ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES (2019)
BGG Description
"I am very anxious to see the Galapagos Islands, -- I think both the Geology & Zoology cannot fail to be very interesting." -- Charles Darwin, Letter to his sister, Catherine in August 1835.
Assist Charles Darwin during the Beagle journey across the Galapagos Islands, discovering new species and researching them in order to improve your knowledge.
During their turn, the active player must choose between two actions:
• Research: Put 2 research pieces on 2 different species tiles on the board, gaining the knowledge of air, land or water habitat.
• Discover: use the acquired habitat knowledge to place new species tiles on the board, obtaining victory points and evolution, characters and objects cards. Additionally advance the Beagle on its track.
The game finishes when the Beagle reaches the last space of its trip, leaving the archipelago through New Zealand. The players score the evolution points according to the final goal card, adding them to the points obtained during the game. The player with more points in the scoring track wins.
—description from the publisher
Weight 2.33/5
A Little More Info
As stated the above, the game is just that simple to play. Two actions to pick, move the Beagle, gaining cards and points along the way (mid-journey scoring & discovery), and do a short final scoring when the ship completes the journey.
The only things to add in this section is that when you use the Discover action to place a new tile, you must place it adjacent to where you are pulling your Observation cubes from.
Also with the Discover action you do not just have the option to place tiles in an open spot, you can upgrade locations as long as the new tile is a higher level than the previous (the only exception is if you have a scalpel tool card). You keep the tile you replace because they are worth points at the end of the game.
There are character and tools cards that you earn while placing tiles that when used can assist your gameplay. The one card that you will definitely want to find is a map card which allows you to use the top three tiles in the evolution tract (where the species tiles are selected from).
What we like about the game
First thing in this section is that the artwork of the game is just stunning and eye catching. The artwork on the species tiles gives you the feel that you are actually looking at Darwin’s sketches with color. The overall aesthetics of the game is warm and welcoming.
We love that the game only has two main actions to take. Keeping the game play simple allows for even the younger players to enjoy the game. With the only text on the game pieces being the species names (which you don’t have to read), we feel that your younger gamers can learn and enjoy the game with ease.
Lastly, the game is not, we repeat, is NOT a table hog. The largest component is the game board which would fit on a standard dining room table with extra room. For the individual players, the only items you have in from of you are your observation cubes and the cards and tiles you collect throughout the game.
What we don’t like about the game
Since we have only played the game at the two player count, we feel that the game is a little too fast for our expectations of the game. Each species tile you place moves the Beagle one or two spots along the map so the journey is completed as you feel like the momentum of the game is just building.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This is a game that we would recommend playing. For me, I would call this a sleeper game from our collection. The learning curve on the game is small, it is quick to lay, and is deserving of attention.
So if you have this game and haven’t played it yet, dust of that box and hit the table. If you have not picked this game up yet, I would highly recommend this game for your collection.
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