There is a seemingly endless variety in board games. Different mechanics, different themes, different genres. I love it. It’s one of the things that keeps me engaged in the hobby. There are still some game aspects that I find myself returning to frequently. I am easily swayed by beautiful art, and I like nature or animal themes. Also love fantasy themes and vibes. I like games that take just enough focus that I can’t do anything else.
Parks and Potions checks a lot of those boxes. You are a ranger tasked with collecting/creating magical potions to help heal fantastical creatures from earth, sea, and air. That sounds like a game made with me in mind. Couldn’t wait to get this one to the table. So did this live up to its promise? Let’s see!
Soundtrack for this game: Enchanted Magical Forest ambience from YouTube. I am really loving some of these subtle ambient sounds with music videos while playing or working.
Gameplay Overview:
Over six rounds, you will collect potions, combine as necessary, and use said potions to treat fantastical creatures.
Play begins with three cards in your hand and three in the playmat. Players select two to keep and one to exchange. These cards are the creatures that require healing. Icons along the bottom let you know which potions are required.
Potions are collected by rolling four potion dice and selecting two from the available options. This is repeated three times. At any time, you can combine potions according to the mixing guide to create a potion you may need, or discard one to make space. You are limited to six total potions. Once the potion-collecting stage is complete, you treat the animals in your hand by spending the potions you just so diligently collected/crafted. Healed creatures are set aside for later scoring. You then draw back up to three cards in hand by either drawing cards or trading with the display.
After the sixth round, points are tallied. Points come from the value of the healed animal, sets of biomes (air, earth, and water), and groups of biome creatures. Highest score wins.
There are two multiplayer variants included in the rules. One is a cooperative variant, and the second is a competitive drafting mode.
Game Experience:
This experience is based on solo play.
Parks and Potions is a fast learn and smooth-playing game. There are points (more than one) that feel impossible to meet your objectives. In addition to animals to heal, there are laboratory cards that are also fulfilled by creating the correct potions. After completion, these go into your hand and are scored at the end based on how many extract tokens you have in hand.
Extract tokens (earned after healing some creatures) also work as wild card potions, so it’s tempting to use them rather than hoard them. Parks and Potions is filled with these kinds of decisions. Cure the animal for an easy couple of points? Or hold out for the higher value animal that might require an extra round before you have enough potions.
Of the things I enjoy about this game, the artwork ranks first. It’s a beautiful game. Also has a fast setup and tear down, which I appreciate. I also like that the co-op variant has solo rules, so there are two modes of playing solo. That’s a nice treat for us solo players. The standard solo mode also has challenges (i.e. complete a game without using player abilities, or complete a game with 6 extracts in hand) That kind of thing to add a little variety to the play.
Final Thoughts:
Parks and Potions is a good, solid game. It didn’t wow me as much as I had expectede it would, but there’s nothing wrong with the game. It’s a nice lazy day diversion for those times that I don’t want to have to spend 30 minutes setting up or burning up my brain with every decision. It just won’t be a frequent play.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars – Beautiful game with fun premise. Will play again, just not all the time.
What’s cuter than a red panda? A red panda with a unicorn horn!
Hits:
Gorgeous art
Efficient packaging
Fast learn
Misses:
Potion limit can feel too restrictive
Extract as wild card forces point loss
Source: Board Game Quest
