In the Footsteps of Darwin Board Game Review

Written by Dan York

The work of Charles Darwin is undoubtedly some of the most important scientific literature of all time, and the game In the Footsteps of Darwin asks the question “could you have done it better?”. Navigate the Beagle around the world and create a scrapbook of colourful creatures, scoring points for sets, groups and families that you acquire.

This game was also nominated for a Spiel Des Jahres in the 2024 board game awards.

How to Play In the Footsteps of Darwin

In this simple game, players take turns grabbing an animal tile from the board, adding it onto their own personal “research journals” and then moving the Beagle marker around to allow the next player to do the same. Animals are scored based on completing rows of specimens on your player board, or for collecting many from the same region. 

Some actions will unlock bonus scoring objectives, each representing a chapter from “On the Origin of Species” and the game for the most part is about managing efficiently picking up tiles that score you points without giving your opponent easy opportunities to get one of their own.

This must be one of the most well-produced games I have ever played. The level of care in the production is astounding. From the highly detailed drawings of the animals and people who helped Darwin on his journey to the gorgeous look and feel of the player boards. Each player gets a personal board, mainly for set collection, that folds down into what looks like a leather-bound tome. They’re also decorated with gorgeous line drawings of animals found in the game. 

No expense has been spared on the overall production. There’s copious amounts of extra information, detailing the history and science of the setting. An extra rulebook dedicated to explaining the theme and context of Darwin’s story. It does all this without any of it compromising on the easy-to-follow gameplay. 

In the Footsteps of Darwin Review

It’s not the deepest of strategy games, gameplay is very gentle, and most turns are taken quickly. Consequently, it plays out over a short period of time but never gives players time to get bored. It’s basically always about to be your turn and you have just enough time and information to effectively plan ahead. Having said that, there’s plenty of tension to be found within the moment-to-moment actions. It’s the little things, like hoping that no one notices that you really want that Bullfrog Tile and lines the Beagle up in just the right spot for you to get it easily, or deciding whether you want to commit to birds this game, and grabbing for every winged friend you can see.  

It’s lovely that the game is so approachable, but I would have liked to see more depth and replayability offered up in some form of optional rules or more challenging scoring. Normally I’m more than happy to let a simple game be simple, but it feels like a shame to have this gorgeous product made with all that love and care to only contain a gentle and low-complexity puzzle which can get somewhat stale after a few plays.

I can wax lyrical about the production forever, and it’s to be commended. I do enjoy the gameplay too, though I must admit that it doesn’t grab me as something that I’d want to play too many times. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to play, but I would prefer my filler games to either be smaller or offer some extra depth beyond the core rules.  However, it is absolutely perfect for families and people looking for a light game that has great table presence. 

Should you play In the Footsteps of Darwin? Yes!

A splendid design with undeniably lovely visuals wrapped around a modest but engaging game.

You should try In the Footsteps of Darwin if you liked Kingdomino – a light tile-laying game with some friction between players when it comes to jostling for the one you want.

Buy in the Footsteps of Darwin on Amazon

What's on the box?

Designer: Grégory Grard, Matthieu Verdier

Publisher: Sorry We Are French

Time: 20-30 minutes

Players: 2-5

Ages: 8+

Price: £30

What’s in the box?

• Journey board
• 5 Naturalist’s notebook
• 69 Animal and Character tiles
• 28 Theory tiles
• Beagle figure
• Darwin token
• 41 tokens
• Cloth bag
• Score pad
• Rulebook
• Appendix booklet

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