Northstar Game Studio Oceans Board Game - Beautiful Strategy Ecosystem Game | Families, Teens & Adults - 2-4 Players, Age 12+, 90 Mins

This game is great and now a standard at my table. I had to buy the 6 player expansion because it became so popular more people wanted in. It's a cool engine game because while it is competetive in nature it has amazing ways to prevent you falling into the classic pitfalls of competitive engine games. If people start attacking you and whittling you down, you can simply build a species that makes it beneficial for yourself to be attacked, or turn it around and harm the attacker with clever use of cards. It's wild the amount of possibilities, but at the same time you never truly feel like you are really stuck on what to do next. The game also promotes keeping track of other players boards in the mechanics, which really helps to keep players alert and focused on the game without being too demanding or punishing if you don't do this.Playing without the deep deck is fine for beginners, but every single deep card is unique and if you see the size of the deck that is impressive. These cards completely change the game depending on when and how certain gameplay mechanics happen. It's amazing and a great additional challenge element for more tenured gamers.Complexity is moderate, you have to understand how to capitalize on what you are presented with in your cards, as well as the cards your opponents have played and how they may Impact you. so it's not as simple as other family games , but I would not say this is a challenging game to learn. There are a few moments where rules get a little muggy and while the FAQ reference pages are nice, it slows the game down when you are searching through rules for very weird and specific combos to make sure they work. Before continuing on, especially since that rule decision will almost always influence the next player's move. On our first game we had a situation we just had to house rule because we couldn't find the answer on any forum or FAQ. I think an individual player reference card would also have been a great benefit to this game and I will likely make my own reference cards for friends to help prevent people sharing the big ones in the box, but this is a minor,But honest complaint.All in all, amazing artwork, great print quality and fantastic game. This one is a keeper!

Great

This game sets a new bar for engine builders: 1. The game has true meaningful player interactions, more so than other classics in the genre like TM or 51st state which are games I really like2. The presentation is superb! From the lovely components to the gorgeous artwork, the game pops out on any table!3. Oceans is hugely thematic. You really feel like you're a species living in an ocean reacting to the ever-changing ecosystem.4. The deep cards add a ton of replayability to the game, and I especially love how bonkers some of them are.

It has the right amount of complexity to be entertaining, no too difficult to learn, but have room for a lot of strategy as well. The art for each card is beautiful and all the materials are nice.

I own Evolution and Evolution Climate so I knew I needed Evolution Oceans. The game is fun and I love the components and artwork, and Oceans is so much more colorful! I also love the box designs and colors and the organizer inside to keep everything orderly is simple enough and great.My only negative was when I received my package the box was banged up a little and the lid of the box was torn on the edge about a third of the way of the box, so I had to tape it to make sure components don't risk falling out, but I am unsure if this was the manufacturer or Amazon itself who caused the damage. Usually a few small dings on tbe box isn't an issue, but when the top or bottom is split open where you can lose pieces, well that defeats the purpose of the box. Other than that I am very happy with what I received and North Star Games puts out some great games!

It's so fun that you don't even notice how fast time goes by. And it's simple to learn, we tought not all of our group of friends would get into it, but even our none competitive friends for into building their small system not caring to much to attack and it still kept the game fun and interesting.We didn't even realized how much time we spent there until we finished and realized it was 3am.Still we played that night again to be able to use the creatures from the deep and the art is so pretty, is hard to stop drawing stuff from that deck.

It's fun and easy to play. It has such pretty pictures and fun little fish shaped peaces. I like it better then Evolution for beginners. I think it's easy enough to keep up with but still requires some strategy to make it hard and not have a clear winner.

I have not had a chance to play it yet, but the game arrived quickly, and in perfect condition. The components of this deluxe version are very high quality, and the additional cards look like a lot of fun.