Game review: On the Origin of Species

What is On the Origin of Species?

Many are no doubt familiar with the historic journey of the HMS Beagle, which left Devonport on 27 December 1831, and after touring the South American Coast encountered the Galapagos Islands. Onboard of course, was the young naturalist Charles Darwin whose observations and explanations were published in 1859 as ‘On the Origin of Species’. The game gives you the chance to recreate this famous journey of discovery. Playing a young naturalist, you follow The Beagle’s journey to research the habitats of species, observe their behaviour, and even discover new species altogether.

Is it Fun?

The game is full of depth and character. The game is based around a core set of actions; researching species already visible on the island (the game board) and then trying to discover the natural history of new species. These key interactions are governed by using your observation cubes to gain habitat observation icons, an immediate resource balancing act. It only begins here, with decisions about which species to try and discover, and these are graded by level. Each turn The Beagle moves, triggering intermediate objectives and targets. There is also a wide range of character and tool cards which give advantages when discovering species (such as binoculars, and magnifying glass) or additional ways to score points in the game, such as collecting copies of books. The game is different every time you play. This is in part due to Darwin’s Journal, which dictates the way the game is set-up and differing win conditions (which have varying levels of difficulty). The game also includes instructions for a stripped-back family version.

Is it Educational?

The game producers have gone to great lengths to make every aspect of the game align with the famous journey. All the characters’ cards are The Beagle crew members, which come with mini-biographies in the instruction book. The species are all Galapagos natives observed at the time, complete with Latin names. Whether in a history or a science lesson this game would be a great supplement to a class trying to understand Darwin’s seminal work.

Conclusion

The game is of the highest quality, all the components and the artwork are beautiful making the game a pleasure to play. The game has lots of strategic depth and is very replayable. Being a young naturalist in this case is challenging but very rewarding.

Dr Louise Robinson is Lecturer in Forensic Biology and Dr Ian Turner an Associate Professor in Learning and Teaching, both at the University of Derby.