Periodic: A Game of the Elements | Periodic Table Board & Card Game About Atoms, Elements & Compounds | A Strategy Board Game for Gamers & Educational Science Game for Kids or Family Game Night

My 12yo and I have enjoyed this game. Took some time to learn first time around, but fun once you get through it.

For a bit of context, we are definitely geeks and we homeschool our children. We are not heavy gamers, but we do like to play some lighter to mid weight board games.We really like this game! There are quite a few steps to remember and it can seem overwhelming at first, but that is true for a lot of games. We broke it down step by step as we played our first game, and the steps really started to flow the longer we played. I haven't thought about chemistry in quite a few years, so I was very rusty. The game does not require you to know chemistry to play, but I love how much chemistry my brain started picking up during our play. It isn't a comprehensive chemistry class, but it is a great and fun way to familiarize yourself and your children with the periodic table of the elements. The elements are grouped on cards in interesting and educational ways: The Curies discovered Polonium and Radium or most common metals in industry etc. While it is an educational game, we think the fun aspect stands on its own. We will be playing this game a lot because we have fun, but we are also excited that we will be learning while having fun!We own a few Genius Games now, and this one did not disappoint. We will definitely keep adding games from this company to our collection.

Pair this with a couple khan academy videos to understand increase in energy and such, and it's very useful to get to know ones way around the periodic table. Good for high school chemistry student and interesting enough for an 11 yr old and adult to also play. I'll play again.

We really wanted to like this game, but the setup was so complicated, we never even played it. Maybe we aren’t the target audience? But so many fiddly bits we were overwhelmed before we even got started.

This game was definitely worth it to play with teens that love science, or just to learn a new game that really makes you think. My 15yo wooped my butt while we were learning the game she caught on real fast, blew past me. I like how it makes you rrally think about the elements, their properties and how to move around the board by sharing and taking energy. It's great, just a real deep learning curve. If you like a challenge and don't mind taking some time to play, this is a good game to get lost in.

Periodic has great presentation from the color pallet chosen to the piece shapes. The game should appeal to players liking set collection with multiple paths to victory. The duration of the game is suitable for classroom use and works well for casual as well as experienced players. Periodic is nicely balanced and generates some surprises as folks reveal their hidden agendas at game end. Finally, the game stores well in the provided box and bags with no unnecessary insert for pieces to fall out of during transit. A couple of caveats to consider: the connection between game mechanisms and subject is weak (but not completely absent). The choice of a microscope for one of the pieces is quizzical. Perhaps a laboratory balance would have been better. These are small concerns however. Overall, this is a wonderful game.

First I have to comment about other reviewers saying this is complicated. It isn't. At all. I suspect they are more the Monopoly and Scrabble type gamers. If you have played more medium weight euro style games this is going to be a breeze. The game is visually appealing with really high quality components. You are moving around the periodic table based on trends. So for anyone familiar with Chemistry, atomic number, atomic mass, radii size and ionization can all be seen by using the table. You use these trends to move to "research" and element. This is to complete goal cards to earn points. You can also earn points by ending a turn on certain element family groups that advance you along a point track. Not even remotely complicated yet quite fun, especially if you are using the game as a homeschool or enrichment activity. I have played multiple times with my 9 and 11 year old who took to it with no problem. My 9 year old was the one who read the instructions originally and taught the game. We also have Compound which is another great game but different enough that if you enjoy science based board games, then having both isn't redundant.

I bought it for homeschool chemistry hoping it would be educational and fun for high schoolers... It has so far taken an hour and a half just to read through the instructions. Setting up the board game to start was super complicated and I'm not sure of even why things are set they way there are (feels arbitrary rather than related to scientific principles)... we only have achieved about fifteen minutes of actual playing time total because we ran out of time... and each turn can take awhile... definitely not a game for younger kids and I'm not sure what educational value we will get out of it other than getting familiar with where elements are located (which we can do with a puzzle as well). Wishing I had not invested in this. Two kids are bored to tears (as am I) and one kid really wants to try it one more time, but she is like that about everything... so if we do play again and it gets better for any reason... I'll update this review. But for now, I'm thinking this was a loss of resources/time. The board looks nice though, and the playing pieces are good quality.