Let's go back to a time when dinosaurs roamed the land.

In fact, let's go back 217,453,883 years, seven months and 26 days.

Welcome to Evo, a game where the player controls a species of dinosaur and the only aim is to evolve in order to survive. In Evo each player selects a species and places two dinosaurs on the board. The board depicts a series of different terrains and these terrains offer different climates. Each player also receives a species template that depicts a dinosaur. This represents the evolution of your species.

It is here that new genetics are places after they are purchased. Feet represent your species ability to move each turn. Each egg allows another new birth and tails determine turn order. Fur protects in cold climates while parasols protect in hot climates and horns are used for combat.

Each round is divided into phases that allow the climate to change, dinosaurs to move and attack, the birth of new dinosaurs, and the death of dinosaurs in dangerous climates and genetic adaptation. The aim is to keep all the dinosaurs alive to see the end of each round. For each dinosaur that survives, one victory point is earned. Of course the island soon becomes overrun by the various species and conflicts occur.

One of the key features of Evo is the climate change phase. The function of the climate chart is to show which terrains offer safety for the current round. Dinosuars must move to those terrains or risk dying. A single dinosaur can survive in a terrain with a climate difference of only one compared to the safe terrain but they must have a fur or parasol gene to do so. If a dinosaur is in a terrain with a climate difference of two or more they will die and are removed from the board.

The twist is that a player's acquired genetic adaptations must be shared among all their dinosaurs on the board. This usually means that some dinosaurs unfortunately will not make it.

The other key feature is the genetic adaptation phase. A number of genetic tokens are randomly drawn from a bag and are auctioned. Each player will always acquire a mutation each round but the players must bid with victory points.

The winner is the player with the most VP's at the end of the game, so each player needs to spend as few VP's as possible when bidding for the genetics. The game ends when a rogue meteorite hits the earth. This causes the destruction of all the dinosaurs and a winner is decided.

Evo works because of the variability it offers. Each game is quite unique as the climate is unpredictable and the genetics drawn are random.

Each genetic mutation has it's own purpose and strategic planning is essential.

What makes Evo better than average is that the solid game play is backed up by great visuals and quality components.