Next Station Paris Board Game Review

Released back in 2022, Next Station London became a big hit. The game ended up being nominated for the best board game of the year. With its success the game has spawned a number of sequels. Next Station Tokyo was released in 2023, and the newest game Next Station Paris was released this year (2024). I enjoyed Next Station London quite a bit when I checked it out (check out our review). I haven’t had the opportunity to check Tokyo out yet. When we received a review copy from Blue Orange Games, I was excited to check out Next Station Paris. Next Station Paris is pretty similar to the other games in the Next Station series. It is another example though of why the core gameplay does a great job balancing simple gameplay with a surprising amount of strategy.

In Next Station Paris your goal is to build the most efficient metro system for the city of Paris. You will draw four different metro lines with the goal of connecting to different sections of the city. Cards are flipped over with symbols on them. To extend your metro line you will connect your current line to a station that matches the symbol from the revealed card. You will score points from visiting different districts, visiting monuments, and having multiple different lines reaching the same stations. The player that scores the most points, wins the game.

If you want a more detailed look at the rules of Next Station Paris, check out our rules post.

If you looked at our rules post, you may be a little overwhelmed by all of the rules for Next Station Paris. Don’t worry, I kind of was as well when I first looked at the rule book. Looking at the number of rules you would think the game would be really complicated. It is a little overwhelming at first. The good new is that while the game has a lot of rules, most of them are really straightforward. It will likely take longer to explain to a new player than you would typically expect. Once you start playing the game though, things are really straightforward. I would say this is a case of the game seeming a lot more complicated than it actually is.

This is an interesting dilemma. People that don’t play a lot of board games may be a little overwhelmed if they get a glimpse of the rulebook. After the initial explanation though, they likely will have few if any problems playing Next Station Paris. You mostly just flip over cards and try to connect stations to your current line that have the matching symbol. Most of the game’s difficulty comes from figuring out how to most successfully build your metro lines.

This is one of the best and most interesting aspects of Next Station Paris. On the surface you are only drawing lines to stations that match the current symbol. There is considerably more to the game than that though. There are quite a few different ways of scoring points in Next Station Paris. You need to figure out how to balance them in order to maximize your score. For each metro line you need to focus on three things. First you need to make your line reach a bunch of different districts. At the same time you need to have one district where you visit a bunch of different stations. On top of all of this you should visit as many monuments as possible. This is just scoring for the individual line. You also need to use the overhead crossings and connect several different lines to the same stations.

All of this is a lot to consider when choosing where you want to draw each line. There aren’t enough cards each round to do everything that you want to do. Therefore you need to choose what you want to prioritize. Do you want to maximize the score of each individual metro line? Or do you want to focus more on the end game scoring? You have plenty of scoring options. These introduce a lot of strategy into a game that seems pretty simple at first glance.

This is probably Next Station Paris’ greatest strength. Every game will be different. There is no way to know what order that the cards will come out in. You will eventually develop a strategy that you will try to follow most games, but there are always ways to try and improve your score. The more you play the game, the better you will get at finding ways to maximize your score in each area. For how simple the gameplay is, there is a lot of strategy in the game. At the end of the game you likely will look back at your lines, and see what you could have done differently in order to score more points.

While I liked the strategy of Next Station Paris, I do kind of wish each round was a little longer. Part of this is due to the fact that we had a tendency to have shorter rounds. Still I wish the game had a couple more cards. This would have given players more turns to expand their lines, and give them more opportunities to score points. In too many rounds it feels like a metro line is really starting to come together, and then the round ends. I wouldn’t add too many cards, as it would become too easy to score points. I think two or three more cards would have given you a few more options without making the rounds last too long.

Next Station Paris is ultimately a fun and satisfying game. Most games will take around 30 minutes which seems about right. It is long enough that it doesn’t feel rushed, but it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Sometimes it can be a little stressful if you are the type of player that has to try and maximize every single turn. The game as a whole is really laid back. You can put as much thought as you want into each move. There is no time crunch. It is the perfect type of game that you can play when you want a small break.

Like its predecessors, Next Station Paris is a pretty solitary game though. You can play the game with as many players as you want, but there is no real player interaction in the game. There are basically no differences between the solo and multiplayer versions of the game. Basically each player is playing their own game, and then you compare your scores at the end of the game. If you are looking for a game that has a lot of player interaction, you likely will be disappointed by Next Station Paris. If you don’t mind that the game is a more solitary experience, I think you will really enjoy your time.

For those who have played either Next Station London or Next Station Tokyo, Next Station Paris is going to feel pretty familiar. While each game in the series has its own unique twists, the main gameplay has remained basically the same. I haven’t played Next Station Tokyo, but Next Station Paris did feel quite a bit similar to London. I would say there are three main differences between the two games.

First the scoring is slightly different. In London you score points each time you crossed a river. Players score points for visiting different monuments in Paris. London also has monuments, but they are scored cumulatively at the end of the game. This change doesn’t have much of an impact on the game.

The second difference is the addition of overhead crossings. The overhead crossings are an interesting addition. First they give you more options when building out your metro lines. They give you more areas where your metro lines can cross. This allows you to mix your lines together to create interchange stations, without getting stuck in an area of the map that you can’t later get out of. The overhead crossings are also a good source of points at the end of the game. You should try to use them whenever possible.

The final difference is the shared objective and city gate cards. The other games in the franchise have their own shared objective cards. Each game has their own cards that prioritize the elements that are unique about each map. A lot of the shared objective cards in Paris are focused on expanding your metro lines to visit additional districts ,while passing through monuments and overhead crossings.

The city gate cards are unique to Next Station Paris. These cards basically give the players special abilities when they connect to the stations in the corners of the map. It is usually not all that beneficial to visit the corner districts since they are out of the way. These special abilities give you another reason to visit these stations though. They allow you to draw additional lines, which lets you expand your metro line further than you would normally had been able to.

The shared objective and city gate cards are completely optional. For your first game or two, I would probably not recommend using them. Once the players are familiar with the game though, I would highly recommend using them. Once you are familiar with what each card does, they don’t make the game much more difficult. They add quite a bit more to the game giving you new things to focus on, and the ability to extend your metro lines further. I would recommend using them in most games as I think they are good additions to the game.

There are differences in Next Station Paris, but ultimately it shares a lot in common with the previous games in the series. If you have played other games in the series, your feelings towards those games will very likely apply to Paris as well. If you never really cared for the other games in the series, I can’t see anything in Next Station Paris that would change your mind. Should you love the other games in the series though, I think you will love Paris as well. If you are somewhere in between, it ultimately will come down to whether you think the additions to Next Station Paris are worth picking up the game.

Having played Next Station London and Next Station Paris, I would say that I liked both games about the same. I think Next Station Paris is a little more complicated especially when you first pick up the game. This is mostly due to the scoring being a little more robust/complicated than London. Ultimately I don’t think I would consider either game to be significantly better than the other. I think your opinion will depend on which map you prefer, and which ways of scoring you think are more interesting.

Ultimately just like Next Station London, I really enjoyed my time playing Next Station Paris. At first glance the game seems a little intimidating, as it has a lot more rules than you would initially expect for a flip and write game. As you start playing the game though, you quickly figure out the game and it becomes quite simple and straightforward. The rules that seem overly complicated (but aren’t) come from the fact that there are quite a few different scoring options in the game. This is probably the game’s greatest strength as you have to figure out the perfect balance to maximize your score. There is a lot of strategy in the game for how simple it is.

There are two main issues that I had with Next Station Paris. First the game is a pretty solitaire experience. While you can play the game with other players, all you really do is compare your final scores to see who ultimately wins the game. Otherwise there is no player interaction. The other issue is that while Next Station Paris is a great game, it doesn’t differ a ton from the other games in the series.

Ultimately my recommendation comes down to your thoughts on the premise and previous games in the series. If you didn’t really care for Next Station London or Tokyo or you only thought they were okay, there is probably not enough in Next Station Paris to make it worth a purchase. If you have really enjoyed the previous games in the series or are intrigued by the premise, I think you will really enjoy Next Station Paris and should pick it up.