The Destiny cards feel very much like TTR's Route cards, and the Adventure Card drawing mechanics are very similar. But I LOVE the combination of the players into a single "drone" to gain control over. It takes the general "competitive solitaire" play of a Eurogame and fakes a cooperative feel while actually being directly competitive (the bidding mechanic is very clever!). Instead of stealing routes from other players, maybe you can take a turn or two off because you're secretly being "dragged" exactly where you want to go by your "teammates". I think THAT will appeal to some of them, without violating any "no direct combat" philosophies.

I kinda dig TTR, but ridiculously enough, my biggest problem with it is the STERILE playing field: it just LOOKS dull. Isla Dorada looks ALIVE. The board, the cards, even the blocking figures (which could have just been two brown and blue stones) appeals to me much more (the Shaman makes me laugh). And just like TTR's "another country" expansions, Isla Dorada could just make a few different "neighboring islands".

This...might work.

I definitely have my eye on this game. I really look forward to reports from Essen on what people think. I like the look and theme, but unless it has stellar reviews it is a try before I buy game.

It's interesting that I found this trend just after rewriting the short presentation of the game on my website and making a (boastful) comparison with Ticket to Ride..