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Evolution is a game centred around creating different, unique animals to outcompete all the rest. By giving your animals different trait cards they then gain the capacity to win all the food at the watering hole or eat the competition. Each round, you gather all the food you have won and stockpile it away. Whoever has the most at the end of the game, wins! The game requires you to balance between protecting your species while also making them the most efficient animals in the ecosystem.
Artwork
Evolution has a large pack of playing cards that all have very colourful designs filled with character showing a range of different species. My particular favourite is the card “pack hunting” which shows a range of little stoat like creatures sniffing out its next prey. The food screens although not the most practical also have lovely artwork on making me want to use them even if they are a bit annoying. The tokens representing food are also a good bit of fun. They have a plant of some sort on one side and they little limb on the other for those with a more carnivorous diet. The species boards are slightly less exciting but are practical and easy to use so the design doesn’t matter too much to me. I also love the first player marker which is a forest green wooden brachiosaurus. The Artwork in this game adds a lot to the game, helping to visualise both the animals and the setting in which the world plays out.
Complexity
Evolutions complexity is some what in the middle. It took me a little bit to grasp the basic moves and turn taking but once you have it, the game move a lot quicker. That being said, when teaching new people it can be quite hard. I tried playing with my family and I don’t think I will be trying again any time soon as it took the whole game for them to understand the turn taking. This can then suck the joy out fo the game for some people. On top of this there are lots of pieces which can add to the confusion for new players as there aren’t just simple decisions you can make to keep the game moving forward.
If you are willing to get past this though, then that’s when the real fun starts. I did some demo games with myself for a while to try and figure out new combinations and found lots of fun pairings for the trait cards. You can make species that can really stack on top of each other and it can be done a range of ways. However, you have to be careful as if you try and be too clever it can be to your own downfall. For example, I had an amazing carnivore at one point in the game but it just ended up eating all my other friendly plant eating animals! This to me really emphasises the idea of creating a balanced ecosystem that supports one another and highlights the risk of greed!
Replayability
I believe this game has great replay value. With 17 different trait cards the range of abilities allow you to continually try different strategies out and see what works and what doesn’t. However, it is not just the traits that matter but also the number of creatures you can have, their population and body size. All of these factors make the possibilities vast. On top of this, every opponent will be reacting differently meaning every game is different.
Player Interaction
Although it is fun to exploit one of your friends herbivores using a massive carnivore, I think the player interaction is a bit limited in evolution. A lot of what you do is independent. You do have to bounce off other peoples moves and respond depending what they do but unless you have a carnivore your animals and ecosystem is separate from everyone else’s. That being said I don’t think it is fully necessary in the game in the same Wingspan doesn’t have much interaction with others but still bring about plenty of conversation.
Component Quality
Evolution is a mixed bag when it comes to component quality. To start with the positives, I think the trait cards and species boards are great functionally. It's simple, but satisfying to add characteristics such as horns and intelligence to animals while moving the population and body size counters up and down. The watering hole is also a great central point for the game. However, I do have an issue with some components other than that. The food tokens are either in 1s or 10s. Now this means it can be quite long to add and take away from the watering hole. I understand why they have done this as food tokens need to be assigned one at a time but it can be quite tedious to lay all these tokens out at once. I also find that the food screens although very pretty are a bit useless. In most of the games I have played with people, we decided to just have piles we kept to side out of the way rather than use the food screens. That being said this isn’t really a big deal and the primary element of the game is creature building which delivers.
Conclusion
I think Evolution is a very solid game but I do think there are better games centred around ecosystems. For example, Wingspan can be equally as strategical to this game but also only has 4 options per turn making it more accessible to a wide range of board game users. Furthermore, I think I would off enjoyed the game more if there was a better use of tokens. That being said, I do think that the artwork is delightful and full of life. The game also does a good job of giving you freedom to create what you want building your own unique range of animals. I would recommend this game to people, especially those who enjoy evolution as a concept and the idea of building your own animals. That being said, For a little bit extra money, I would be suggesting they buy Wingspan…. unless they really don’t like birds.
