From the moment I opened this box, I knew Bad Comet Games had created something extraordinary. The production value reached out of the box, grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “I know you wanted this.” And remember, this is the retail edition!

Wondrous Creatures is a worker placement game with tableau building and resource management where you’re collecting and cataloging gorgeous magical creatures in your ancient book. These three mechanisms sing together in a wondrous combination that’s so puzzling, it’s almost… puzzling. 

This text is taken from my video review.

Wondrous Creatures is designed for 1 to 4 players with games typically running 40 to 80 minutes, giving you time to build your magical menagerie. The box looks like a book, but there’s a brilliant game inside that’s as wondrous as they say.

On your turn, you can take one of four actions: place a crew member on the board, play up to two cards into your tableau, complete an achievement, or recharge. It’s elegant in its simplicity but deep in its execution.

When you place a crew member (incredibly adorable painted wooden meeples), you can take resources shown on each adjacent space and take cards from the market called the wilderness that match those resources. There’s always a way to sweep the wilderness if you’re not seeing the card types you need, which comes in handy because there are lots of instant cards, but other card types are less plentiful.

The card interactions create this mind-boggling web of possibilities. Some turns are spent just getting cards to trigger cascading effects on future turns, which feels amazing when that happens. There are real brain-burning moments as you figure out the best chain of actions to trigger on your turn.

Creatures give you victory points based on their printed values, but there are also many scoring options through the variable trophy cards drawn for each game. There are scoring options that reward you for each set of card types, so don’t underestimate the power of sweeping.

The different card types all make you feel like you’re building your engine toward victory. End game scoring cards help you forge goals and direct your choices. Recharge ability cards power up every time you take the recharge action. Energy cards come with tokens you can activate anytime during your turn. And cards with ongoing abilities create satisfying synergies.

The creatures look amazing. The art is phenomenal in this game. Look at the painted wooden workers and the magnetic wooden riders – I can barely take it! The components elevate every moment of play and make you feel like you’re truly cataloging magical creatures in an ancient tome.

Wondrous Creatures is for people who love tableau builders, worker placement games, great card interactions, and some real medium crunch to their game. You may want to steer clear if you want a simple game with no potential analysis paralysis, if you don’t love building a tableau, or if you hate amazing art (some people do – they live heartless lives, but you’re not one of them, are you?).

So who is the writer of this ancient tome for cataloging these wondrous creatures? It’s you. You are the tome keeper. You have been entrusted to keep this book. These wondrous creatures are waiting inside this box – they need you. And if you want a brilliant, deep, beautiful gaming experience, you need them too.