Friday Filler: Costa Rica

Deep in the rainforests of Central America, there are many animals, both rare and common, to be found, counted, and photographed. The common Basilisk Lizard and the rare Red-eyed Stream Frog on the coast and in the wetlands. The common Capuchin Monkey and the rare Rhinoceros Beetle in the forest. The common Chestnut-mandibled Toucan and the rare Jaguar in the mountains. Multiple expeditions have been launched to count all of these animals, each competing to not only spot as many as they can, but also to try and spot one of each. Each expedition leader can decide to explore where he wants and as far as he wants, but push too far and he might get bitten by mosquitoes ending the expedition. Or the others in his group might choose to end the expedition early and take all the credit for what has been found so far.

This is the set-up for Costa Rica: Reveal the Rainforest, a light, push-your-luck game published by Mayfair Games designed to be played by between two and five players, aged eight and up. The game consists of seventy-tiles, thirty Explorers, an Expedition Leader, five Play Aids, and an eight-page rulebook. The tiles depict a type of terrain on the back, either coast/wetlands, forest, or mountains, and a photograph of an animal on the front. Sometimes two animals and sometimes a Threat symbol of a mosquito as well. The Explorers, meeples complete with broadbrimmed hat, come in five colours, six of each, whilst the Expedition Leader is a solid black piece. The Play Aids indicate both how many points a player will score based on the number of each type of animals his expedition has photographed and for photographing all of them and their rarity according to terrain type. Lastly, the rules both explain the rules to the game and give a little background on each of the game’s six animals and Costa Rica itself. Although the rulebook is eight pages long, half of it is in German, so the rules themselves are short and easy to learn.

The aim of the game is to score as many points as possible. This is done by collecting as many tiles—each of which depicts one or two animals—as possible and scoring points for the animals shown on them and for collecting tiles which all together show all six animals in the game. The player with the most points is the winner and the game plays through in about thirty minutes or so.

The set-up for Costa Rica is simple. Sixty-four of the tiles are laid out, face down, in a grid, forming a hexagon, five tiles per side. The remaining tiles are put aside. This adds a further degree of randomisation. Each player places one of his Explorers at each corner of the play area. Together, the group of Explorers made up of one from each player forms an Expedition so that there are six Expeditions in total. The Expedition Leader piece is given to the starting player—either determined randomly or given to the player who has most recently been to Costa Rica. The starting player picks an Expedition and the game begins.

On a turn, a player picks an Expedition and turns over a tile adjacent to the Expedition. This will reveal either one or two animals and also a Threat or mosquito symbol. The player can decide to take the newly revealed tile or continue moving on. If he takes the tile, he adds to the collection in front of him and removes his Explorer from that Expedition. He cannot move that Expedition on subsequent turns. If he decides not to take the tile and instead move on, he first offers the other players the opportunity to take the tile, going round the table one-by-one. If another player accepts this opportunity, then he takes the tile, adds it to his collection, and removes his Explorer from that Expedition. The turn for the current player then ends. However, if nobody decides to accept the tile, the current player continues turning over adjacent tiles, repeating the same process each time.

A player’s turn can also end in another way—too many Threats. If the current player turns over two tiles on his turn that have mosquito or Threat symbol on them, his turn is over and his Explorer is removed from play. He still gains the tiles that have been previously revealed, whilst those with the two Threats on them are discarded. If only one Threat has been revealed when a player collects tiles, its tile is not discarded.

Each player is attempting to push further into the rainforest in search of rarer animals to count. Since he has an Explorer in every Expedition, he has multiple ways of finding them. However, because every Expedition has an Explorer from every player, there is always the chance that if a player decides to push on and explore further in search of better tiles, another player will collect them before the current player has a chance to advance further, undoing all of the current player’s efforts and adding to his score rather than them going toward the current player’s score. This is the ‘push-your-luck’ element of Costa Rica, a player needing to find the balance between the tiles that he has revealed and can take now and tiles that he might turn over if he continues exploring, but in doing so gives the other players the opportunity take what he has already revealed.

On subsequent turns, a player can move any of the Expeditions in which he still has an Explorer. This will decrease as the game goes on and his Explorers return from their Expeditions laden with tiles. If an Expedition consists of just one Explorer, this gives its player a lot of freedom to move and collect tiles as there is no-one to collect the ones revealed before he does.

There is another way in which a player can impede the other players. This is to cut them off in the rainforest. The core game play is all about exploring deeper into the rainforest in search of more animals to count, but a player could choose to lead an Expedition back out of the rainforest. If an Expedition has no adjacent tiles to reveal, it is cutoff and cannot continue exploring. In which case, all of its Explorers go back to their respective players. This can be a devastating tactic, especially if an Expedition contains multiple Explorers as it will hinder the score of multiple players.

The game ends when the last Explorer has finished moving and tiles have been taken. Everyone totals the score for their tiles collected and thus animals counted, and the player with the highest score is the winner.

Costa Rica is simple and straightforward, and both easy to teach and play. Games tend to be quite tight in terms of scoring, but different in terms of collecting tiles, depending upon the number of players. With two or three players, more tiles are going to be collected and scores higher as there is going to be less competition to collect them, whilst game play is tighter and more competitive with four or five players as there are more players competing for the same number of tiles. In general, the game plays best with three or four players as the competition for tiles is not quite so desperate.

Physically, Costa Rica is nicely presented. The Explorer meeples are decent and tiles of sturdy card with pleasing illustrations of the creatures on the front. The rules are written and the extra background is a nice bonus.

There is a pleasing clarity to Costa Rica in its game play. There is no hidden complexity or nuance to the game. It is easy to learn and teach, and barring the possibility of cutting off an Expedition, there is no ‘take that!’ element to the game. Meaning it is suitable to be played by both adults and younger players. A solidly simple, straightforward filler suitable for the family.