Wondrous Creatures Board Game Review

A few weeks ago, Wondrous Creatures arrived at GamesReviews.com HQ and we have been playing the heck out of it over the past few weeks. First things first – this game is beautiful! If you haven’t seen our components article, be sure to check that out since we won’t talk about it here. But this game is beautiful – it looks great, it plays great, and it’s actually a ton of fun! Sorry we buried the lead!

Bad Comet has made some really beautiful games over the past few years and we have had the great fortune of owning them! Wild Serengeti was a fantastic puzzle-like game that was good, but too long in our opinion. Life of the Amazonia was one of our favorite games from last year, and we still play that one consistently today. Wondrous Creatures had some big shoes to fill, and they did so brilliantly.

I’ve seen a number of people call Wondrous Creatures that Everdell killer, and I can see where they are coming from. There are similarities here: you are collecting resources depending on where you place your creatures, and getting cards, bonuses, extras, etc. You’ll build out a small tableau in front of you as you play, although not as big as you do in Everdell, at least not to my knowledge. The cards you buy and build will give you bonuses, and these bonuses can have in-game impacts or post game impacts.

There are different creatures from different biomes, and there are synergies you will try to create to maximize your end game points. Your leaders will provide you unique benefits once unlocked, and these will help drive you to a specific play style. Whether you got the Kickstarter version of the game, or a copy at retail, there are tons of different leaders to pick and play as, which means you can have a somewhat unique experience for many games. And when you factor in the big deck of creatures, and changes to the map, etc. it’s a game that structurally remains the same, but strategically could be different. I love games like this.

The game looks cutesy but there is a really deep game here strategically. Figuring out where to place your creatures to maximize your cards takes a bit of thinking. A few wrong moves could get you in trouble for a few turns, and a few missed turns could be really bad for your final game. As you work to play cards and benefit from them, you’ll be keeping your eyes on the objectives you want to complete as that is where you get a bulk of your points. There are a good number of different end-game cards available to score, and competing with others to maximize points is fun.

Ultimately, the entire system in my opinion is very clever. How you obtain resources is a bit unique – it might be hard for people to understand that you get the resources NEXT to your creature, not where you place your creature. I think this makes taking up spots on the central board much more competitive and interesting. It results in hard decisions. I want those resources but I know I also want those on the other side of the board. But which ones are my opponents going after?

There isn’t a TON of player interaction, but those spots will get taken up quickly, and unless someone is collecting their creatures back, that board could become pretty full. But I was never overly frustrated, and could pivot my strategy rather quickly to adapt.

That doesn’t mean everything here is fantastic. I think this game runs a bit long, which is a similar concern I had with Wild Serengeti and Life of the Amazonia. I think you could house rule this game to make it shorter, but I do think you miss out on the most fun turns where you are really chaining things together. Otherwise, this is a great experience that I highly recommend getting!