Reef

Reef is a brilliant, simple, abstract game in the vein of the recent smash hit Azul! Only, Reef just might be better! Reef uses the same concept, but changes tiles of Azul into coral, adds cards that govern your actions and scoring, and, most importantly, adds a 3D element! Yes, the coral pieces are stackable!! These small changes add a whole new level of strategy and planning, while keeping the game simple to learn! Like Azul, you're trying to score points with various patterns of colored objects-coral in this case. But Reef adds some simple but brilliant twists. First off, you have cards that you will draw or play each turn. These cards tell you what new pieces you can add your reef AND will tell you what type of pattern (say every row of three RED coral pieces) will score and how many points such pattern is worth. This makes every turn different and requires intense planning as try and acquire the right cards at the right time and then play them in the perfect order to score big points! But you have a hand limit of four cards, so you have to choose wisely when it comes to what cards to obtain! Secondly. the 3D aspect of being able to stack coral pieces on top of each other totally revolutionizes the concept introduced by Azul! Your coral reef (i.e. your board state) is NEVER static! It's constantly changing! Now, the choices are simply insane, as you feverishly work your vertical, horizontal and 3D aspects of your reef (player board) to score the most points possible! Add on to this the constantly flow of player cards with their different scoring conditions and coral pieces you have to work with every turn and your head just might explode! This game is a fun, frustrating and sometime agonizing blast! If you like Azul, or abstract, puzzle-like game, then this is a MUST OWN! GET THIS GAME!

This is a great game I'd been anticipating the release of for months. I've played it a few times already and am very pleased. The quality of the components is great with unique coral reef pieces that stack nicely. The pieces are a nice chunky size for easy handling and stack perfectly so they're not awkward and "fumbly" which can be frustrating in some games. The rules are easy to learn ad the instructions are clear. On your turn you either take a card, or play a card. When playing cards two things happen. First, you get two new reef pieces of colors specified on the card, second you may score points based on specific criteria on the bottom of the card. It's not too hard to learn. Yet, there's a lot of depth and strategy giving this game plenty of replay value. This is one I know I will be teaching my friends that love to game as well as my mother who only dabbles in games occasionally and I will still enjoy the depth of strategy with repeated plays.

It's a strategy game. You get cards to gain tiles to get points. The cards give you tiles of a different color than the scoring pattern, so you need to plan ahead a little bit. It's good for all ages and 2-4 people. All the game pieces are well made. My only disappointment was the game box was crushed in 1 corner and split open. The shipping box was fine, so it might have happened before shipping.

I bought this as a Father’s Day gift for my Dad, who is an avid board gamer...like namedrops-favorite-board-game-designer avid. My sister, stepmom, and I like board games on occasion, but he is on a whole different level. The constant struggle in my family is balancing my father’s love of depth and replayability with my sister’s limited attention span, my stepmothers aversion to violence, and my own distaste for games with 9 million systems to keep track of. This game worked for all of us. It was fairly short (30-40 minutes), blissfully gore-free (with beautiful, bright coral reef pieces), had a fairly simple set of mechanics to track (money, reef height, card values), but had a sufficient number of possible strategies and required enough planning to keep even my father engaged. I wouldn’t heisitate to recommend this game to most of the gamers I know- both avid *and* casual.

Reef is a lovely game: easy to learn and play, but with enough depth to make for interesting choices and gameplay. My 7-year old and I were comfortable with the rules after a couple of practice games, and now he wants to play all the time! He's starting to develop more complex strategies for playing, including planning ahead to pull off higher-scoring moves and balancing the game's pressure between building your reef and scoring points. The pieces are colorful and high quality; so far, an average game takes us about 40 minutes. I would recommend Reef to anyone looking for a fun and easy-to-learn board game that offers some depth, and especially to anyone hoping to introduce children around 7-8 years old to more strategic board games.

Great game for families with just the right amount of player interaction (competition for cards) to keep things interesting. It plays quick and the rules were simple enough to teach to my 10, 8, and 6 year olds with minimal help needed from dad to help the youngest compete. Everyone enjoyed it and asked to play again the next several days - a sure sign of a winner.

Saw the rave reviews of this game online and had to check it out. Point is pretty simple, but, for me, at least, the planning is so tough! I'd like to give the game 4 stars, but just because I kinda stink at it. But it is pretty fun. You draw cards which let you add pieces to your reef, but easy card also allows you to score points based on certain patterns in your reef. So you're always trying to get reef pieces while simultaneously not wasting points by not having the proper patterns in your reef.

Is there room for 3 abstract games on your shelf? Do you need Reef, Azul, and Sagrada? The answer is yes. This game is from the same designer as Century Spice, another great game. The rules are easy but you really need a couple of plays to get the hang of it. It works well with 4, but I like it best with 2. It may be easy to learn, but it takes skill, planning, and patience to score big vs. just getting a quick 2 or 4 points here or there. Azul, Sagrada, or Reef, the answer is yes. Very fun game, but again to score big you need to plan out your moves, placements, and cards.