3 parts, worth 1, 3, or 12 total points depending on how many parts you have. Gold and quartz each increase in value depending on how much you have, with values running 1-3-6-10-15-20-... .

Ending the Descent: The descent ends when an explorer moves into the final space. That player takes the 4-point mushroom forest card. Next, each player must discard one water-stone for each 3 fossils he wants to keep. Finally, all the explorers are placed on a raft at the edge of the underground sea.

Traversing the Underground Sea: The next phase of the came works much the same as the descent with a few changes:

• All the explorers now move together on a raft, but each player can still only play one color of cards to move the whole raft.
• Whirlpools replace ravines.
• Whenever a discovery is made, every player gets the option of playing the equipment to get fossils.
• At the end of each turn when movement occurs, a sea adventure card is drawn. This typically has a good effect if a specific explorer card (or cards) is discarded or else a bad effect is avoided if the appropriate explorer cards are discarded. In each case, the active player gets first shot, but if he fails to play the cards, the sea adventure continues around the table.
• Whoever moves the raft to the last space of the underground sea gets a 4-point city ruins bonus card; no water-stones are required to keep fossils at this stage of the game.

Riding the Volcano: Now the raft bursts up through the active volcano. Cards are randomly drawn for how quickly it moves. Sometimes, fossils are lost unless players discard specific (random) equipment.

Ending the Game: After the ride up the volcano, the game ends. Players add up their fame from fossils, sea adventures, the two location cards, and any remaining water stones. The player with the highest total wins.

Relationships to Other Games

Journey to the Center of the Earth is a tactical movement game depending on card management. Based on that simple explanation, it reminds me somewhat of Blue Moon City, Marco Polo Expedition, or Around the World in 80 Days (which is indeed another Verne-themed game).

I think Journey to the Center of the Earth is lighter than Around the World and considerably lighter than Blue Moon City. Though there's still some opportunity for tactical cleverness, it's a lot more chaotic than either of those two due to player interactions. It's of a more similar weight to Marco Polo Expedition (though I think the chaos is higher here).

Dorn is probably best known for his heavier games, The Traders of Genoa, Goa, Louis XIV, and Arkadia. This game is really in a different category, highlighting much lighter, more family-oriented play.

The Game Design

I think my description of Journey to the Center of the Earth as a "family game" is correct. Because everyone is moving the same characters, there's a lot of chaos. You can never be sure that you'll get to actually use the cards you're collecting. It's not just that other players can take cards ahead of you (though they can) but also that they can move the explorers to totally different places on the board.

Nonetheless, there is still some depth to it. With good card collection and careful planning you can make some really good moves that get you multiple fossils or else one of the bonus cards. In other words, the choices in the tactical movement are meaningful.

I could see the game outlasting its welcome if being played by players who were very methodical, refusing to advance explorers past the minimum possible amounts. But, those also aren't the players that the game is really directed to. For family gamers, the game should last a reasonable time, commiserate with the relatively light depth of the game.

Overall, this is a nice family game, and in that niche I've given it a high "3" out of "5" for Substance: slightly above average. However, it's probably not sort of game that a fan of some of Dorn's heavier releases will be looking for.

Conclusion

Journey to the Center of the Earth is an enjoyable game of card collection and tactical movement that will appeal best to the family crowd. For that audience, it should be a good game that older children and adults alike will enjoy. It's also a great adaptation of Jules Verne's book.

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