Nature Game System

I enjoyed the original game, evolution, quite a bit, but it’s take that sort of antagonistic play with sometimes it turn off to other players. It was sometimes very harsh to be picked on (eaten by your opponents) and that would set you quite a bit behind. This new version softens the blow of being eaten quite a bit. So you’re no longer knocked out of the running. It’s a really benefit from the game though you’re going to want to buy one or two expansions as the vanilla game is not exciting as it could be. I do love the Northstar Games touch in that there’s an excellent campaign mode and lots of fun things to discover in achievements

I was a BIG fan of their previous game, Evolution and Nature is a solid successor. Generally enjoyable, but currently lacking an extra OOMF, possibly that will shape up as more modules get added to the game and a digital player base becomes more established. Pros - separating smaller collections of traits into specific decks forces you to make choices but feels more rewarding for good combos - Combining specific sets (Jurassic+Tundra, Jurassic+Flight, etc etc) creates a fun opportunity for meta narrative and mental imagery. - Nature doesn't punish failure quite as bad as Evolution did, keeping you interested in playing the game longer. This is helped additionally by creative special challenges in the campaign that force creative playstyles and teach you wierd paths to victory. Cons - Using photos and pretty generic descriptions of real world animals isn't as fun as Evolutions wierd Speculative freakazoids and I miss the madcap combos so common in evolution that feel much more unwieldy in Nature. - They used a picture of a Nutria to represent a Beaver (Boooooooo)

So, I have both the digital and physical versions of Evolution and Oceans, and the digital (with DLCs) of Nature. I can definitely say that Nature is an improved/better version of Evolution. As to whether I'd recommend it, that all depends on what you already own and the cost. Nature absolutely feels like Evolution with a lot more play testing, so if you have none of them, buy Nature (and, in this case, I'd say pick up *both* the physical and digital versions). If you already own Evolution, it's a question of whether it's worthwhile for what is really just polish. That depends on you and the price/value trade-off.... For me, I'm not sure at $20 (possibly "yes" give the three included DLC), but on a good sale, I'd totally recommend it.

I'm only writing this review because they are offering me a little module for my time. They have no control over what I write here as I get it no matter what I say. Also I'm going to prove I'm not some kind of bot, because no one that has paid for a bot farm review would post a review that has the words butt butt fart toot in it. Okay so all of that out of the way, this is my honest review: I really enjoyed the previous game these developers made called Evolution, I had that, Evolution: Climate and Evolution The BEginning. All had their pros and cons and this isn't about them. I bought this game (digital with from their kickstarter with all the dlc for $32, well 2 copies. One for me one for a friend. All I can see is the game costing $20 and each module is $7, currently there are 3 modules out and 5 planned that I know about. That makes it a $55 game. I was content to pay $30 and take a gamble that it ended up being fun. My review is simple. I like it. I would not have paid $55 for this. I don't like playing with strangers and I will never play online multiplayer with random people. I got it so I can play with my friend, and against the computer. The AI is competent enough on the hardest difficulty for fun. The campaign is just kinda... I can imagine 2 devs being put in a room for a 2 hours meeting to decide all the different variations they can make each level's challenge. The campaign is there, it is fine. It doesn't offer anything more than different ways of playing the game, there's no overarching goal or gameplay. Even Backpack Hero found a way to turn individual games into something bigger in a campaign, even if it was sorta pointless in the end. If I was in charge of this, I would have put in a character creator. Think like what Spore did 2 decades ago. You unlock bits and parts during the campaign and you can have your own little animal avatar. Obviously only you would see if because of the phallic tendencies of people when they are allowed to design whatever they want. But I would have really enjoyed a REASON to slog through the campaign other than just... you unlock a bot. Anyway. The game plays much better than Climate did. It is way more balanced. In Climate if you had a bad turn it snowballed and you would almost always end up losing. Here it is much better and fair. I loved reading about the design philosophy of it from the kickstarter updates. Why I wouldn't pay $55 for this is because the digital game, like the Climate digital, feels low-effort. I notice some cool details like the greenery in the background changes with how much food is in the middle, but I can't help but compare this to say Hearthstone that came out over a decade ago. In Hearthstone there are lots of interactables on the screen you can fiddle with and the whole thing feels really well polished and designed around someone sitting around a screen while waiting for someone to take a turn. This game plays well, and it is sufficiently to allow that play experience, but it doesn't wow me with its digital conversion. Obviously it is because of the budget. THis isn't some AAA studio that helped make this game with tens of millions of dollars. Because it isn't Iwon't hold it against them. Yes this game is good and the play experience is fine. But I wouldn't pay AAA money for it. And yes, before you say any snarky comment $55 is AAA pricing and if you are buying games at $70 and $80 you are a sucker and I'll laugh at you. tl:dr, This game is a faithful adaptation of the board game. It is way better than Evolution. I wouldn't pay $55 for this and all of the DLC when all of the DLC will be available.

Love this game. A nice update to Evolution - smoother, more balanced, and modular.

True to the board game with a solid tutorial to help you understand the aspects you may not completely understand. If you're a board game lover this is a solid pick.

This game is a refinement of the game Evolution. It was designed to remove some of the aspects of the original that would sometimes let one player run away with the game. I've played it, and it's just as much fun as the original.

The Game allowing for food to be added to the pool is very useful and one step up on evolution. Natural disasters gives the game more chaos and so is not so predictive in the outcomes. Also the challenges really make you think about what you are doing.

A very good implementation of the card game, filled with modules and with good CPUs for training. An improvement would be to have a better UI for PC, as the current one is very focused on mobile devices

I like it a lot, probably more than Evolution. The challenges are a lot of fun.