I’m a big fan of games that have a nice table presence, so I was excited when we received HUTAN: Life in the Rainforest from The Op and Sidekick Games. This puzzley, nature themed game is for 1 to 4 players and plays in around 45 minutes. HUTAN was created by the design team of Asger Granerud and Daniel Pedersen who are known for Heat, Flamme Rouge, and Copenhagen. Let’s dig in and see what this game is all about.
Flora and Fauna
Players will have a board made up of four rainforest segments. The first player will decide the board layout that each player has to follow. In each of the nine rounds of the game, players will take two turns as they build up their unique rainforest board.
Your turn starts by drafting a flower card from the market. There are five different flower types/colors represented on the cards. Once you draft one of these cards, you’ll add the new flowers onto your board, obeying a couple of rules:
- The first new flower has to be placed next to a previously placed flower (except for the first round).
- The flower(s) on the card have to be placed adjacent to one another (not diagonal).
- Flowers can be placed on top of flowers of the same color.
Your rainforest board is broken into areas of two to five blocks that are separated by waterways. Ideally, players want to fill these sections with a single flower color to score the points listed on the area. Players want to pay attention to the three water spaces on their rainforest board since flowers cannot be placed in these locations.
After adding the flowers from the card you drafted, you’ll move onto checking for the growth of trees. When you place a second identical flower color on a place, a tree grows on that space. HUTAN comes with four unique tree types which are different sizes and shapes to give player boards some variety. Each tree on a player board will be worth two victory points at the end of the game.
A Perfect Habitat
The final phase of your turn is checking to see if you’ve created the perfect habitat. Players earn big points by filling an area with a single flower color and having trees on each block in the area. When you place the last tree in an area, you can attract an animal of the same color on the space. Having a wildlife token in an area will earn you the points shown on that space at the end of the game.
The wildlife tokens in HUTAN are limited to only three in each flower color. Once a token is exhausted from the supply, they’re unavailable for the rest of the game. Even though you earned a wildlife token, you don’t have to place one. On occasion, players will create two perfect habitats in a single turn. You’re limited to earning one token per turn, so players have to decide on which area receives this token.
Another perk of earning a wildlife token is that they can fertilize the spaces orthogonally adjacent to their location. You can place any color flower in the spaces around the wildlife token. This is an optional perk but is almost always worth taking.
One player will take the start player token during the round which comes with a single flower of your chose. HUTAN is a game where being the start player can be incredibly useful.
Advanced Gameplay
In the early rounds of HUTAN, gameplay is pretty simple and the options are plentiful. It’s in the later rounds where players will start to feel the complexity of optimizing points and trying not to earn negative points.
At the end of the game, areas that have a mixture of flower colors are called mixed areas. Players score negative points for each mixed area and each incomplete areas. Strategically keeping away from some areas can be helpful. An area that doesn’t have any flowers will be zero points, keeping players from incurring negative effects.
Once players get the basics down, players can introduce Ecosystem cards into the game. Pull five Ecosystem goal cards that will award points to each player who completes these goals by the end of the game.
Final Thoughts
HUTAN is a beautiful and puzzley game that draws you in with its table presence. The game has a nice flow to it and keeping your negative points to a minimum is a challenge. After your first game, adding in the advanced scoring of the Ecosystem cards is a must for most gamers.
This game has the same publishing duo as Aqua, a 2024 release that we really enjoy. Not only did Vincent Dutrait do the artwork, but it also includes a couple extras that I love. There’s a family variant that adjusts a couple rules and removes the negative scoring.
In the back of the rulebook, you’ll find scenarios that have preset board layouts and Ecosystem cards. You are working toward hitting a specific score to accomplish the goal. There are also challenges and game modifications that you can tackle at any player count. Having these achievements adds a lot to the replayability of the game.
HUTAN: Life in the Rainforest is a great addition to our game library. If you enjoy games like Life of the Amazonia and Harmonies, two of our absolute favorites, HUTAN is a game that you have to check out.
HUTAN: Life in the Rainforest is available at your local game store, from The Op webstore, or online through Amazon today.
This game was provided to us by the publisher for review. Read more about our review policies at One Board Family.
Highs
- Excellent table presence and box organization
- Puzzley gameplay that gets more challenging each round
- Achievements and scenarios adds to the replayability
- Drafting the first player token in the late game is key
Lows
- Negative points can be a turn off to some (family variant removes this)
- Trees can come apart easily after a couple plays
Complexity
Time Commitment
Replayability
