Climbing Into the Beauty of Canopy and Rainforest Memories

Build a thriving rainforest complete with weather, flora, and fauna in a beautifully illustrated tableau from Canopy.
Let me go back in time and share a brief story: I was obsessed with rainforests for approximately 1 month during my elementary years. I researched everything. I looked at pictures. There was rainforest-themed poetry about caimans and philodendrens. So when I discovered that Canopy included a solo mode, I absolutely needed to pick up a copy!
Game Overview
Game Name: Canopy
Publication Year: 2021
Designer: Tim Eisner
Artist: Vincent Dutrait
Publisher: Weird City Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Gorgeous artwork brings this world to life. Unknown cards provide a bit of risk as a rainforest takes shape. Plants and wildlife populate the region, while trees rise up to become the tallest. Yet fire, disease, and drought provide possible threats that must be carefully dealt with over the seasons.
First Play
June 18, 2022
Complexity
2
Latest Play
June 20, 2022
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
6
Play Time
25 Minutes
High Score
78
Game Area
36" x 26"
Low Score
56
Choosing New Growth
The core mechanic centers around choosing which pile of cards to select. These begin “seeded” with varying amounts, which makes some of the later choices fruitful.
However, passing on a pile adds a card to it. The solo opponent will always choose the pile with the most cards, so there’s a tricky decision point about managing that.
More cards doesn’t necessarily mean a better choice, though. Threats like disease and fire lurk out there.
It comes down to balancing a rainforest amidst the decisions. Pushing the luck too much can be a disaster!
Filling a Rainforest
Can I pause for a moment to admire this beautiful artwork? So thematic and colorful! Everything looks so nice together, including the stacked tree cards.
Tall trees are often worthwhile, yet completing the most trees offers a hefty victory point bonus at the end.
Play occurs over the course of 3 seasons. Not every card is used each play, either, so it’s difficult to hold out for a specific wildlife card. Those are rare enough!
A fair bit of randomness plays into it all, although play time moves quickly with little need to slow down.
Towering Trees
Finding the right balance between the number of trees and building tall trees was very challenging. I wanted the seasonal awards for the tallest tree… But needed more!
With the tree and canopy cards mixed into each season deck, this made the decisions even harder at times.
I had to decide between excellent scoring cards or potentially completing another tree. Both provided great opportunities, yet I was often torn between my options.
One little detail I enjoyed was how an animal token marked a completed tree that had been scored. Cute!
Rare & Helpful Wildlife
While all of the cards provided their own benefits, I was drawn to the wildlife cards! The solo opponent earned double points, so I wasn’t just drawn in by the art. Ha!
Each type of wildlife only had 2 possible cards in the deck. One of these provided a special benefit, while the other was the matching mate that added points for pairs.
Definitely clever, especially considering some of these cards might be removed during setup.
I think I’ll always be drawn to sloths, though, so I may have made some poor decisions just to get those cards!
Battling the Walls of Randomness
There were a few times when I wanted to give up and call this game way too random for my tastes. That’s certainly an important piece of information when starting out: Face-down cards necessitate imperfect information and sometimes, those card draws led to my ultimate loss. For me, it’s important to take a step back, though, and analyze the frustration.
Should every solo game have these sorts of moments? Certainly not! Yet if there’s anything I’ve learned from playing solo games, it’s that the elements I don’t like often offer a moment for self-reflection. I didn’t feel like I had enough control over what the solo opponent earned, so my own strategy was undermined by the card randomness at times.
In order to improve at a game, that sense of control is integral. If I feel like I’m just tossing components around with no clear path to victory, that’s when the enjoyment plummets. At the same time, randomness is at the heart of many board games and helps make turns so unpredictable. Therein lies the fun! So I paused in my frustration.
Overall, there were some elements that didn’t quite mesh with me. Yet those didn’t overshadow the experience, especially when I considered how some of those face-down cards helped me out! As is often the case, it was my own perception of randomness that added friction. I just needed to get the sloth cards, and all was well in the world. Ha!
Session Overview
Play Number: 1-6
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Easy Difficulty Level with Standard Cards
Outcome: 78-116, 77-97, 56-93, 57-77, 69-94, 71-78
Try as I might, I ended up losing each and every play! There was an interesting back-and-forth between wanting to try just once more and thinking that the choices were a little too random. Although some moments were downright frustrating, I generally enjoyed the challenge! I always appreciate a solo mode I can’t master at the easiest difficulty level. I’ll have to come back again.
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
8
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
6
+ Pros (Positives)
- There is a good deal of variety with the cards, especially since 10 are removed face-down during setup.
- Each piece of artwork is beautiful and although there are duplicates, they all flow together to create a rainforest.
- Almost all of the components are eco-friendly with paper envelopes and very limited waste from unboxing.
- Threats provide unexpected consequences, but it’s never possible to predict how often these show up per season.
- Various difficulty levels and modes of play provide a custom experience, and the solo mode is quite challenging.
- Aside from the initial play to learn the rules, play progresses quickly and a full game doesn’t take long to finish.
– Cons (Negatives)
- For card-focused gameplay, the quality is rather underwhelming with thin cardstock and a small size.
- Randomness plays a major role in the solo mode, and it can be far too easy to lose a great card due to the order.
- Not a lot of choices are all that complex since it becomes fairly obvious early on what cards are needed.
- The amount of table space can stretch out far vertically and horizontally, depending on which cards are taken.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 0%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 80 points.
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
Have you had a chance to play Canopy? What do you like about the solo mode? It was a very interesting mix of mechanics, yet the randomness was deceptively enticing. I still have yet to win, and certainly hope to return at some point. Remembering my childhood love of rainforests was definitely an added perk to this already lovely game!
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