USD ($)
EUR (€)
Life in Reterra is a competitive polyomino game, based in a post-apocalyptic world where players compete to rebuild society through laying tiles and buildings. If you are familiar with the game Cascadia, imagine squares instead of hexagons, buildings instead of animals, and a few other rules sprinkled in!
Rules Overview
On each turn, players will begin by placing a land tile- either from the face up row of communal tiles, or your own personal stash of 3 tiles dealt at the beginning of the game. Each tile is split into 4 different terrains (barring ‘energy’ tiles, which lead into other scoring criteria at the end of the game), and- similarly to Cascadia- are scored at the end of the game for groups of the same terrain. These tiles may also have symbols on- relics, which score you points at the end of the game and with certain buildings; and gears, which allow you to place buildings.
Once placing a terrain tile, you can then place a building tile or inhabitant token on the tile that you just laid, providing it has a gear symbol on it. When placing a building, each space under the building must have a gear, and be the same terrain type- which is easier said than done when considering the different sizes and shapes of the tiles! Each building also has a different power, which can be used once placed. These powers vary according to the set up, which allows you to mix and match each time you play a game.
Once everyone has created a 4x4 grid of terrain tiles, the game is over and players score. Players score points dependent on the size of continuous adjacent terrain types, the number of energy sources, the number of relics on show, the number of inhabitants and buildings (which is dependent on the type of building, with some scoring more than others or certain criteria). In some circumstances you can also place ‘junk’ tokens on opponents boards to block certain moves, or just give them minus points. The person with the highest points wins!
Art & Design
The artwork on the tiles and generally theming of the game is bright, colourful and really visually appealing. The cartoon style crossed with elements of steampunk is great, and enjoyable to look at whilst playing- I’ve not seen much like this before. The building designs are inventive, and the design work extends to the manual also, really encompassing the theme.
However, the quality of the game itself is really variable. On the one hand, you have some lovely custom designed storage containers with the game, meaning there is great storage and not much space wastage in the box. You also have nice wooden pieces for the inhabitants, and solid thick cardboard tiles for the terrain. But then at the same time, the tiles for the buildings and junk are made from thinner and flimsier cardboard. Its not a major thing, but just feels like a strange choice, almost like they were added as an afterthought or they ran out of budget towards the end (considering the game was made by Hasbro, I doubt it was the latter).
Gameplay
Life in Reterra is a solid polyomino game, with nice gameplay and extensive replay-ability created by multiple rules/powers to choose from for each building on set up. We had a good time playing this together, playing several games to try out the different powers. However, there were a few small areas which did really let the game down and somewhat spoilt our enjoyment.
First of all, the rulebook. With such extensive options for different building powers available, you would expect a detailed dive into each building power to avoid any confusion or misinterpretation of the single line of text on the card. However, this was conspicuously absent, and led to a couple of occasions when we got to scoring where we realised that 3 of the players had interpreted the powers/scoring criteria of the buildings in 3 different ways. There were also a few smaller aspects that felt overlooked, such as it not being clear if the junk tokens should be treated as a finite pot or not.
The fact that you aren’t able to choose a random facedown terrain tile was also incredibly frustrating- this only left you with choosing from the face up tiles or playing from the three in your hand at the beginning of the game. With the gameplay really hinging on picking tiles with gears on, and which lined up with the correct terrain type, it really limited your options and meant that you were really reliant on the right tiles coming up and people picking from the face up stack to clear the way for new ones. It really put a focus on luck over skill in this aspect of the game, and would have been easily improved by having a mechanism where you can either pick randomly, or sacrifice something to wipe the entire row (similar to how you pay a nature token in Cascadia to discard the row and get new tokens).
Theming & Audiences
The post-apocalyptic semi-nature focused theming was interesting, and created a colourful tableau in the artwork- but I can’t help thinking that it could have been utilised so much better and in much more interesting ways. As it stands, this game feels like it could be any sort of polyomino game- about zoos, or modern day cityscapes, or a garden or something. It doesn’t feel like the theming- whilst nice to look at- lends itself to the game. Which is a great shame when we’ve seen similar theming through games like Earthborne Rangers, be so successful recently.
I’m also not really sure who this game is aimed at. The age on the box says 10+ Years, so its not a really young family game, and I think 10 years is possibly slightly generous. I could perhaps see a family with teenagers playing this- it has a fairly light level of complexity and skill, so I’m not sure it would really appeal to many other groups. And with so many other better polyomino type games out there, I’m not sure this one really does anything groundbreakingly different to peak the interest.
Overall
So overall, would I recommend you buy this game? Possibly, in very specific circumstances to those new to the hobby? But even then, I’d probably recommend other games in this genre first, such as Cascadia or New York Zoo. Life in Reterra is a nice looking, lightly complex game which has huge replay ability- but is sadly let down by a few overlooked issues in its delivery. And by being up against some similar, but much better games in the same genre.
Share