Notionally a game about discovering new species in a previously unexplored region, Vivarium is an appealing card drafting set collection game where the 2-4 players are trying to maximise their individual points scores by collecting cards from a central display that, ideally, synergise together.
In each of the game's seven rounds, there will be 16 cards laid out in a 4 x 4 grid. The top two rows will be creature cards of various types and colours, the third row will show equipment which will give a special ability and the bottom row will offer contract cards that add as multipliers for the points values of certain combinations of cards.
Vivarium is a game of open drafting but you can't just take any card. In order to select a card, you need to be able to make its grid reference using your two domino-like tiles. These each show two numbers in the range 1-4, and at the start of each turn, before making your grid reference, you have to swap one of your two 'domino' tiles with the 'domino' accompanying the central display. Some of the cards award you gems. A gem is worth a victory point in end-game scoring but you can spend gems to amend your 'domino' numbers, so that, for example, a player with tiles showing numbers 2, 2, 3, 4 could draft the card at grid reference 1, 3 by spending a gem to treat one of their 2s as a 1. If you are unable to draft a card from the grid or just don't want any of those available to you, you can instead take two gems.
Each round comprises two turns for each player but the grid is only refilled at the end of each round. That means the dynamics of the game change as you increase the number of players: with just two players you'll only relatively rarely be snatching a card that another player was set on taking but that becomes a much more common occurrence in a four-player game. Tho' initially you may be reluctant to spend gems to modify your 'domino' options, you soon realise that there can be a very worthwhile gain in points for sacrificing the one point that a gem will net you. That's especially the case when you take account of the multiplier effect of the contract cards.
A tile is flipped each round as a marker to help you keep track of the seven rounds, and for rounds 2-7 the tile shows which card type and/or colour is treated as earning you a bonus: you get a bonus gem when you draft a card that round that meets the tile's requirements and the player who has the most qualifying cards at the end of the round wins the round marker tile - with each worth 2 victory points at the end of the game.
Tho' there are genuine choices to be made to optimise your score, Frédéric Vuagnet has designed Vivarium as a very accessible game that can be quickly taught and learned. The iconography on the cards is commendably clear and Satoshi Matsuura's endearing art is an instant magnet for new players. Coupled with its brisk 30-minute playing time, this makes Vivarium very suitable as a 'gateway' game to introduce to those who have yet to discover the joy of modern board games. To this end we especially liked the fact that players all start off with individual contract cards that help to focus their initial drafting choices.
Vivarium is published by Studio H and is distributed in the UK by Hachette BoardGames.