53.0 hours played
Written 15 days ago
Ever since I discovered Ark Nova as a board game, I was both enamored and initially overwhelmed. However, the charm of the design, the colors, the iconography, the animals.. everything beckons you to dive deeper. Never have I ever found a game which I LOSE to constantly (and I mean constantly) but that I still LOVE to play. I mean, seriously.. how does that happen? Why does it happen?
The answer is simple: every game is different. Each time you play, you are challenged to build your zoo according to the strategies on the board, which are different every time you play. The conservation projects give you some goals to work towards. Your Endgame goals also give you something to reach for. But the dopamine effect of choosing an Action and seeing the cascade of rewards come in never gets old:
-moving up the conservation track
-moving up the reputation track
-moving up the appeal track (and seeing how much more money you'll get on the next break!)
-snapping cards from the ever-rotating community board
-reaching that coveted Upgrade Card space then flipping over an Action card to a more powerful version of itself
-unlocking another Association worker
-placing a building on a space with an instant reward
-and the the list goes on and on and on.
And yet, through it all, your actions are simple: you choose 1 action card out of a choice of 5:
1) Build an Enclosure (for your animals), a Pavilion (for Appeal points), or a well-placed Kiosk (for some extra cash!)
2) Play an Animal card
3) Play a Sponsors card
4) Get more Cards, or
5) Use your Association worker to grab an available upgrade from the Association board (or support a Conservation Project for oodles of points and some early-game rewards from the Conservation track!)
6) There's also a sixth action that will allow you to substitute one of the above actions for earning an upgrade "X" token. Once you learn the mechanics of how the actions rotate as you play, the "X" tokens can be used to increase the power of your actions without waiting for them to rotate to a particular Power slot.
And with a deck of 255 animals, sponsors, and conservation projects, literally NO game is ever the same. The replayability of this game is endless.
But how does the digital game fare, you ask? Flawlessly. It's graphically beautiful, the sounds and ambient music is spot-on, and the special particle effects with every click or tap is a delight. And if you're new to the game, the charming Tutorial eases you into the fascinating world of Ark Nova.
So whether you're a rookie or a veteran, don't think twice about picking this one up. The board game itself retails at around $75, and it's worth every penny. On Steam, you can pick up this digital version for around $20. If you grab it on the App Store or Google Play, you can get it for $10. No matter where you play it though, it's a mastercraft of a game. There's a reason why it has been ranked in the Top 10 on Board Game Geek since it's original debut in 2021.
There's no other game like it.