Do you like that feeling when things slot together perfectly? Like when you're loading a car boot and your family and friends are standing behind you saying "you'll never fit all of that in a Yaris". Then you take the final item and it's as if that last bit of empty space was specifically designed for that item to fit in. And it was because you designed it that way. You were the architect of this glorious shape manipulation exercise, you knew it would work, and it did. That makes me happy, and Bärenpark makes me immensely happy for that reason.
The concept of Bärenpark is very simple. We've all been to one of those parks that have enclosures for various types of bear. They're all the rage! Players compete to build the best one of those. But what makes your bear park the best? Most profitable? Highest critical acclaim? Nah, it just needs to slot together nicely.
The actual gameplay in Bärenpark is quite abstract. All players start with a square park entrance board and a small green amenity piece. On their turn they must place their amenity on their board. When doing this they may cover up one or multiple symbols on their board, which determines which new pieces they can take. In the centre, there are several stacks of pieces in various shapes and sizes that can be taken. The smaller, green amenities or rivers, the larger bear houses and the even larger bear enclosures. There are also two stacks of new park areas to extend your board. Each park area, including the entrance, has one square, which can't be built over. These spaces are reserved for statues of famous bears who founded the great bear parks of the olden days. Once you have completed every square in a particular park area, you may place a statue in this gap. Players continue to place tiles and statues until one player has a total of four park areas and they are all completely covered. Each other player gets one additional turn and the game ends. Players add up their scores taken from their bear houses, enclosures and statues. The player with the highest total wins.
Sounds boring, right? You could sit there on your own sticking different shapes together to build your bear park and suddenly wonder what you're doing with your life. But did you forget about the rival bear parks? The pieces in the centre are finite and every time another player takes a bear house, the value of that type of house reduces. You may be sat there thinking a koala house would go really nicely in that last spot on your board, then the next three players take koala pieces and all of a sudden the value of that koala house you wanted has dropped dramatically or perhaps isn't even available. And the enclosures are all one of a kind, so if you aren't the first to grab the piece that you want, you may be left in a spot of bother. And those bear statues? Yep, those decrease in value as they're taken as well, so you have to decide whether it's good to expand your park and get the high value houses and enclosures or rush to finish your individual boards to get the highest value statues. You can imagine that you're actually building a bear park in Russia when suddenly you get a call from a colleague to say Japan has just won the contract for the huge polar bear enclosure you wanted. Time for a change of plans, call the panda company immediately! You don't have anywhere to put it but you'll work something out, because you are the master of shapes.
But Bärenpark also has a feature which makes me feel like less of a master of shapes. The game comes with a lot of cardboard tiles, which is great if you like popping out the cardboard bits in your new game. It's a pretty heavy box considering its relatively low price point. Three of these cardboard pieces can be slotted together to make a divider for your box to keep your pieces separated as you like them. In all the times I have got this game out, which is quite a few, I have never been able to work out how on earth this divider is supposed to fit in the box. Is it some sort of next level shape test for the seasoned Bärenpark player, or is it just bad design? If it's the latter, I suppose I can forgive it because the rest of the design is so clever. The pieces stacked in the centre are on a board with clear labels to aid setting up the stacks of tiles ensuring that the points values used are correct for the number of players. The bear houses are stacked so their value automatically decreases as players take them. The symbols on the player boards are clear and match up with symbols on the central board so you can immediately see what you are entitled to after covering symbols up in your park. The artwork is colourful and all the different types of tiles are distinct to make the gameplay smooth and easy.
Once you've conquered the basics, you can include the optional randomised achievements to the game. Three common goals are available for players to achieve, but being the first to complete them is going to net you more points. You can also purchase the "Bad News Bears" expansion which adds more variation without changing the game significantly. Grizzly bear tiles are added which are huge and worth lots of points, but you have to trade a bear house and an amenity tile for it, and they're not going to fit in your park easily. You can also play with monorails, which you can build over your amenities and rivers to give you extra points. Not only does this make your amenities actually worth something, where in the base they are merely for filling up space, it adds a 3D element to your board, which looks totally dope. The base game is so great that it's a good thing the expansion doesn't fundamentally change how the game is played. As such it is not necessary to have the expansion but it is worth it if you like the game and you just want a bit more variety.
So if you've always wanted to build a park for bears whilst the Tetris theme plays in your head then Bärenpark is fantastic. The satisfaction of placing your irregular park tiles into the perfect configuration is more exciting than it should be, and with quick and simple rules, it's a game that's easy to teach and can be easily introduced to non gamers. The fact that the value of the pieces is constantly decreasing forces you to strategize and keep an eye on your opponents, so this doesn't fall into the trap of feeling like a solo game, but feels like you really have to compete with your rival bear parks to become the greatest park owner and shape slotter.