In the beautiful rainforest, trees grow tall, plants bloom, and wildlife thrives among them all. While the ecosystem is full of a variety of life, it is always important to balance that life so that the ecosystem can continue to thrive. Beware of threats to your rainforest, and keep building it bigger, better, and more beautiful!

What Is It?

A drafting game where players are trying to grow their rainforest by collecting sets of plants, pairs of wildlife, and, of course, growing as many trees as they can as tall as they can. Each turn players will look at the 3 growth piles, one at a time, in order. If they choose to take the cards, they add their to their rainforest and refill the pile to 1 card. If they pass, they add 1 card face down to the pile before looking at the next one. If they pass on all 3 piles, they get 1 card from the deck. Players will go through 3 decks/rounds, scoring certain elements after each one. After 3 rounds, the player with the most points wins.

Who Is It For?

  • Ages 10+ – The game is fairly simple to play, but it does have a fair level of strategy, which might be harder for younger players
  • 1 – 4 Players – The main game is designed for 2, while the solo and 3 – 4 player games are variants. The game definitely shines at 2, but the variants are decent as well
  • Fans of drafting and set collection
  • Fans of a cute rainforest theme

Variants

Advanced Cards – This just adds in more variety to the decks and different abilities, scoring, et cetera. Definitely a nice way to change things up once you’re familiar with the game.

Shifting Seasons – Small deck which adds a new rule for each season such as only discarding 1 threat at the end of a season, or scoring additional points for certain conditions. This is another nice, and simple, way to add a little bit of variety to the game once you have the hang of it.

Solo – You play against an automa that just follows certain rules about what piles it takes, how it grows trees, and so on. It works really well, since it is very similar to the 2-player experience, and I think it’s a solid choice for a solo game if you are looking for a drafting game for 1.

3 – 4 Player – Again, very similar to the normal game, but there are growth piles between players that only those players can look at. This experience was fine, but a bit longer than I’d normally like for this style of game. I think I’d definitely recommend the game more for 1 or, at its best, 2 players.

PROS

  • Art – Beautiful artwork across the board
  • Components – The cards and cardboard tokens are all nice quality
  • Rules – Well-written and well laid out
  • Variety – There is definitely a lot of replay value between the cards, variants, and, of course, the strategy
  • No plastic in the packaging! There are 2 paper envelopes included to help store some components
  • Easy and quick set-up
  • Helpful player reference cards
  • Plays very smoothly; well-designed for the 2-player experience

CONS

  • I thought the box was a little tight for everything in it. The cards spill over the insert a little, and there’s too many cardboard tokens. The envelopes help with that a little bit, but then the tokens don’t sit flat
  • There are not enough point tokens when playing the 3 – 4 player variant. You constantly have to make change, which gets annoying
  • I don’t love that the variants are in a separate rulebook, I like when everything is all in one

Final Thoughts

So, I really used to like the game Sea of Clouds, which has the same kind of drafting mechanism, but I always felt like it wasn’t a great 2-player experience, so I was really glad to find this game!

I think the drafting works so well; there’s something really fun about passing on a pile and hoping the cards you need are in the next one, or hoping a threat gets added to a pile you think your opponent wants.

The player variants are okay, but I definitely think the game is best at 2, and if you’re interest in it, make sure that will be your main count. Overall, the game looks great, gameplay is smoothy, and it’s just a good time!

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 7/10

Designer – Tim Eisner
Artist – Vincent Dutrait
Publisher – Weird City Games
MSRP – $29.00 Retail; $39.00 Deluxe
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

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