There aren’t a lot of good and reliable logic puzzle-y style board games on the market, but I attempt to grab them when I can. “Alchemists“, “Awkward Guests“, and “The Search For Planet X” immediately come to mind. In the case of “TSFPX”, the predecessor to “The Search For Lost Species” (hereby dubbed “TSFLS”), you’re looking for stellar phenomena to deduce where Planet X is in the night sky. Here, you’re attempting to find the Lost Species on a land-based island using similar logical deductions. Special thanks goes to Renegade Games for providing me with a press copy for review purposes.
1-4 Players, Ages 14+, Average Play Time = 60 Minutes
Overview
“TSFLS” pits players against each other in a race to be the first to find the Lost Species on a map made up of tiles. The game’s required app randomly generates the location of the Lost Species on this map, as well as all the other animals you’ll be finding along the way. Each action players take to get information uses a certain amount of time and the furthest player back on the time track takes the next turn. Each player gets their own deduction sheet and screen, allowing them to take notes what they’ve found so far.
The Lost Species itself can be one of six different animals, each with their own logical parameters. The other animals include lories, cuscus, toads, and pythons which again, have their own logical statements. Cuscus, for example, MUST be within 1 or 2 areas from both other cuscus and none are adjacent to the python. As you use actions and locate animals, these logical statements will help you figure out where things both are and aren’t. Each land tile can contain only one thing. The Lost Species appears as an empty tile and its up to you to deduce which tiles are TRULY empty.
Players choose one of two boards to play on (one easier than the other) and use the app to set up the game. From there, players take actions like visiting towns to perform research and gain powerful cards, surveying by land or boat and choosing which tiles / animal to ask the app about, using a camera trap to get information on a single tile, and eventually, attempt to locate the Lost Species itself.
While players are moving up the time track, a neutral expedition leader meeple will move to the next special expedition leader spot when it’s the last one on the time track. A plethora of things happen when this occurs: players get back camera and town tokens, get information about the Lost Species, and can report sightings of animals to earn victory points for endgame scoring. Sightings remain hidden until the neutral expedition leader meeple reaches the next appropriate special space and once revealed, checked against the app for accuracy. Vague, I know…but that’s as simple as I can make it for the purposes of this overview.
Play continues until one person successfully verifies the location of the Lost Species via the app, but other players may still yet win depending on what sightings they’ve reported and what they may do on their last turn.
The Review
I should probably start by mentioning how much I adore “The Search For Planet X”, you know, to set expectations. “The Search for Lost Species” had some pretty big shoes to fill as far as I was concerned, but surprisingly I found it to be more accessible. “TSFPX’s” solo mode, for example, is very difficult even when you play on an easier setting (you get more starting information). With “TSFLS’s” solo mode, I have yet to lose although I admittedly still start with an advantage. I always wanted “TSFPX’s” solo mode to be easier (I’ve made it so with home-brewed rules) and I’m glad that the AI is a bit more balanced here.
“TSFLS” is also a different beast in a number of ways. For one, mountains separate some of the tiles preventing certain animal locations from occurring (breaking adjacency). Players will also be moving a physical meeple around and are limited to the spaces they survey by where they’ve gone. Camera traps and research can be used less often, even though they have similar counterpart actions in “TSFPX”. What stuck out the most however were the (in most cases) one-off cards you can gain when visiting a town. These are not in “TSFPX” at all.
Note that I said “TSFLS” was different, not necessarily better. If you had to ask me which game I prefer, I don’t think it would be possible to give you a good answer. I like playing both games and I suppose it depends on what theme suits me more at the time. For that reason I have to give this game a strong recommendation as it does enough different to keep things fresh but sticks with the same addicting formula derived from “TSFPX”. I did receive a press copy of “The Search for UAPs” (the third game in the series) but at the time of writing, I have not yet played it to compare. I’m sure I’ll sum all that up in my upcoming review for that tile.
If I had to critique anything, it’s that the clues the app gives on certain research topics to be a bit misleading or vague. I had one clue that stated that the Toads are adjacent to two different species. I thought each toad was adjacent to two, but it turned out that it was treating the toads as a whole. This lead to me taking an extra unnecessary turn to verify this information.
Aidalee has also expressed her desire to play this again. She’s a big fan of logic puzzles (as am I), so we enjoy playing these kinds of games whenever we can. I sincerely hope that the app is supported for many years to come, as without it, the game is dead-weight. Some may understandably be concerned with app-dependent games and rightly so. At the time of writing, there is an unofficial (?) “TSFLS” module on Tabletop Simulator (PC/Steam platform) should you want to try it out before buying a physical copy. I’ve tested it and it works well.
Buy: https://renegadegamestudios.com/the-search-for-lost-species/
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Score: 9/10 (Outstanding)
Note: While I’ve not physically written a review for “TSFPX” despite many instances of video coverage, the review score would be probably be the same.
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