| Game
Overview
Evo's theme revolves around
dinosaurs and the aim is essentially 'Survival
of the Fittest'. Each player controls a
species of dinosaur and the mission is to
evolve your dinosaurs into the most hardy
species on the planet to earn points each
round. The game ends when a rogue meteor
hits the earth, wiping out all the dinosaurs
(so even when you win you feel a little
deflated) and the highest points earner
is declared the winner. The game revolves
around three main mechanics, the first of
which is the dinosaur template. Each player
is given a template which depicts a freakish
looking dinosaur and the evolutionary advances
of that species. The traits that a dinosaur
can acquire include fur, umbrellas, horns,
feet, eggs, tails and mutation genes. Each
dinosaur species begins the game with the
same traits and new traits must be acquired
as the game progresses. The game then proceeds
with a 5 phase sequence for each round which
includes; Initiative, Climate Roll, Movement,
Births, Deaths & Scoring, Gene Auction
and the Asteroid. The climate roll is the
second major mechanic and uses a separate
chart. A dice is rolled and this will usually
change the climate that the planet is currently
experiencing. This in turn makes some terrains
on the gameboard (which include beach, grassland,
hills and mountains) hostile and some terrains
friendly to dinosaur life. Other terrains
do allow survival but only if the species
has the right number of traits to survive
(eg. fur in the mountains and parasols on
the beaches). Each movement phase requires
the players to move their dinoasaurs to
livable terrains but their ability to move
multiple dinosaurs is limited to the number
of feet their species has acquired. If two
dinosaur species cross paths they must fight
and horns are the weapon of choice. After
all movement is complete all species give
birth to new babies (equal to the number
of eggs a species has) and these are placed
on the board. All dinosaurs located in hostile
terrain are removed and players score 1
point for all dinosaurs that survive. The
Auction phase then makes up the third mechanic
and this helps to keep the game fresh. A
number of new evolutionary traits are drawn
randomly from a bag and the players must
bid for these in an auction. All players
are guarenteed something but how much they
are prepared to pay is the real question.
Once the auction ends the new traits are
added to the dinosaur templates to help
advance the species. At the end of each
turn the meteor moves 1 space closer to
the Earth which gives the game a finite
time limit and keeps the players nervously
watching their species progression.
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