It’s Science! Getting Lost in the Laboratory with CoLab
Craft quirky and strange devices, monsters, and potions as a renowned scientist working in a towering laboratory with CoLab.
Perhaps one of my most interesting stories of late comes from CoLab, a game I put off bringing to my table for around a year. The theme always attracted me, along with its beautiful and very unique components! Learn more about the solo mode that took me on a wild ride as I evaluated this experience over a longer span of time than usual… To the lab!
Game Overview
Game Name: CoLab
Publication Year: 2024
Designers: Jonathan Gilmour-Long & Jon Mietling
Artist: Magdalena Proszowska
Publisher: Portal Dragon
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
With a variety of dice and resources, a tableau of creations slowly takes shape. Assistants climb the towers, all while the solo opponent works towards completing a diabolical machine. It’s a race against time to collect the resources needed to build a wide range of laboratory creations!
First Play
June 21, 2025
Complexity
3
Latest Play
July 2, 2025
Expansions
1
Setup Time
15 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
2
Play Time
40 Minutes
High Score
25
Game Area
44" x 32"
Low Score
20
Beautiful Components
So much can be said about the components, which are truly amazing. The miniatures, particularly those for the smaller assistants, have so much character. Look at these guys!
The scientists are also enormous and have a very strong presence out on the board. But I won’t lie… This play area is huge, and only expands in every direction with time.
Clever mechanics are present, yet the rulebook left a lot to be desired. I wasn’t quite sure I understood how to play…
And as I’ll explain, the solo mode changed the entire game so much to the point that it felt like a different experience.
Dr. Luciana
Was my character technically a doctor of science? I believed so. Ha! As far as I could tell, the solo opponents operated differently, but I had nothing to choose but a player color.
And it was… Strange? I felt lost right from the start because the main mechanic has to do with placing dice. These are shared on the towers, adding a sort of collaborative effort.
But unless I was completely wrong, the solo opponent’s unique dice were never used in this way. Entirely different.
I could sort of see how to get ahead and what I had to do, which involved interesting resource management!
All the Monsters
Such excellent artwork! There are a lot of duplicate cards, but there are still plenty to add some neat variety.
Abilities have different trigger points, which might involve building an adjacent card or using potion tokens. Neat!
The idea is to build a grid of 12 cards that can never expand beyond a 4×4 area. This adds a lot of play space, but this is the heart of the game that introduces a lot of combinations.
I loved building my area! Yet managing the solo opponent required a ton of mental work. I never had a chance to really focus on my own strategy, and felt overwhelmed.
The Evil Machine
To keep everything unique, there are 4 different types of machines a solo opponent might build. And the end result looked cool! But oh, no. So confusing and frustrating.
I actually played a 2-player game in between my solo plays. Totally different game that was still complicated, but was immensely more enjoyable. So cool to use the assistants!
When I came back to give the solo mode another chance, it was even worse because I knew how fun the game could be.
Definitely a major disappointment, even though I was hoping to enjoy a run through the laboratory. Not today.
When a Solo Mode Teaches a Different Game
One of my biggest issues was that starting off playing solo was a terrible way to get into the game. The solo opponent is aggressive and attacks, often forcing the player to discard cards or dice. It felt like a very mean way to slow down my progress, rather than a challenge or puzzle to think through. I just… Lost things in a not-so-fun, punishing way.
As I settled in to play against my husband, I was worried about all of these moments that would set me back. We have a fun time playing board games, but I’m not a big fan about having my progress erased on a whim. Guess what? None of that is present in the multiplayer game! It’s strategic and comes down to figuring out when to place useful dice that can be shared.
I honestly thought I must have misunderstood the solo mode entirely, because it was missing all of the cool moments! Alas, it was worse playing through my second time because I knew what the game could offer. It was more like I needed to collect some extra resources to use as throwaway things the solo opponent would force me to discard. That’s not fun.
The solo mode doesn’t feel like it was created in a haphazard way, but it feels like one of those experiences that’s there for seasoned players to challenge themselves in different ways. I understand that, yet I would be hesitant to recommend this one as a purely solo experience. It’s almost like learning how to play 2 different games at once, and neither is amazing.
So much potential! The multiplayer experience made this one worth it, yet I don’t want to even think about trying the solo mode again. The rules are confusing, and some of the solo opponent abilities don’t make sense. There is a very interesting sort of strategic game here that shines with others… But the solo mode made me feel bad from beginning to end.
Session Overview
Play Number: 1 & 2
Expansion: CoLab: Kickstarter Expansion Cards
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Easy Difficulty Level
Outcome: 20, 25 (2 Losses)
I was within range of a victory, but the solo opponent’s cascading effects were too much. And random, at that. I enjoyed the idea of building upgrade tiles, but when every area on the board could expand like this, it all felt like it sprawled out too much without much effect. Definitely making sure this one will only be a multiplayer experience!
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
4
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
5
Originality
Design & Theme
6
Quality
Components & Rules
8
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
4
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
7
+ Pros (Positives)
- All of the components are excellent and bring the setting to life, particularly the assistant miniatures on the board.
- Setup involves a lot of randomization around the layout of the laboratories and towers with plenty of variety.
- Deciding how to use actions and dice create neat moments around collecting resources or building additional cards.
- Lots of unique devices, monsters, and potions can be crafted to discover interesting combinations and abilities.
- Choices about timing are very important and make each turn feel like it offers something meaningful to accomplish.
- Play time is relatively short for what the experience offers in terms of resource management and tableau building.
– Cons (Negatives)
- The required table space is enormous with the way the upgrade tiles expand and 4×4 grids of cards must be built.
- Mean elements are only present in the solo mode, which feels like a different game that really slows down progress.
- It takes a lot to understand the rules, especially with the way they’re spread out and split up in different sections.
- Gameplay doesn’t feel fun against the solo opponent, particularly with the removal of shared dice in the towers.
Victory Conditions
Complete the Difficulty Level Requirements
- Overall Goal Progress 0%
Goals and Milestones
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
Have you ever played CoLab? Did you find an interesting combination of cards to add to your tableau? I thought I was done after trying the solo mode once, but it was interesting to see what the multiplayer experience was like. Such a shame that the game is so different! Playing as a scientist had a lot of promise, yet I’ll be happily moving onto other solo games.
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