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Oceans
60m - 90m
2 - 4 Players
Ages 12+
Three years in the making, Oceans is a stand-alone game in the award-winning Evolution series. With over 120 works of art, 40 scenarios cards, and more than 100 unique trait cards, Oceans is the most ambitious project North Star Games has ever tackled.
Theme
Oceans depicts the boundaries between the known world near the ocean’s surface, and the mysteries lurking in Earth’s deepest unexplored region. Enter a vast, underwater cosmos: a mysterious interconnected world of sharp teeth, glowing eyes, and black ink, where your survival depends on your ability to adapt to the unknown.
The foundation of the oceanic food chain are billions of one-celled organisms called phytoplankton that capture the sun’s energy through photosynthesis. Every other species in the ocean is a predator, each bigger than the next, all the way up to the dreaded Apex Predator. And even bigger than Apex Predators are enormous Whales that gently swim through the ocean scooping up everything in their path. This ecosystem mimics the known world near the surface.
But there is more if you are willing to dive deeper…
Oceans also includes a deck of 100 unique power cards called The Deep that represents the unknown. These powerful cards break the seams of the reality you’ve come to accept, ranging from astonishing things found in the ocean, to the fantastical Kraken or Leviathan.
Gameplay
Oceans is an interactive engine builder, where players evolve their species in a continually changing ecosystem. Players must adapt their interconnected ecosystem to survive against the inevitable march of time (Aging), as well as a multitude of predators looking for food.
During the first half of the game, players use traits from a deck of Surface cards to modify their species. With only 12 Surface traits, it’s easy to wade into your first game without being overwhelmed by new cards. These traits were chosen for their rich thematic interconnections, providing synergistic card play that mimics an oceanic ecosystem. The Surface traits bring stability to the game environment.
During the second half of the game, players can use power cards from The Deep to disrupt the stability. With over 100 unique traits in The Deep, players will slowly discover game-altering traits over the course of many games. These traits were designed to evoke wonder and disbelief – to spark your imagination as you consider the fantastic synergies that are possible in Oceans.
Additionally, there are 2 randomly chosen scenario cards that activate and deactivate at various points during the game. The scenario cards impact the basic tenets of gameplay, encouraging people to vary their play style and strategy each game.
The Evolution Series
Oceans is a stand-alone game in the Evolution series, but it’s a vast departure from other games in the series. The turn structure has been simplified, the game play is much more forgiving, and the web of interconnections has increased dramatically. Whereas Evolution has the feeling of a traditional back-and-forth battle game like Magic: The Gathering, Oceans has the feel of an interactive engine builder where everything is interconnected, and where your engine must continually adapt to a changing environment.
Magazine Articles About Oceans
– Science Magazine
– ScienceNews.org
– Ars Technica
| Ages | 12+ |
|---|---|
| Players | 2 Players, 3 Players, 4 Players |
| Play Time | 60m – 90m |
| Designer | Ben Goldman, Brian O'Neill, Dominic Crapuchettes, Nick Bentley |
| Mechanics | Hand Management |
| Theme | Animals, Card Game, Educational, Environmental, Prehistoric |
| Publisher | Ediciones MasQueOca, Funforge, North Star Games, Pendragon Game Studio, Schwerkraft-Verlag |
AHforever
Bringing this down from a nine to an eight. at its core, this game was almost a 9/10 for me BUT: its fiddly (oops we forgot to leech, oops i forgot to trigger cleaner, oops i forgot i could have attacked your unattackable species, oops i forgot my species was unattackable), etc. When your new, you needlessly throw away species from time to time due to miscalc. This is one of those games that needs 10+ plays to come to grips with the strategies and fiddlyness and exceptions all over the place. Perfect game for a camping cabin or some kind of closed group of people trapped together. I fear that we dont have that kind of time or patience as we are an almost 300 game collection so, although it was very close to a 9 or even 10, im bringing this one back down to an 8 with watchlist for 7
BeckeRetriever
I have played at player counts from 2-5, still have yet to try a 6 player. I've won a decent number of games so far and never with the same strategy, so people claiming that one strat is by far the best really aren't adapting imo. It is a lot of fun to first set up 2 or so species in your ecosystem that sustain off each other and then start building species that benefit from other players turns.
Afrochiapet
Oceans is a gorgeous sea creature engine-builder with a simple gameplay loop of evolving species by playing cards in order to feast on fish VP. Cardplay is straight-forward: the core surface cards give universal traits, while the deep cards (unlocked after the Cambrian explosion) provide unique characteristics. The game is split into two halves. The first half focuses on establishing an engine(s), while the second half speeds up the acquisition of VP. How you get said VP can either be from grazing in the ocean or feeding on other species. As all players fight for points, you will need to strike a balance between food and population. Oceans is probably best enjoyed as a game not to take too seriously. While you can cycle the core cards, deep cards can boil down to luck. Sometimes you get an unstoppable species, other times an ill-equipped beast that will likely meet its end next turn. I believe Oceans embraces this mentality with more forgiving gameplay than its predecessors. Lighter on strategy, but bigger in thematic fun. How many games can you brag about having killer zooplankton?