Game review: Evolution The Beginning (Flamingo Con 1/4)

2-5

30mn

8+

Just getting around parsing my game notes from Flamingo Con last January, here's the 1st of 4 game reviews from that day on a card game called Evolution: The Beginning, a family-friendly version of the original Evolution game. You are tasked with raising creatures able to make the best of the resources on the board, and adapting them to the ever changing environment; your success will be measured by the amount of food your species will gather throughout the game.

Setup: Getting started only takes a minute, with each player getting:

• starting cards (animal traits)
• a bag (your food stash)

And away you go!

Gameplay: each turn you get to:

• Draw a fixed number of cards to your hand
• Play any number of said cards in order to:
• Start a new specie by simply playing a trait card on its own
• Improve an existing specie by stacking a trait with another one (max 3)
• Grow a specie by playing a card face down under the traits (eg, species are organized in columns)
• EAT!

The actions are fairly straightforward. The tension lies in which / how many cards to play to maximize the resources available, while staying nimble enough to avoid going extinct, i.e., don't over-commit! Grow your herbivores too fast and you might exhaust the food supply, causing your specie to starve. Be too successful and other players might evolve their species into carnivores and cull your herd. Do it right and you might do the culling yourself!

Theme: While there isn't that much depth to work with, the mechanics marry up nicely with the evolution theme. There is a commendable focus on adapting to the board as opposed to building an invincible alpha specie. But to me, the art is what brings the theme to life, especially combined with the simplicity of the card design. 

Impression: Timing and a good read of the table matter, but you're never truly out of options; there's a limited number of truly strong strategies and hard core gamers may be left craving for a little more depth (the original Evolution is a little better in that regard). On the flip side, the simplifications do make for a very approachable and relaxed play experience, with multi-generational appeal. 

TLDR: A good family game pick, and possibly a gateway to more complex games.

Score: 7/10

Cheers,

Ady