Codex Naturalis Review – The Prettiest Engine Builder You’ve Never Heard Of

Disclaimer: Codis Naturalis was provided for free by Pandasaurus Games, although the writing and opinions of this article are my own.

One of the perks of reviewing board games is stumbling across titles you’d never think to pick up and occasionally striking gold. It’s like the thrill of finding a perfect outfit at a thrift shop or discovering that your favourite author snuck out a new novel while you weren’t looking.

Small box games always catch my eye (I’ve got a list of favourites), but Codis Naturalis wasn’t even on my radar. Big mistake. This game isn’t just a hidden gem. It’s the sort of find that makes you wonder how you overlooked it in the first place.

How to play

Codis Naturalis is about assembling a secret manuscript cataloguing the species of the four kingdoms. A pretty cool theme, right? Well it is, but unless you’re squinting at the back of the box, you’d never know. It’s not written anywhere else. The gameplay is straightforward and abstract: stack cards, gather resources, and chase victory points.

Each card you play has Open Corners – squares in the corners that act as anchor points for new cards. On your turn, you’ll add a card to those you’ve already placed, covering one or more of these Open Corners.

There are two types of cards, both coming in four suits (Plant, Animal, Fungi, and Insect):

• Regular Cards: These are your workhorses, usually featuring a mix of Open Corners and resource icons, often tied to the card’s suit. Most of the action happens in those corners.
• Gold Cards: These are all about the points. They either give you a flat victory point boost or points based on how many scrolls, ink pots, or feathers you’ve got visible in your play area.

On top of playing cards, you’ll also have objectives to chase: two public ones for all players and one secret personal objective. These often involve collecting sets of resources, arranging card suits in specific patterns, or showing off your scroll, ink pot, or feather collection.

Players take turns stacking and playing cards until someone hits 20 points. Then it’s time for the final score. Add up your objective points and see who wins the day.

Gold foiled engine-building

Despite its parchment-thin theme, Codis Naturalis is one of the most gorgeous small-box games I’ve ever played. The artwork, the vibrant colours, and the delicate use of gold foil to accentuate the cards—it all comes together beautifully to create a truly stunning package.

But looks aren’t everything. How does it play?

Surprisingly well, actually. This isn’t a game that tries to reinvent the wheel or wow you with flashy new mechanics. Instead, it picks a tried-and-true engine-building formula and executes it with precision. The result feels a lot like Splendor. And since I adore Splendor, that’s high praise.

But it’s well-deserved. The power curve in Codis Naturalis is sublime. You start by playing basic cards that provide resource icons, but before long, you’re upgrading to gold cards or stacking up cards that generate victory points. It’s like pushing a boulder downhill—it gathers momentum fast, and by the end, you’re flying. That smooth sense of progression is why engine-building games are so beloved, and Codis Naturalis nails it.

Adding to the experience is the clever challenge of Open Corners. Because cards are placed overlapping each other, you’ll often find yourself running out of usable corners—or worse, stuck choosing between covering up resources you need or preserving your options. These little dilemmas add just the right amount of tension without bogging things down, keeping you engaged throughout its brisk playtime.

Vanilla ice cream, plain rice, and a few market woes

Codis Naturalis is my kind of game. But then again, I’m also the type of person who enjoys plain rice and vanilla ice cream. There’s not a lot going on, but what is there is streamlined and satisfying.

That said, part of me thinks it could have been even better if the market system had been more dynamic. Right now, you only have four cards to choose from, two from the regular deck and two from the gold deck. It doesn’t give you much flexibility, and in several plays, I’ve seen the market completely stall.

This issue is even more pronounced in two-player games. With only one other player cycling cards between your turns, the market can become stagnant. For instance, all the gold cards might demand green resource icons, yet the regular deck stubbornly refuses to provide anything green. When that happens, it feels less like strategy and more like waiting for a deck reshuffle.

The objectives, too, feel slightly undercooked… like day-old sushi: edible, but something tastes funny.

There are two types: collecting resource icons and arranging cards in specific patterns. I almost always gravitated toward resource collection, only because the pattern-based objectives are tough to complete without sacrificing your engine’s efficiency and resource gains.

Ultimately, these flaws make card (and objective) draw a disproportionately critical factor in determining the winner. For competitive players, that reliance on luck can turn into a real sticking point, leading to frustration when the cards just don’t fall their way.

However, I still thoroughly enjoyed Codex Naturalis and think it more than makes up for these quirks with its streamlined mechanics, satisfying progression, and jaw-dropping presentation. If you’re looking for a quick, engaging engine-builder that delivers both beauty and brains in a small box, then Codex Naturalis won’t let you down.