About game:

This is game about trees. About planting them, growing them and then chopping (!) down. Of course, you need the Sun for this – which changes its place every turn –  as otherwise you would not be able to execute key process for all these trees. Welcome to the world of Photosynthesis!

The mechanic is simple – with your planted trees during the Photosynthesis Phase you gather the “Light Points”- the more trees, the bigger they are and the better positioned – the more you gain. Then in the Life Cycle Phase you spend the Light Points – you can plant the trees, you can grow them or you can plant a new seed. But be careful! You need to prepare the plants, and when growing – return the “smaller versions” back to your pool. But if you do not have free space there – you loose them permanently.
Number of players: 1-5 (for me the best is 3)
Playing time: The publisher claims 30-60 minutes, but I would say at least 60 minutes with four players. There is also an additional, 4-turn variant which can prolong the game even further.
Complication: This is medium-low complexity game, which requires some long-term planning but not too much.
What I like:
  • The whole game is made of cardboard – all the elements. It shows that game can be really ecological.
  • Still, the elements quality is superb, looks cool and colorful.
  • Is it really possible to do an interesting game about tress? Yes!
  • Educational aspect.
  • Minimal negative interaction.
What I do not like:
  • Replayability – really, I got used to games where you have elements making each session different – starting position, special abilities, some random elements. You would not find it here.
  • Random factor – this is logical game with zero random factor. While I like games “without dice”, some small randomness is always welcome.
  • Chopping down the trees – well, for the game which is about ecology, publisher boasts that for every tree they used for creating the game they planted two, this is somehow… out of place.
For whom?

This is definitely a family game – beautiful, not so complex, with minimal – but still existing – negative interaction. Definitely one of the best positions (together with Azul) to hook new players to fantastic hobby of boardgames.
More about the game:

And now couple of the pictures from my copy of the game.

Players card as well as some elements:

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Main board:

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Victory points – the closer to the center you chop down the tree, the better:

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VERDICT:

ocena_3_5

I can honestly say that I like this game. Simply like – I am having good time playing it from time to time, especially with new players or adolescent kids. It will never be my favorite game but gives interesting distraction from time to time.

See you in another game review!

PS. If you would like to read other session reports from my blog in English, just click on Category: In English