Emerge Board Game - Explore New Islands and Research Ecosystems, Dice Rolling Strategy Game, Family Game for Kids and Adults, Ages 14+, 2-4 Players, 75 Minute Playtime, Made by Pandasaurus Games

This game was actually pretty fun to play. Took a little bit to learn, but not as long as other games I've tested. In the end, the concept is pretty simple. Was fun for the whole family.

Rulebook:Mostly clear but you will want to keep it handy as a reference until you learn how to play. Great illustrations throughout to help.Components:Excellent. You have thick cardboard, wooden pieces, dice, and serviceable cardstock. Not deluxe by any stretch of the imagination but still really good. Love the artwork!Gameplay:This game offers an engaging experience once you invest time to understand its mechanics. While it may not be great for new gamers, anyone 11-12 years old should be able to run with it. It takes at least one gameplay to really figure out what is going on, and then on future games it has more of a flow. There are dice so if you don't like that mechanic then stay away. However, there are mechanics to help lessen the impact of bad dice rolls. It took about 90 minutes to play but if everyone knows what is going on, and how to best achieve the goal cards, you can probably cut 20-30 minutes off that time. Overall, it is a good game but you need to know your audience and players before just breaking it out. Recommend it!

A very fun game for the family. The pieces are durable and likely to last. Easy to follow directions, but enough fun to keep multiple ages engaged.

Interesting game to play. Nice designs and all pieces are well executed. Rules were easy to learn. Looks as pictured.

This game was just okay. I played it with some friends and one of them described it as "pretty boring considering that we had a 3-way tie until we remembered a scoring rule we forgot". And even then it was close game all four of us picked different strategies to focus on with various levels of success. We finally started to really understand the game around the 2nd/3rd to last round of play.It may be better the second time around, but I think first impressions in game play affect how often you suggest it in future game nights.Visual design wise, I really like the game. It looks nice and is visually appealing.

This game is a lot of fun. It takes a little bit of setup, but the instructions make it really easy to lay out. The rules are pretty simple, especially compared to other world building type games. In the end, you're just trying to build more and score more points than your competitors.Most of the pieces are cardboard punch outs and they all pop out of the sheets without any trouble or tearing. The painted wood pieces feel and look great. Everything fits well into the box, although some of the pieces stick up a little more than the others, so it's not perfectly flat inside.The game seems to take around an hour, and you can play with two or four players. It might have been nice to have a little more flexibility in the player count, but overall it's not a big thing.FINAL WORD: If you're looking for an entertaining game of world building that isn't too complex, this is a great option for you to try!

This game is worth spending time to learn and play. For those who are casual gamers, beginners, or kids younger than 11 this will be more challenging to learn. The publisher says ages 14+, while I think 11 and up can handle this if they have some board game experience.What was good:• This is simpler to play than it looks at the start. After one learning game session it becomes more clear what players are doing and how the actions combine to build the islands and animal species.• While this is very much a dice rolling game, the luck factor can be mitigated by obtaining and using research tokens and especially the “modifier tiles” to shift focus and manipulate the dice.• I would describe this as a “friendly competition” game. On each player’s turn there are choices for actions to take and ways to improve point scores. There is competition for the advanced animal pieces and research tokens, but plenty of space to place all 4 of a player’s islands. Additionally, players race to be first to fulfill a goal card, but second through fourth still get some points. I believe the game design tends to keep the scores close among comparably skilled players.• The rules are well written and include many examples to illustrate how to play. These are better than typically seen in most games. There is a video that shows how to play on the Board Game Geek (BGG) site, which is about 30 minutes in length.• An insert tray is included to provide storage for the components. The challenge is to know how the designers intend it to be used and keep various components organized. I found that keeping the bags of dice and the player ‘mat’ sheets on the very top layer of the box allowed room for the rest of the components to fit into the insert tray. See my photos which show the bottom and top layers. I used a spare piece of Styrofoam sheet as filler to help keep the contents snug.• The artwork on the box is what I would call a homage to the “impressionist” art style. In my opinion it is okay as a different art style than typically used in board games. I expect others may not like it, so check photos before you buy. I have posted some with this review.• The complexity level of this game is midway between simpler “filler” games and the “crunchier” complex games designed for experienced gamers.• Predictable playing time: it took us about 80 minutes to play this game the first time with 2 players, after the rules explanation. Because it is predetermined set of 8 rounds the game has a predictable end. With a little experience, groups should be able to finish in the 75 minutes estimate of the designers.So, what’s so-so or not good:• It does take a bit of time to set up the game, as there are many components. Divide up the work among several players.• The first time… quite a few pieces to punch out and tiles to unwrap and sort. Allow extra prep time or do it in advance.• This game does take up a lot of table space. Luckily, it is a rectangular shaped “footprint” that works with traditional dining room tables. It needs about 5 feet of length more or less. It is nice that players can generally reach across the board. However, it is hard to read the research tokens and game cards that are at the ends of the board typically.• The actions in the game generally feel loosely linked to the theme of the game. Some are aligned, but others are not matching in cause-and-effect or time scale. In this game, players need to put aside the distortion of timing for geologic and ecologic systems.• Upon opening the box, we discovered that the dark color inks from the rulebook had rubbed off a bit onto several other game components. Nothing terrible but expect some potential color smudges as a result of this.Despite the “so-so” comments that I made I think this is a reasonably good game so far. The game play mechanisms are creative and fun. The artwork is colorful and gives a bit of the tropical islands feel.This review is for the “Emerge Board Game - Explore New Islands and Research Ecosystems …” product.I ordered this in the Amazon Vine program, but that does not influence my review opinion. I would buy this game directly if it was on a good discount sale. Even though I already own hundreds of games, I enjoyed playing this one and felt it was creative. My wife likes it and is interested in playing it again.