Rezerwat (eng. Habitats), published by Allplay, is a board game in which players take on the role of wildlife reserve managers. The goal is to create a thriving ecosystem filled with animals, suitable habitats, and attractions for visiting tourists.
Gameplay
In Habitats, each player builds their own wildlife reserve using square tiles. During the game various elements appear, such as animals, habitats (forest, savanna, water, desert), flowers, viewpoints, and tourists. Most tiles have specific requirements related to the surrounding habitats or other elements on the board that must be fulfilled to score points at the end of the game.
In the center of the table there is a market with tiles and player jeeps. On their turn, players perform four steps:
- Take a tile from the market—it must be located in front of or next to your jeep.
- Move the jeep to the space where the tile was taken.
- Draw a new tile from the bag to refill the market.
- Place the taken tile into your reserve.
Tiles placed in your reserve must be adjacent to other tiles already present. They can be rotated freely, but they cannot be placed next to the white edges representing the reserve fence.
The game is divided into three seasons. Each season lasts a specific number of rounds, and after it ends, players score points for selected shared objectives.
After the third season, the final scoring takes place. Players check the conditions on tiles in their reserves:
- animals score points if they have access to habitats of the required size,
- flowers provide single points,
- viewpoints reward specific arrangements of animals and flowers around them,
- tourists grant points for the size or number of habitats of a specific type.
Review
Mechanically, Habitats is a tile‑laying game where open drafting is combined with grid movement, and tile placement forms the basis of pattern building. The movement of jeeps limits access to certain tiles and requires planning several moves ahead to satisfy the habitat requirements of the tiles and their inhabitants.
One of the biggest strengths of Habitats is spatial planning on two levels. On the market you plan the movement of your jeep, while within your reserve you try to place tiles in a way that allows them to fulfill each other’s requirements. When everything lines up, it is possible to create satisfying combinations where tiles fit perfectly into your ecosystem and their requirements overlap nicely.
However, randomness in the tiles that appear on the market can sometimes get in the way. Tiles do not always match your current plans. Frequently the ecosystem you need is located on the opposite side of the market. At times you also have to take tiles whose requirements you cannot yet fulfill, hoping the missing habitats will appear later.
Next to the season board, there are also six objectives that players compete for. These objectives shape the direction of reserve development by rewarding specific tile layouts, the number, or size of habitats, or even the overall shape of the reserve.
A helpful feature of the game are the markers that allow players to mark tiles whose requirements have already been fulfilled. This makes gameplay clearer because you can easily see what is already prepared and what still requires attention. At the end of the game, this also accelerates the scoring process.
The game scales by swapping the season board (the one containing rounds and objectives) depending on the number of players. These boards differ in the number of turns per round. More importantly, they also change the layout of the market and the starting positions of the jeeps. This prevents the market from becoming too crowded. From our experience, however, with more players, interactions on the market happen more often, with jeeps frequently driving close to each other and occasionally snatching tiles from one another.
Summary
Habitats is a very solid family game with a light strategic edge. Simple rules go hand in hand with a surprisingly large number of decisions, and building your own wildlife reserve is very satisfying. The entry barrier is low, but the gameplay remains engaging. Recommended!
