Evolution is a strategy game all about adapting, surviving and thriving as a species. Based on the best-selling board game, you'll evolve your species, and attempt to keep ahead of your opponents across a 24-mission campaign and a competitive online mode with skill-based matchmaking. It's a digital mix of board game, card game and strategy game - and even if you're not familiar with all of those, it's streamlined enough that it's easy to pick up and learn.
Adapt or die
Evolution is a game of creating the most successful creatures possible. Let's say your watering hole is a little dry—you might want to evolve a long neck to reach food up in the trees. But it's also a game of keeping ahead of your opponent: if they're evolving into a carnivore, you might want to develop a hard shell for protection from them. The ecosystem is always changing, meaning your approach has to change along with it.
You can use 17 unique trait cards to give your species new abilities, while trying to figure out what the other player has come up with. With those cards, you'll make thousands of combinations of species, with no two games ever shaking out in quite the same way. While you can play with human opponents online, there are also a whole bunch of AI characters to face off against that you'll encounter throughout the singleplayer campaign, with scaleable difficulty settings.
Better still, the game's tutorial system will teach you as you play: start slow, learn the strategies and play styles that work for you, then take on competitors who can make the most out of what you've learned. It's not really a game about which cards you draw: it's more about maximising your species' strategy out of what you have at your disposal.
One price for everything
Even though Evolution is played with cards, it's not a CCG—you don't buy card packs, or anything like that. Everything you need for this endlessly replayable game comes with the base game, for a single price. In adapting the game, developer North Star has added gorgeous animations and art to bring it to PC. As a bonus, in multiplayer, you can play against people who own the iOS and Android versions.
If you're a board or card game fan, or if you just love any competitive PC strategy games that require smart thinking, Evolution: The Video Game is well worth checking out. It's out now on Steam.
