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

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!

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.

I purchased this game as a gift for my husband because he's been asking for it for a couple of years. We both love playing Settlers of Catan (and all the expansions) and have been playing these games for years so I admit I was a little hesitant/skeptical that this game could even come close to being as awesome as Catan. I'm so glad I have it a try. The artwork on Evolution Climate is gorgeous and the game itself is full of depth. There is certainly an element of strategy involved as you create and evolve your own species but the climate aspect adds a level of uncertainty that makes this game interesting (and addicting!). We've never had two games turn out the same way - each time we play is a unique situation. If you're into Settlers of Catan or games like it I highly recommend Evolution Climate for a fun new board game addiction :-). Also, you can play this game with only 2 players which is awesome if there are just two of you sitting around wanting to play something!

Great game to play with friends and family. I recommend playing on a big table so that there is enough space for the 6-2 people that will be playing. The reason that it loses a point is that it does not have a bag for the food bank and that it is hard to explain how to teach a new player. I recommend that if you are going to start playing this game with people that have not played before that you should get ether the base game Evolution or the even easier to learn game Evolution the Beginning. If you are looking for something to do with your friends or family for a few hours this would be the game for you. Here is the links to the other two games there is a conversion kit to make the base game in to Evolution climate if you end up buying the base game to that you can play both the base game and the Climate as well North Star Games Evolution Board Games Evolution: the Beginning Board Game

Such a cool game! A student of mine brought in this game for me to try with my board game club. I've played it a half dozen times now and I still love it. I can't figure out a fool-proof strategy to win, because I honestly don't think there is one. The success of your species depends on what others do. Getting attacked by predators, add a defense mechanism. Great! Until the predator adapts to your defense. So much strategy involved, yet straightforward enough to learn and love after one go around. The approximately one hour game time, regardless of player size is an added bonus. Highly, highly recommend this game (just purchased my own copy).

Many board games just have some fun mechanisms and some random theme tucked on top. Not so for Evolution! You can feel the theme in every aspect of the game, every rule immediately makes sense in the context of evolution, you can easily imagine the creatures you evolve actually existing and interesting with each other in some parallel world just like they do in the game. And there is so much strategy on various levels! Exceptionally great game!

I love this game. It's a very creative and novel idea, and very different from many other board games I've played. There are so many different strategies you can take in evolving your species to outcompete other players. I'd also say the Climate expansion is a necessity (the game would feel too simplistic without it. So to anyone who doesn't have the game yet, I'd suggest you go ahead and buy this standalone now so you don't have to worry about picking up the expansion later on.

Definitely recommend purchasing this one over just the base game. There are a lot of rules and steps to learn to get started, but once you learn it, it is very easy and fun to play, though I would suggest playing with three or more players because the changing climate aspect didn't function as well as it could have with just two payers in my opinion

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.

Plusieurs occasions d’y jouer, plusieurs parties différentes AUCUN regret, on s’imagine plein de créatures différentes et on s’amuse à toutes les parties!

We are adult "children" and love playing board games with our family! Got this one for Xmas and it has been a hit since, everyone wants to play! UPDATE: A year later, and friends still beg me to bring this one over on game's nights. This version of Evolution is fairly complex; enough to keep us adults entertained and wanting more! It seems that the more we play, the more the complexities of opportunity to develop strategies show themselves. Still a favourite!

Bought this as an Xmas gift for my Fiance, we love it! It is a lot of fun, with plenty of replayability. The climate change part of the game only comes into effect if you are purposely trying to off balance your opponents, but if everyone wants to have a chill game, it can easily be just that as well.

Great game! It's rather confusing though whether this version can be expanded by other expansion packs like Flight (not by expanding Climate itself, but by being able to take away cards from Climate to achieve the original deck and then expanding with Flight, if that makes any sense)