/pic6039256.jpg)
Paleo
A cooperative Stone Age survival game where blind card draws keep you sweating.
Designed by Peter Rustemeyer · 2020
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
One of the best mid-weight co-ops of its year, and the Kennerspiel jury agreed. Just know going in that the dice (or rather, the deck) can be cruel, and that's kind of the point.
Best for: Couples and small groups who like tense, talky co-ops and don't mind losing
What it is
Paleo drops you into prehistory with a tribe of cave folk and one job: survive long enough to finish a cave painting. Each day everyone holds a small deck and picks a card by its back only, so you're choosing blind. Flip it and you might find a mammoth, a cliff, a hungry wolf, or a handy bit of flint. You spend abilities and resources to deal with it. At night you feed your people, and anyone you can't feed earns you a skull. Five skulls and you're done.
The catch
The catch is the luck, and your tolerance for it decides everything. Real players keep flagging the same thing: a rough draw of starting People cards can hobble you before you've done anything, and that bites hardest at two players where you've got fewer hands to cover the gaps. The rulebook is genuinely disorganized too, so your first game involves a lot of flipping back and forth. And you tear the modules down and rebuild after every play, which gets old.
Who it's for
Here's the thing though. Underneath the chaos is a tight, talky little engine that won the 2021 Kennerspiel des Jahres for good reason. Turns happen at once so nobody's twiddling thumbs, and the arc from scrappy and desperate to actually-we-might-make-this is deeply satisfying. Get it if you and a small group like co-ops with real teeth and you can shrug off a brutal loss. Skip it if random setbacks make you want to flip the table.
What other players say
This write-up is grounded in real reviews and player discussion, not just one opinion. A few worth reading:
Compare Paleo head to head
More from the shelf
All reviews
Wingspan
A calm little game about birds that tables get weirdly competitive over.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Azul
Lovely tiles, simple rules, and a surprising amount of quiet cruelty.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
/pic9156909.png)
Catan
The one that started a thousand game nights, and one or two genuine arguments.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.