Northstar Game Studio Evolution Board Game | Create Species in This Strategy Game for Adults, Teens and Families | 2-6 Players, Age 12+

Evolution (the game) manages to pull off what few modern games can. On the one hand, the engine and the basic rules of the game are fairly simple. Every action is based off playing the trait cards you have in hand. Play a card to put food in the water hole (everyone has to do this each turn); or play a card for its traits (the words); or play a card to gain a species; or play a card to grow your species. Then, you eat the food. The food you eat is your points. If you don't eat enough food, some of your population starves. Draw more cards. Rinse, repeat until the deck is dry. It was simple enough that when I played for the first time with my 6 and 8 year olds, who typically stink at action based games, both were doing just fine. But the traits themselves give an excellent level of complexity to the game. Once you start having multiple species who have evolved into carnivores, who have horns to defend against attacks, who can migrate and climb and hibernate, etc etc etc., the gameplay blossoms wonderfully. The choices you make on your turn become meaningful, which is precisely where you want to be in a game like this: you want your choices to matter, not the engine. Yet, because all the rules for each trait are on cards, everyone can see exactly what's going on. No one is unfairly surprised because the rules for "fatty tissue" is buried in the appendix. This also makes Evolution easy to teach. "What does climbing do, dad?" "What does the card say?" "Oh, right. So you can't attack me! Ha!" I am very excited to get this to the table again. Far too often, modern games have complex rules to go with complex gameplay. To have a family-friendly, quasi-educational game like Evolution buck that trend is a great thing for families and groups who enjoy light to medium games. Note that we played without the climate rules, as suggested by the developer. They will certainly make the game more complex, as you are worried not only about being eaten by your kids' carnivores but the risk of hypothermia, heat exhaustion, and volcanic eruption. I will bring these rules out after 4 or 5 playthroughs, I imagine. For more advanced gamers, they seem absolutely great and a lot of fun. I'd use them as soon as you have a handle on the base strategies.

Amazing game, loads of fun! A game you can actually play with a wide variety and # of players which is rare. First opening the box and looking at all the pieces and the manual you think it is complicated, too complicated. However, once you play it once you quickly get the hang of the concepts and strategy. I suggest you use YouTube video tutorials as an introduction to new players rather than reading the manual; it goes much faster and as long as one person knows the messy details you can bring them up when needed. I also suggest that you use the alternative fast play style for all #s of players rather than just the 5-6 players as suggested. It makes a big improvement in the flow of gameplay leaving each player with less downtime and feels more like a video game where everyone is playing at once together rather than waiting a turn. The artwork is gorgeous, the materials feel high quality. The Climate part can be left out if you want to simplify things. I worried for a first play through with non-serious gamer friends that the Climate part would be too complicated, but they insisted and it actually turned out great! Climate definitely adds interesting effects and strategies, and it might even be a way you can turn some people around to understanding climate change without actually debating and throwing science at them! The game overall certainly pulls in all aspects of evolution, but never once explicitly throws in science. Survival of the fittest at its best!

My wife and I bought this to bring to a family get together, and it was a big hit. We have played about 5 times now, and each time it feels unique and engaging. I would recommend to a new buyer reading the rules yourself beforehand, and instead of just verbally explaining the rules, I would hand out the quick reference cards the game comes with and then explain each of the four parts of a round as you play it with them the first round. I found with this game, learning it definitely came faster as you played. Additionally, I was thoroughly impressed with the thickness of the cardboard tokens, species boards, and watering hole. They are extremely durable, and feel like a high quality product. Even my 8 year old nephew was able to easily pick up and use the pieces (although the nuances of the strategy were a little much, but overall he played just fine with the adults and slight parent coaching).The cards as well were pretty firm, and the instructions are glossy and the pages have some weight.

Es un excelente juego para pasar el rato, cada juego es único e inesperado totalmente recomendable. de preferencia jugar con 4 personas de 5 puede ser un caótica al principio pero ya cuando todos saben jugar es algo excelente.

Evolution is one of my favourite games - I started by playing it on my iPad and really enjoyed the gameplay so I decided to pick up a physical copy, and I'm glad I did. The cards for the species you're making in the game look great, the other tokens and pieces look nice and have a solid feel to them, and the dinosaur piece that tracks whose turn it is to start the round is just a fun piece of kit to have around. The game itself is fairly simple, you can even play with just two people so you don't always have to get a big group together, and the full session will wrap up in under an hour, if you're taking your time and strategising.

This is a great competitive game which involves "evolving" different species with different abilities. At the start of the game all species are herbivores, but they can evolve to become carnivores (who only feed by attacking other players and sometimes your own other species if none other are available). The clever design does not end there. You have to try to outsmart your opponents by evolving abilities to help you resist attacks as well as prevent the ever present danger of starvation which will kill your species. Finally, the climate is able to change, and it can affect the game from mild changes to drastic changes. The players are able to exercise some control over the climate by playing ability cards. The climate changes things because that predator at the table who has been ravaging your species might not do so well in really hot or really cold weather. Changing the weather can help you deal with it without having to fight it. The purpose of the game is to collect as much food as you can. It is a pretty easy game to learn but ends up having a lot of complex strategies developing as the players try to adapt to the climate as well as to other opponents. All in all this is a great game and very fun. Go buy it. You will thank me.

Great board game. Loads of fun to play with friends & family. Has surprising depth to such a simple concept & the art work is beautiful.

Ce jeu pour adulte et jeune de 10 ans et plus, malheureusement en anglais, mais bien illustré est vraiment parfait comme jeu de société différent, mais il y a la version Climate….acheter plutôt celle là, le niveau de difficulté a été amélioré, mes jeunes de 30 ans ont beaucoup de plaisirs!