Cascadia is a very popular boardgame about building Pacific Northwest ecosystems out of hex-shaped tiles and then populating those environments with various animal species. In 2022 the game won the German Spiel des Jahres award, essentially the biggest Game of the Year trophy in the tabletop industry.
We've seen more and more well-received boardgames getting the digital conversion these days, and now you can play Cascadia with your friends no matter where they are, as the game has just entered Early Access on Steam for $14.99.
The dilemma Cascadia presents is layered: you want to build big swathes of matching terrain tiles, and you want to put animals in specific groupings and arrangements, but you're forced to choose everything in pairs. If you want that salmon token, you'll have to take the forest tile with it, which only has space for bears, and that's going to mess with your plan for the foxes...
Adding in the variable-setup scoring cards that change the desired animal configurations each game, and considering the special pine-cone currency you can earn (which lets you break up pairs and choose exactly what you want) there's plenty of thinkiness to be had, yet the game manages to stay simple enough to be very family-friendly fare.
Check out the game on Steam to either play now or wishlist to get notified of the full release down the line.
Disclaimer: Thinky Games is part of the Carina Initiatives and may have professional relationships with individuals and businesses related to the subject of this article. Please see our Editorial Policy for details.
