Evolution – Board Game Preview
Today our game review is really a game PREview.
Over the last month we’ve had a chance to play a prototype of an upcoming strategy board game by North Star Games called Evolution.
North Star Games is mostly know for creating great party games including Wits & Wagers, Wits & Wagers Family, Wits & Wagers Party, Say Anything, Say Anything Family, and Crappy Birthday. Last year they also published the card game Clubs. We love playing games from North Star Games.
So when we were asked if we’d like to take a look at their first upcoming strategy board game, we were more than happy to do so.
We’ve now played the game numerous times and are ready to share our thoughts.
Evolution
Evolution is being launched on Kickstarter (a crowd-funding site) this week to raise funds for production. Hopefully this preview will give you a good taste for the game so you can decide if it’s a project you’re interested in supporting.
Check out our video preview to see what Evolution is all about, how to play, a detailed example of the game play, and what we think of the game.
Can the whole family enjoy Evolution?
It takes a lot of thinking to plan out how you want to develop your species while still fun for kids. Like other strategy board games, players need to be able to process and evaluate many decisions at once. How much food do you want in the supply each round? Which traits to do want to add to your species? When should you grow your species? How can you keep the other players’ species in check?
There’s a lot going on and it won’t appeal to everyone. But those that like games with many decisions will enjoy it.
When I first mentioned the game to our boys, they turned up their noses. They saw the prototype components and didn’t have much interest. It took a bit of prodding to get them to sit down and play. But once the game got rolling, it didn’t take long before they were totally engrossed and firing on all cylinders.
They love creating a wide mix of species with varied traits for both protection and attacking.
For more details on the decisions in the game, check out the video preview. If you just want an overview, the first ~5 minutes will cover it. But to see where the game really shines, you’ll want to see a more detailed turn in action which is in the second half of the video.
What we enjoy about Evolution
In addition to the variety of traits that can be used to make strong species, we enjoy the way Evolution keeps us thinking throughout the game. Even though there’s a turn order, it doesn’t feel like there’s any downtime because we’re always trying to figure out which cards to play.
Of course we’d love to grow the size of our Population or Body Size, but that requires discarding a Trait card. And those Traits can be very valuable on a species so it’s hard to give them up. Likewise, the same cards are also used for determining the size of the Food supply for each round. So choosing which card to give up for the food supply is a tough call too.
While trying to make these decisions for your own species, you’re also trying to guess what your opponents will be doing with their species. If there aren’t any carnivores out yet, it may be tempting to forgo the defensive traits. But all it takes is one person adding a carnivore trait to one of their species that round and before you know it, your species is being attacked.
It’s that continual balance of decisions that makes the game engaging and fun.
How does Evolution score on the “Let’s Play Again” game meter?
A game of Evolution typically takes 45 – 60 minutes to play depending on the number of players. The game only lasts until the deck of cards is played through once, but the number of players and amount of species and traits that are out require a bit more thinking. So number of players will impact the length of play – but not by a ton.
As I mentioned previously, the boys weren’t too interested in the beginning. But now they’re totally on board which ups the score on our “let’s play again” game meter.
They also can’t wait for the game to be published. They’re really looking forward to it.
If you like strategy board games, we’d recommend you get on board with the Evolution Kickstarter project so you’ll get a copy of the game from North Star Games as soon as it’s released.
Kickstarter Intro: Like many crowdsourcing sites, Kickstarter is a funding platform for small companies to get initial project funding to make a quality product. A number of board games and card games are being published this way lately. When a project is posted on Kickstarter, a funding goal is set. People interested in the project pledge money to support it. If the total pledges hit the goal, then the project will go through and everyone that pledged will then pay the money that they pledged and get the game (and any extras) when published. If the goal isn’t reached, no one pays anything.
