Ark Nova Game

This game will provide you with a couple of hours of sheer enjoyment. It's complex but we settled into it and figured it out. Totally worth the time. We recommend watching a YouTube play through, that really helped. Grab a coffee and some good company to play this game because it will take a while to play. It's very thorough and well thought out. We love it and are craving another night we can all get together and play it again.

Very slick take on the Terraforming Mars style of game, with a very different theme. Has a huge amount of cards which gives a ton of variety within the game. Plays very well solo as well as multi-player. If you like TM them you will like this. If you don't like TM, then this is still worth a try, given the different theme and presentation. And yes, for me their is room for both games in my collection. Recommended.

Ark Nova

This game has a lot of mechanisms that form a really interesting puzzle. It might not click until half-way through your first game, but once it does, you'll love it! The solo mode plays nearly the same as multiplayer, but feels very different with a limited amount of turns. The multiplayer game can take a while if you have new players, but once everyone is familiar with it, it will go a lot faster. The box includes plastic trays with lids for all of the various tiles and tokens, but there is not an insert to hold the cards.

Decent

I haven't played it but I've unboxed it. Card quality is OK. There's tons of them. Recommend you sleeve, it'll fit. Based on the video game plays I've seen, this game is my cup of tea. I won't play it with 4 players, I bought it to mostly play it with significant other AND my child if he wants to join. Otherwise it's a very long game. I would have preferred more 'art' style on cards vs pictures. The pictures make the cards look blah.

Great Theme, Pretty Good Mechanics

Love this game. Admittedly, the mechanisms in this game can get a little clunky at times. Basically requires rechecking the rules and making sure certain situations are handled correctly. I only say this because it often gets compared to Terraforming Mars for good reason. TM doesn’t suffer from this small problem, and thus provides a slightly more smooth game play experience. However, Ark Nova’s amazingly implemented theme overshadows this small complaint to the point that friends who shy away from Eurogames like AN still loved it and should play again.

Great mix of mechanisms you might see before

The game brings nothing particularly innovative to the table, but it is a great mix of mechanisms you might see before -- action mechanism is the action card rotation in Civilization: A New Dawn, Card play and icon system are familiar if you've played Terraforming Mars, the two point-systems and how the game end is triggered is very close to the system in Rajas of the Ganges.This is not a critique though. The game almost perfectly mixes these mechanisms and provided everyone at my table great experience. The play was smooth and turns were quick. The decision space is crunchy enough to keep us engaged the whole time. Not a ton of player interaction but enough to keep your heads up from time to time to pay attention to what others are doing. The design is leaning to ... MoreThe game brings nothing particularly innovative to the table, but it is a great mix of mechanisms you might see before -- action mechanism is the action card rotation in Civilization: A New Dawn, Card play and icon system are familiar if you've played Terraforming Mars, the two point-systems and how the game end is triggered is very close to the system in Rajas of the Ganges.This is not a critique though. The game almost perfectly mixes these mechanisms and provided everyone at my table great experience. The play was smooth and turns were quick. The decision space is crunchy enough to keep us engaged the whole time. Not a ton of player interaction but enough to keep your heads up from time to time to pay attention to what others are doing. The design is leaning to "balanced and restricted" instead of encouraging wildness and abusiveness like in Terraforming Mars, or some might put it, "more euroy".The rules are not minimal. But it's still in the reign of "mid-weight". I will highly recommend to anyone willing to chew and enjoy mid-weight euros.

Great!

I'm really enjoying this game. There are so many different choices to make that it makes each game feel unique. I've played solo mostly and sometimes I'm worrying that I've cheated because of how many things need to shift each round, but it's been fun.One thing I want to point out is that players can get negative points. So be kind to new players since it takes a game or two to get the hang of things.Great addition to add to the collection!

Smoother Terraforming

This has a lot to explain and the rules are dense for the start. Once you get a game under it is easier to digest and it feels like a cleaner terraforming mars. The cards are great and the game does take a long time as there is so much to do but after you get the mechanics down it should be under 2 hours. Some adds would be a bit more value to reputation like flip your last card. There are also not a lot of interaction between cards and there needs to be some more end game points that are varied or just a bit more random.

This game just feels good to play

I've only played it once and did make a few mistakes given the amount of stuff going on, but the game is still pretty intuitive for all that is going on. I really like how everything comes together. My only CONs for the game are the length of the game (took us 4 1/2 hours to get through first play - with teach and rules checks) and the player boards. I really wish the player boards were two layer or had a template to stop the enclosures from moving when flipping them for occupancy. Small problems. If you like puzzle-y euro games this is just fun.

Very Balanced Game

I bought this as a gift for my wife and I didn't know anything about it. I was pleasantly surprised at the gameplay and how much fun it was. I frequently find myself disappointed in many heavier games due to the inability to easily work around what your opponents are doing and using up shared resources in game. I was able to adjust and re-configure my plans much more easily than in those games. I didn't feel like I was locked out of all available options as in those cases. There was a lot to learn and we got some rules wrong for the first game, but all agreed it was a great game. Some of the iconography was difficult to decipher but after a play through I think we pretty much have it down.