We picked this up for family game nights. We've only played it a few times so far, but we all really liked it. My kids are 11 and 8 and both were able to play by themselves. However, while the 8 year old understood how play when it was her turn, she failed to understand or comprehend the overall objective- which is to complete the routes you picked (and kept in your hand). At the end of the game, while she had the most points for the number of rail cars, she ended up getting the most deductions for incomplete routes. So that resulted in a number of tears on her end and her insistence that she hates this game. However, when an adult is helping her and she is frequently reminded of the objective, she did better. So, perhaps it's not the best game for an 8 year old to play on her own. It's better for slightly older kids or if an adult helps the younger ones. Even so, we enjoyed the game and plan to buy the European version as well as more games from Days of Wonder.