You and your fellow explorers are tracking the animals of the Costa Rican rainforest! Explore the streams, forests, and highlands of this tropical paradise, and try to count as many animals as you can. As expedition leader, you choose which direction your group goes — but if you press on, others in your group may take credit for what you’ve discovered. And, if you encounter too many threats, your expedition may come to a premature end. Earn credit for animals (the more, the better) and for finding at least one of each. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins!

In Costa Rica, players take on the role of explorers cataloging the undiscovered insects and animals in an uncharted wilderness. There are three types of terrain to explore—mountains/highlands, coast/wetlands, and forest—and each one features unique wildlife as well as a varying level of risk for players to grapple with.

Costa Rica sets up quickly, with players turning the tiles face down and building a random hexagonal board with five tiles per side. Until the tiles are revealed, players will be able to see what terrain the tile is but no other information about the tile. Using only this knowledge, along with information on the type of wildlife, the density of wildlife, and the relative danger of each terrain (provided on a handy player reference card), players take turns trying to choose the best path to explore the rainforest and return to civilization with its secrets.

There are common and rare animals, and these vary by terrain. The wildlife found in the highlands are toucans and rare jaguars, while explorers can discover the basilisk and the rare red-eyed stream frog in the wetlands, and finally the forests, which are home to the capuchin monkey and the rare rhinoceros beetle. Threats in the rainforest are represented on the tiles by mosquitos, which have the capability of carrying dengue fever. These mosquitos are most commonly found in the mountains and are rarely in forests.

There are six expeditions in the game and each player will begin with an explorer in each. As the game goes on, however, explorers will leave expeditions to return to civilization and catalog the natural wonders they have discovered. The expedition that moves, and the path they take, is determined by the expedition leader, which rotates among the players from turn to turn.

As players explore, they must decide whether to push their luck further or risk losing their explorer and some of their discoveries to threats or other players. Each turn, beginning with the expedition leader, players can leave the expedition and catalog their discoveries. If no one departs, the expedition pushes deeper into the rainforest. If two mosquitos are encountered, the expedition leader is forced to leave the expedition and loses both mosquito-infected tiles, but keeps all other tiles. In either case, once someone leaves the expedition, the mantle of expedition leader passes on to the next player and play resumes.

The game continues until all tiles have been revealed, or all explorers have left the rainforest. Players then score based on the number and variety of animals they discovered. The more of a specific type a player discovers (say monkeys), the more points they are worth. One animal of a type is only worth one point, while seven or more of the same species is worth 28 points. If you have at least one of every animal, you score an additional 20 points per set - the more players there are in the game the more important this bonus becomes.

This brings us to the other exciting element of Costa Rica — the ability to stab your friends in the back. Keeping an eye on sets your opponents are building is huge and sometimes you’ll want to leave an expedition early to take away key discoveries from a specific player. The expedition leader can also select a path that cuts other expeditions off from a specific terrain, or potentially from having any territory to explore at all.

In the end, the player who scores the most points wins!

We hope you’ve enjoyed our look at Costa Rica. It’s a quick, fun, possibly ruthless game of discovery, set-building, and luck-pushing. The game takes just a few minutes to set up and plays in less than 45-minutes, making it a perfect filler game, or a game for serious gamers to use as a gateway for their friends into the intriguing world of modern board games.

About Costa Rica: Costa Rica was designed by Matthew Dunstan and Brett J. Gilbert. The game is designed for 2-5 players ages 8 and up and each game takes between 30 and 45 minutes.