Ark Nova

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The more I play this, the more I'm beginning to appreciate what a good game it is. There is nothing new or innovative and, in fact, it's the archetypal "the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts" game. And the theme blends superbly well. it looks a bit overwhelming but is surprisingly easy to teach because the core rules are relatively straightforward with most of the complexity coming from individual cards; lots of variability because all those cards (more than 200 of them) are all unique and different map boards are available; and there is a nice learning curve to ‘playing well’.

On the other hand, it doesn’t really have anything new to offer, it leans heavily on Terraforming Mars with its tableau building of cards, it can be very ‘multi-player solitaire’ because it’s easy to ignore what the other players are doing. And it can run a little long (although to be fair, it doesn’t ‘feel’ long). Not as good as the BGG ranking suggests but it is growing on me

December 2021

It is so addictive tactical game that I played this 5 times during first 4 days, and I'm still hungry for building my zoo and manage the cards! Action mechanics from Civilization A New Dawn is great and it fits in this game perfectly. Great 2-3 player game, solo as well!

I was not interested in this game at all. The theme didn't inspire me, and I disliked the cult of the new buzz.

However, after playing it, I can see why it is so well loved. I find the game exceedingly addictive. After the first play, they game dwelled in my mind and I played another the next, and the next, and the next day. The variability is effective at keeping it fresh and each play feels a bit different than the last.

I can see that it may become stale (like any game can) at some point, but that seems far off after a half dozen plays. I've found that some games just don't flow well, and others, everything is perfect. I think this contributed to my play, not the game design, but something to keep my eye on.

update: I don't like the game end where everyone else gets a turn after the person who ends the game. There is unnecessary strategy there that doesn't benefit the person who ends the game. It's as if you are in a race, but you know that you have to stop at the finish line but everyone else gets more time to pass you. I'd prefer equal turns for sure.

Etsy Zoo Money Marine Worlds Zoo Map Pack 1 Zoo Map Pack 2

NOTE This review currently only has 2 plays with only 2 players. I do realize this game is probably plays much better with 3 or 4 people. I can also accept that I might just be terrible at this type of game.

This game is close to being great to me, but the outcomes of my games has left a sour taste in my mouth. Learning the game took 4 hours with the assistance of videos. I feel like the manual and quick reference material leaves much to be desired. The iconography kind of sucks too.

With all of that said, this game is fun, and interesting, and even the art kind of has a fun, nostalgic, genuine zoo vibe. The tactical nature of designing your zoo and trying to reactively achieve the most objectives is fun.

My biggest issue with this game, is how swingy the end of the game can be. You can spend an entire game working toward staying close in appeal and conservation, only to get completely blown out on the last turn. My first game by 25 points and my second game by 40 points. It left me feeling terrible. I almost always lose at games, and am totally fine with that. This is the first time where I felt like I was defeated by the game as much as I was by my opponent.

UPDATE: Upon subsequent plays, I've come to the conclusion that I just suck at this type of game. It is not fundamentally flawed as I had believed. Ark Nova is a good game that I enjoy playing in spite of the fact that I suck at it.

Thematic, baroque game about building your own zoo (which appeals to me), using an innovative (to me) card action selection mechanism, and an interesting and rarely used endgame/scoring mechanic (only saw this in one other games, Rajas of the Ganges).

The goal of the game is have the highest score at the end, and this is calculated by determining the difference between your conservation points (usually harder to get) from your appeal points (sort of like the more conventional victory points), which each go around separate tracks and the game end is triggered once those two markers pass each other (again, this was used effectively as it is here, in Rajas of the Ganges).

On your turn, you select 1 action card from a set of 5, with the twist being once you activate a card, it goes down to level/strength/power of 1, and if you wait/delay, it can eventually go up to a level/strength/power of 5, which is obviously preferred but not always the best choice at the time. The actions are: 1) build- you spend money to place different polyomino zoo tiles on your player mat, following the rules that tiles have to be adjacent to each other and cannot be built on the water and rock obstacles, and you get one time bonuses for covering up certain spaces, 2) animals- you can play animal cards out of your hand, and this is a major way to score appeal points, but you have to spend money and meet conditions, similar to Terraforming Mars, but with even more restrictions, also you must have a place/building for them to occupy in your zoo, 3) cards- this allows you to draw more cards into your hand, and in addition to animal cards, there are also conservation and sponsor cards, all of which can be situationally useful, but with such a huge deck of cards it both increases variability as well as the luck factor, 4) sponsor- you play a sponsor card from your hand which typically gives you an ongoing ability and/or a onetime bonus (provided you meet the requirements) and this also means you must lay a sponsor building in your zoo (which has pluses and minuses to doing so), 5) association- this is kind of a side game, where you start with one "worker" (with the potential to unlock up to 3 more) that you can place on a sideboard to get different bonuses such as affiliations with universities, affiliations with other countries, making donations to conservation projects (very important but hard to do), and acquiring academic knowledge (?), which moves you up yet another track for better card selection options. Of course for almost all of these things, you get nice one time bonuses the more you/unlock. The other nice twist is that each action card has an upgraded side, which is much better and necessary to do some actions, and while there are 5 cards, there is a maximum of only 4 upgrade possibilities, making for some interesting choices.

Each player is also dealt an endgame scoring card which will grant endgame conservation points if they play to it, and there are always a few standard conservation projects for everyone to vie for (although players can additionally put their own into play).

The game is very thematic (everything "makes sense"), it has interesting choices, lots of variability, and has some nice mechanics that are very underutilized in other games. The graphic design and component quality is rather mediocre, especially considering the publisher and price point. The game length borders on unacceptable; even played casually, as a 2er, while I enjoy it, it's quite long even at that. Also, with the game being so dependent on a large deck of (mostly unique) cards, luck of the draw can play a significant factor. Overall, a very strong design, particularly impressive/amazing that it's from a first time designer.

Own the [boardgame=368966]Marines Worlds[/boardgame] expansion and the [boardgame=368158]Zoo Map pack 1[/boardgame] and [boardgame=426978]Zoo Map pack 2 [/boardgame] promos.

Preparación y Explicación: 0.6 / 1 Duración Ideal: 1.2 / 2 Temática y Arte: 0.7 / 1 Diseño y Componentes: 0.8 / 1 Mecánica y Jugabilidad: 1.8 / 2 Disfrute: 2.6 / 3 TOTAL: 7.7

Tiempo de juego: 2.30 horas Complejidad: Media-Alta Rejugabilidad: Media Núm. Jugadores Ideal: 2 y 3 Enfundado y Guía

Docked one star because the game can end too suddenly for my taste and luck of the draw can be prevalent.