It seems completely natural — excuse the pun — for board games to use natural history as a theme. The slow pace, the thematic concepts and the general appeal of animals and nature just seems to be a great fit for the medium. But what happens when you take the ideas associated with evolution and apply them to alien species? What if you weren’t constrained by real evolutionary cycles? Well in that case, you’d get a game that plays something like Evolution: Another World.
Evolution: Another World is a standalone sequel to Evolution: New World and Evolution: The Origin of Species all of which follow the same basic principle gameplay, but critically, are not part of the same series of games as the Northstar Evolution and Evolution: Climate games. I make this point simply because I would say that most people will tell you that the Northstar Evolution games are the better series, but I’d also say that they are heavier and aimed at more core gamers, whilst perhaps Evolution: Another World and its sibling titles suit a younger, more casual audience.
So, with that out of the way, Evolution: Another World aims to leverage its cute visual appeal with simple, straightforward gameplay and crucially, a little bit less “detrimental” interaction. What do I mean by the last point? Well, in most games that deal with evolution there’s an aspect of survival of the fittest and generally, your animals can be preyed upon, eaten and even driven to extinction. Not so much in Evolution: Another World, although direct attacks are still a significant part of the gameplay.
The basic objective of any game of Evolution: Another World is to transmute three creatures. Transmutation occurs when a creature has four power crystals on it (or three if it has the Tiny trait) and you choose to spend an action to Transmute. Other actions that can be taken on a player turn are to take a crystal from the current source, attack another creature (either an opponent’s or your own) or put a creature to sleep.
When all creatures are asleep, the current round ends, a new power source is flipped from the top of a deck of ten cards, and all the creatures wake up ready to take turns again. Most attack actions result in a creature falling asleep after — but will often either steal a crystal from the preyed upon species, or in some cases put that species to sleep, or even remove a trait from it. You’ll generally only choose to put your own creature to sleep when you have no other valid actions.
Now, I’ve mentioned traits a few times, and that’s because they form a major part of Evolution: Another World. At the beginning of the game, each player starts with one creature (on the table) and a hand of five cards. Each card features two traits that sit along the top and bottom of the card. Any card can be used either as a creature (by placing it face down) or as a trait (by choosing either the top or bottom edge and tucking it under the creature with the chosen trait showing.
Traits broadly fall into four categories and the game includes useful glossary cards to help the players understand what each one does. The categories include attack cards, defensive cards, special cards and energetic cards. The first two kinds are broadly self-explanatory, offering methods to attack other creatures and to defend against them with attacks including Vampire (which steals a crystal), Fire-Breathing (which eradicates a trait and draws a crystal from the supply on success) and so on. Defensive cards punish attackers, or in some cases prevent attacks from happening at all.
Special cards are actually quite simple, but each do different things which is probably why they’ve been labelled under a catch all title. One adds a flying ability to creatures so that only other flying creatures can attack it, whilst the Astral trait essentially does the same, but with a different keyword. Energetic cards are similarly unique, with traits like Charming allowing a creature to benefit from another creature getting a crystal, as long as it only has zero or one crystal already.
In practice, Evolution: Another World plays with a lot of interaction. Almost everyone will end up with at least one creature with an attacking trait, and possibly even more. During the early game, players will either prioritise attacking or defending, and the crystals that can be taken freely (for the cost of a turn) from the power source are a relatively easy way to start your journey towards Transmutation. Usually by the second turn of a round though, these crystals will be gone and the players will look up to find vulnerabilities on their opponents around the table.
It doesn’t take long for the players to realise that defensive cards are absolutely essential, and even playing with my kids (both ten or under) it was clear within a few turns that a creature simply will not make it to transmutation without an appropriate defence. Some attacks are more effective than others (as are some defences) but in most cases a defensive card will make an attacker think twice, whilst still making attacks possible. For example, if you attack Creature X, you will get a crystal, but you’ll also have to discard a trait (and the player who you attacked will choose which one).
This means that Evolution: Another World never completely stalls in the way you would expect it to when you read the rules. Each attacking creature is only going to attack once per round (because it will fall asleep) whilst any creature will get at least one shot (and sometimes two or three) at the power source crystals. Once you understand the game, you’ll also see that traits exist for everything you “think” should exist — for example, there’s a trait that allows you to wake a creature back up again (and you can target your own creatures).
Nonetheless, we have had a couple of games where one or another player either ended up in tears or got very cross about the interaction in Evolution: Another World. This is definitely a game for younger players, and whilst it has an otherworld theme, it has its roots firmly planted in a semi-educational genre. Still, the heavy interaction and occasional loss of crystals or traits (sometimes just before you would otherwise Transmute) can cause a lot of upset.It absolutely allows you to defend yourself against such attacks as long as you get the cards, but that’s not a perfect art either.
This makes Evolution: Another World a fun, fairly limited experience that I think I will play with the kids infrequently (when they are in the mood) but almost certainly never with entirely adult players. Evolution: Another World is light enough in terms of rules, but I think the gameplay just tips the balance towards player interaction in a way that might be just a bit too much for most people. If that’s your bag, Evolution: Another World might be perfect — it certainly looks the part — but for the average gamer, it might be just a bit too interactive and a bit too confrontational.
Evolution: Another World is available now from Amazon.
