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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 |
Adam Parker
I bought the Deluxe KS version at my FLGS. Out of the box I knew I'd be receiving sturdy Reef and Ocean trays, population token bags to replace the regular flimsy victory screens, and thick translucent plastic fish tokens to replace the standard cardboard ones. What I didn't expect was getting those cardboard tokens too; a promo pack containing a few extra Deep and Scenario cards; and two packs of nice Oceans-themed Surface and Deep card sleeves. After getting underway, however, I found that those card decks didn’t need sleeving, they truly were sturdy enough (and kudos for their white border trim): albeit the Cambrian Explosion card that sits at the bottom of the Ocean tray’s Box 1 and gets covered with fish tokens. I also didn't need those token bags. I just kept all my victory tokens in the open. More importantly, after a couple of plays I also didn’t want to use the game’s 20-30 Species “boards” on which I was meant to array each of my species’ populations (those fish tokens) during the game on and off which, in fact, were only thin strips of flimsy cardboard anyway. Why not just lay out those tokens next to my Species' Surface and Deep cards? Which is what I did. Gameplay offered promise. But it was too slow getting to those “unique” Deep cards. And finding any Surface cards with a “forage” ability on them was so painful that in the end I figured I might as well be playing Combat Commander and get equally as frustrated waiting for Movement cards to fill my card hand. Overall, Oceans proved a very easy to learn and quick to launch game, the designers deserve respect for that. Indeed, Oceans does contain some nuance and a sense of strategy that’s not too hard to fathom (no pun)—yet still needing player concentration to implement well. It’s just that after a while, I was left feeling why bother? The designers do nod to this possibility, stating that players should feel free to mod the game as desired. If you think “foraging” cards are too sparse, then pare back the Surface deck removing other cards you think might be getting in the way of pace. Chop and change all decks as desired. Build the game you want. Thing is, I didn’t want to redesign a game when all I was looking forward to was losing myself in gameplay out of the box, as an escape from the craziness of the world today.
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 on thematic fun. How many games allow you to brag about having killer zooplankton?
AlexFS
This is a very interesting tableau builder that plays in two phases, the first with a limited set of repeated basic cards, and then the Cambrian explosion period which allows the play of unique cards, which can give unexpected directions to play. The scenario cards that fire in certain conditions also help ensure that no two plays will ever be the same, while providing hints of strategic direction, even though the game is extremely tactical. The game plays really well at two and three (Oceans was one the last games I played before lockdown), but I guess it will get a bit too long at 4p for my tastes.