Snapshot: Wildlife Photographer is a push your luck game with a combination of cards and dice for 2-4 players. You are all wildlife photographers competing for photographer of the year and the chance to feature in the best wildlife magazines with a cover photo and research on the animals.
We came across Snapshot at Airecon in March when visiting the Paperboat Games stand where we were introduced to the game by one of the designers, Martin. He gave us a fantastic overview of the game which left us wanting to try the game out in full!
First Impressions
The box features a beautifully photographed Red Panda and the sides of the box are a bright yellow to really catch your eye. This bright colour and beautiful photography is continued onto the components in the box and it really drew us in. The 24 page rulebook was a little daunting but once you start reading through, it soon becomes apparent that it's that long because it covers every eventuality of the game so no rule is left questioned. You could easily skim read it to start playing and read into parts further if any questions arose. The components are a lovely quality and you even get a scoresheet included... Bonus! (no more scrabbling around trying to find a scrap of paper to record those scores or trying to add it all together in your head!) The tokens punched out really nicely and everything fits comfortably in the box without having an excessive amount of space leftover. I was already impressed before we'd even started playing. The attention to detail and level of thought that has gone into this game is superb.
Game Play overview
Despite the long rulebook, this game does not take long to play or learn and after we'd finished our first game, I was yearning to play it again! (So we played another 2 times!) The rules explain everything you need to know to play with plenty of examples. It didn't take long to set up and took us just 30 minutes to play each game (it was very consistent timing!) You take turns to research animals (draw cards until you either choose to stop or draw a card that can't be played, in which case you lose the rest of your turn), plan which animals you want to photograph (place dice on locations and animals and spend research tokens to assist in the photography), roll the dice to see which animals you manage to capture on film and then review (gain bonus points and experience, then check for game end). It's a fast paced little game which tests your nerve as well as your tactics
Pros and Cons
Snapshot: Wildlife photographer is a neat little game with well designed components and fun game play. If I'm honest, I'm really struggling to find any con's other than the length of the rulebook for the size game it is. The box is a good size with little excess space, the only plastic packaging was the protective outer to seal it before purchase and the tokens punched out so nicely! As I said previously, the game comes with a scorepad to make tallying up those points at the end of the game a cinch and it also includes a handful of quick reference cards of player turn, set up, how to earn/spend research tokens, an explanation of how to reserve cards and game end/scoring reminders. Aside from the beautiful photography and quality components, you also get a wooden Red Panda for the first player marker which not only is cute and fun but is also painted bright red so it doesn't get lost on the table in amongst the components. The game doesn't take up tonnes of space and is both quick to set up and play.
Final Verdict
Overall, I loved this game! The push your luck element was great fun yet infuriating at times but kept the balance well with the ability to spend research to help in your endeavours and reserve cards to ensure you got the chance to play the rest of your turn or even capture the creature you desperately need for your assignment! It's a great quick game suitable for a variety of ages and one I can't wait to play again!
In conclusion, we would rate this a 9.5/10
Comments