19 April 2025
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Witty theming, clever components, Life in Reterra is a family board game by a big name designer. So why aren't we sure on it? Our review looks at why this game is a maybe.
Written by Jenny Cox
Life in Reterra is set on post-apocalyptic Earth. While that prospect sounds bleak, this new world promises hope, community and resourcefulness. The objective is to rebuild society, creating spaces for humankind to harmoniously begin again – with tongue-in-cheek memorial sites to honour relics of a bygone era, such as mobile phones.
Playing Life in Reterra
Initially, Life In Reterra appears to have a light touch that’s perfectly pitched for the family game market it’s chasing. After choosing from one of three card sets, players place a terrain tile from the supply in front of them or lay an existing tile from their starting hand. These tiles look like square dominoes, featuring a quadrant of different, or occasionally the same, landscapes – from sand to forest to asphalt and beyond.
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Most tiles also have at least one gear icon, which when matched and placed next to gear icons on the same terrain will allow for a structure to be built on top. Said structures come in various shapes and sizes. A school, for example, is rectangular and only requires two gears, while a public square hogs four gears and is, controversially, square.
Pleasingly challenging to place (and hard to get hold of, as there are only so many to go around), structures are a key part of the game because they often unlock special actions. Restaurants grow in value when surrounded by more restaurants. Other buildings, such as the infirmary, attract inhabitants that increase end scoring. It wouldn’t be much of a community without inhabitants, after all.
Life In Reterra – Drawbacks in the Game
It’s not long before the game designers’ attempts to add depth crop up, whether it’s batteries or community borders, and these are in danger of overcomplicating things. The multiple terrain types start to cause problems too, making it a slog to match tiles and achieve objectives. Creating an aesthetically pleasing board can easily fall by the wayside as ugly landscapes form, not ideal when you are trying to tidy up after Armageddon.
Elsewhere, key rules become obstructive. Players are prevented from retrospectively building on grouped gears – it has to be done in the same turn that the final gear in the group is placed. The result? Unsatisfyingly barren areas. The same applies to inhabitants, who can only sit on a gear immediately after one is placed. For a game about progress, Life In Reterra could be accused of preventing players from moving forward.
Another problematic rule involves ‘junk’. While placing rubbish on someone else’s tiles introduces player interaction, there’s no way for the poor person on the receiving end to then get rid, and this take-that without any ability to mitigate can make for a punishing experience. It also contradicts the rulebook’s claims that the object of the game is to create a “cosy, thriving community.” Dumping landfill over your neighbours is a peculiar way to go about it. There is a no-junk card combination, the ‘Peace & Quiet set’, but it remains to be seen if it becomes repetitive.
Away from junk, where Life In Reterra thrives is its production values. Hasbro’s financial clout is evident, from the wooden inhabitants to the chunky terrain tiles. The theming is successfully carried out too from cover to rulebook to components, and the touches of humour (the local sports pitch is found in a former satellite dish, old planes are refashioned as schools) appeal to young and old. However, what is essentially a simple tile placer can get trudged down by its own attempts to introduce depth, tethering players to overcomplication and non-negotiable rules. Maybe that’s fitting – life after disaster wouldn’t be a walk in the park – but it might prove too punitive for the family communities Life In Reterra wants to attract.
Verdict on Life In Reterra
Maybe you should play this game. Life In Reterra has quality components and witty theming, but the heavy-handed rules may frustrate.
You may like it if you like Kingdomino. Despite being set in the future, Life In Reterra is reminiscent of blast-from-the-past Kingdomino – while attempting to build on the medieval classic’s simplicity.
About this board game
Designer: Eric M Lang, Ken Gruh
Publisher: Hasbro
Time: 35 minutes
Players: 2-4
Age: 10+
Price: £30
What’s in the box?
- 104 Land tiles
- 93 Building tiles
- 15 Double-sided building cards
- 30 Junk/relic tokens
- 32 Inhabitants
- 5 Storage trays
- Score pad
- Set-up board