Don’t let the fact that it’s an educational game fool you, Cytosis: A Cell Biology Game is a very solid worker-placement board game that will appeal to many hobby game fans.
That’s the entire concept behind board game publisher Genius Games, to make educational games that live up to the standards of modern board games and are actually fun to play. Cytosis is a worker placement game set inside a human cell where you work to create enzymes, receptors, proteins and steroids, with the goal of trying to end the game with the highest health rating.
Disclosure: Thank you to Genius Games for sending us some of their games to check out. Some links in this post are affiliate links, using them costs you nothing extra and helps support this website. As an Amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Learning Cell Biology through a Board Game in Cytosis
Cytosis A Cell Biology Board Game (which I’m just going to refer to as Cytosis from now on) comes from the folks at Genius Games who we have to thank for providing us with a review copy of this worker placement board game. The overall goal of Genius Games is to produce educational games that are actually fun and that will appeal to a modern board game audience, and I think they nailed it with Cytosis.
The science based board game was designed by John Coveou and features art by Tomsz Bogusz. It plays two to five players with games taking under two hours. Most of our games came in at about one and a half hours except for our first couple of plays.
Genius Games lists this game as being ages ten plus, which seems like a good fit as that’s around the age you start learning about the science of cells in school, though that’s going to vary by district. I know we specifically requested a review copy of this game when Genius Games reached out to us because our youngest daughter was taking cell biology at the time.
The version of Cytosis we have is the second edition, which includes some improvements over the first edition, including a two sided board providing a better two player experience. The second edition is the version currently in print and should be what’s available everywhere online and in stores. However, just in case there are some old copies out there, you want to make sure to pick up this edition over the original.
Cytosis is a worker placement about human cells. You use workers to collect resources like MRNA, ATP, Lipids and Carbohydrates and then use those to produce enzymes, proteins, steroids, receptors and more. While enzymes are easy to make, proteins and steroids require a multi step process to produce where you are using transport discs to move resource cubes around the various parts of the cell.
Physically, this is all represented on a game board in the form of a giant, very colourful, cell with very obvious worker placement spots and clear iconography. Resources are represented by different coloured cubes and ATP (energy, the currency of the game) is represented by cardboard tokens.
The worker pieces are wooden vials and the card quality is excellent. Except for looking like a potentially dry educational game I see nothing to complain about here. On the educational side of things the game also comes with an educational guide. This includes a description of the biology at work behind the game, and lists actual cell functions and how they are represented in the game (which I found rather fascinating).
Managing a cell, Cytosis overview of play
You start a game of Cytosis by laying out the board so everyone can reach it. The board is two sided, with one side used for two player games (it has less worker placement spots on it) and the other for higher player counts.
Players collect all of the components in their colour and keep a number of worker flasks based on the player count, with the rest returned to the box. A set of goal cards is drawn and displayed at the top of the board. Each player is also dealt two cell component cards, choosing one of these to keep while the others go in a discard pile. The remaining call cards are placed next to the board and the four card market at the bottom of the board is created by drawing from the deck. An event deck is also created and players each get some starting ATP based on their turn order.
Each turn in Cytosis you use one of your worker flasks to claim a spot on the board and take the associated action. These actions include collecting resources, purchasing new cell component cards, completing cell component cards in your hand, and taking the first player marker (and claiming either a goal or one ATP). There’s also a way to purchase an additional flask to give you an extra action for one turn.
Collecting resources is simple, place your worker on an appropriate spot and collect the amount of resources shown. Some spots require you to trade one resource for another, trade ATP for resources, or trade resources for ATP.
Purchasing cards is also easy, each spot in the market shows a cost in ATP above it. Pay the cost and take the card. Unlike many other games, the market does not refill until the end of the round and at that time the leftmost card that’s remaining (if any) is discarded first.
When you choose to take first the player marker you also have the option of placing a goal marker on one of the available goal cards. Each card only has spots for two markers. The first player to claim each card gets some bonus points. All of the goals award end game points for collecting different things like protein cards, steroid receptors, specific cell cards, etc. We recommend reading these goal cards off to everyone at the start of the game to make sure everyone understands what the goals are and no one forgets about them.
That leaves the most complicated part of Cytosis, completing cell component cards. Some cards are easier to complete than others. For example, to complete an Alcohol Detoxification card you just have to place a flask on one of the spots for the Smooth ER and pay some ATP. Enzymes are also pretty easy to complete as all you need to do is trade in the resources listed on the card However, there is there only one Cytoplasm spot on the board, so competition for it can be fierce.
Things get interesting with the hormones, which include steroids, proteins, and receptors for both. Completing one of these types of cards is a multi step process which starts by playing a beaker into one of the two ER spots, smooth or rough. You then place one of your transport discs there with the appropriate resources stacked on top.
Then, as a later action, you need to place a worker at the Golgi Apparatus. This has you move your transport disc down to that spot and lets you add a Lipid or Carbohydrate cube to the disc. Finally, as a third separate action you need to play a beaker at the Plasma Membrane to actually turn in your disc and the resources on it to play your card.
At each of these steps the actual resources required are determined by the type of card you are trying to complete. These resources have to come from your supply and must be collected prior to completing each step.
Every Cell Component Card you complete in Cytosis awards you points in the form of Health. Alcohol cards are only worth one Heath each, but there’s bonus points at the end of the game for completing the hightst total value of Alcohol cards. Enzymes are worth a small amount of heath but you also get bonus points at the end of the game for having sets of different enzymes. The two types of hormones award the most points but also award points to any opponents who have built and receptors matching the hormone produced.
At the end of each round everyone collects their workers. The left most Cell Component Card is discarded and the market is re-filled. Next you flip up and read off an event card. Each event provides a one time bonus for one of the worker placement spots on the board during the next round. This is awarded to the first player to use that spot.
The number of event cards in play is set by the player count and the game ends the round after you flip up the last event card. At that point the player with the most health wins.
All of this sounds a bit more complicated than it really is when you’re actually at the table. Cytosis A Cell Biology Board Game is rather straight forward. Most actions are very clear and do one simple thing and that thing is fully shown on the board. It’s only when you get into the hormones that things get at all complicated, and even that shouldn’t be any trouble for anyone who’s played an engine building game before. After you see it done once it will all make sense, even for a new player.
Cytosis is a very solid worker placement game with great flow and you just might even learn something.
While I had pretty high expectations going into Cytosis, I was still surprised by how much my friends and family enjoyed this educational game. This was our first game from Genius Games and while I knew they had a reputation for making fun and engaging educational games, I guess I was a bit skeptical until seeing it first hand.
The most important thing for anyone to know about this game is that it is a good game. Period. Cytosis is a very solid worker placement game with some engine building, set collection, and area majority aspects. It is a good board game that just also happens to be educational.
One of the more clever parts of Cytosis is the way the goal cards work. I really like how they let the players decide what they want to score at the end of the game, which allows them to set their own focus. The game incentives grabbing these early, which can give you some direction on what you want to be working on next.
A downfall to this system, which we saw in one game, is that a player who doesn’t pay attention to the goals will have a hard time being competitive. In that particular game the cards were on the opposite side of the table and the player just didn’t worry about them because they couldn’t really see them from where they were sitting. This is why I recommended reading them out to everyone at the table at the start of the game. With new players, you may also want to clearly mention how important those goals will be to everyone’s final score at the end of the game.
I dig how Cytosis is a bit of a point salad. You can focus mainly on completing enzymes, or try to specialise in just one type or hormone, or you can make sure to buy up every alcohol card. There’s also the fun option of trying to build tons of receptors so you gain points from the other players actions. Overall, there are a lot of different ways to earn those Health points.
That said, due to the luck of the draw, you can’t specialise in one thing, and you may not always be able to do what you want. In this game you will be forced to diversify and try other things. This part of the game rewards game mastery. Knowing the Cell Component Deck and the Event Deck will give experienced players a distinct advantage over someone who is new.
Speaking of competition, Cytosis can be pretty cutthroat. This is a worker placement game where you will be competing for spots. Some options are very limited, only allowing one player to use them each round. For example, there is only one spot in the Smooth ER and this is the spot you need to take to start completing a steroid card but it’s also where you need to go for Alcohol Detoxification.
In addition, there are only so many spots for transport discs on the board. If you move to a spot where there’s no room, the player with the most health gets their disc back and loses any progress they have made at that point.
Cytosis is one of the best educational game I’ve ever played. It does a great job of being just abstract enough to not bog you down, while still being true to the science and quite fun. It’s a very solid worker placement game with engaging mechanics.
The biggest problem here is the theme itself, it’s pretty damn dry. While the game works and works well, it lacks a “fun” theme. It’s hard to get excited about producing proteins. The game also isn’t really doing anything new mechanically to make it stand out from other worker placement games, other than the fact that this is an educational one.
While I enjoy Cytosis and will happily sit down and play it again, I can’t see ever recommending this game on game night over other options in my collection and it’s even more unlikely I’m specifically inviting friends over for a night of pizza and Cytosis.
Where I think this game will really shine is in an educational setting (though I don’t personally want to figure out the logistics of playing a max five player game with thirty students). When prepping for What Makes A Game A Game, Episode 245 of The Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast (where we originally reviewed Cytosis), a rules question came up and when I googled for an answer the first hit I found was a copy of the PDF rulebook available via the University of Waterloo (from which I assume the game is getting used in one of their courses).
This is a board game where you really can learn something. Sitting down to play I was surprised to discover just how much human biology I remembered from my own school years. Even now, some time after our last play, I still remember the various biological terms and names used in the game, which I think is a good indication that playing this game would be a great mnemonic for remembering cell biology concepts.
If you have tried Cytosis and you enjoyed it even more than we did, if you really would call up your friends for a pizza and Cytosis party, there is an expansion available, the Cytosis Virus Expansion. The expansion adds Influenza, Rhino, and Ebola viruses and the ability to spend ATP to build up antibodies to combat each of these strains. It also adds dice, new mechanics, additional cards and more. However, I can’t say anything about how the expansion plays since we haven’t tried it ourselves.
FAQs
Can an educational board game actually be fun?
It’s is Genius Games’ mission to create educational games that will appeal to modern hobby board gamers. They nailed this goal with Cytosis. This is a fun game that also happens to be educational.
Can I actually learn something from Cytosis A Cell Biology Board Game?
While things are abstracted in Cytosis the game flow and mechanics are based on the actual science of cell biology. The game also includes a detailed educational reference book that explains cell processes and how they are represented in game.
Is the board game Cytosis gross?
Despite being about human biology there’s nothing gross in Cytosis the board game. The board is a bright colourful abstraction of a human cell and all of the enzymes, proteins, etc. are represented by cards and wooden cubes.
Since originally reviewing Cytosis on our podcast, we’ve started to explore another one of Genius Games’ educational games, Genotype.
During our original review of Cytosis I called it the best educational game I’ve ever played. Well after trying Genotype, I can’t say that about Cytosis anymore as Genotype is far more enjoyable. It’s a game that I really would invite people over for a night of pizza and games to play.
We are still exploring the game, but a review should be along soon. Listen to The Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast and watch this website for an upcoming review of Genotype, where growing peas can actually be quite fun.
- BIOLOGY BOARD GAME – Learn cell biology from a science game! Players build enzymes, hormones, and receptors and play with proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and DNA or mRNA, just like in biology class. This game is great on a learning table in a classroom to teach students about various parts of cell biology, including animal cell organelles, enzymes, and hormones.
