Choose the innovations that will define your people’s destiny!
I had been playing strategy games in college for a few months when my friend group decided to try out a smaller game that looked unique. Innovation was in the small, checkered, brown box with minimal graphic design. There wasn’t much to go off of other than it was a card game that explored civilizations over time. It sounded simple enough, and my friend group was ready for something new.
Innovation is a lot more than it seems! The simple logo and iconography are quite misleading. There is a lot of text on the cards and a wide variety of iconography, making this a heavy card game with many choices.
Each player is trying to evolve their civilization by innovating new ideas to get there. This game has ten eras: Prehistory, Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Exploration, Enlightenment, Romance, Modern, Postmodern, and Information. The innovations available in each age make sense; you may start with “agriculture” in prehistory, learn “mathematics” and “philosophy” in the classical period, but eventually learn about “robotics” by the final Information Era.
My family loves this game, so we own all four expansions as well as the deluxe edition. This is a great game to bring on all our travels and has a nice level of strategy to keep us playing. This review is based on the first edition of the game from Asmadi Games.
Mechanics: Engine-building, Monopolizing, Civilization
ART: 2/10
There’s not so much art as there is graphic design. This game honestly looks like a prototype. It focuses on the beauty of the mechanics instead of the art, which is fine. It is not like the art is “bad”; there is just a lack of it, which could deter some folk from picking up a game that might look “boring.”
The cards have the era number on the back with a graphic of a human dressed for the corresponding era, with several icons and text on the front in a single background color. There are smaller icons created for accessibility purposes since this game is highly reliant on color for some card mechanics.
All of the icons are extremely minimal and surrounded by a solid color, making them stand out against the background. They are large, which makes it easy for other players to assess which icons you have and how many (which is crucial for strategy).
STORYTELLING: 3/10
Yes, this is a civilization-building game. Yes, every innovation in the given era is fitting. Even the iconography on the innovation cards and across the eras makes sense. Hey, there were a lot of castles in the early days (eras 1-3 contain castle icons). Why can’t we still live in castles? That would be awesome!
The actions on the cards do not necessarily align with the technology. I feel like I am progressing my cards through time, but not enough to give this a high rating for telling a story.
COMPONENTS: 2/10
The game has standard-quality cardboard cards. No fancy synthetic or anything to keep them from wear. I highly recommend sleeves if you play this as much as my family. My cards are pretty ruined in this version.
There is a cardstock rules card that is useful and indicates locations to place your score and achievement cards. Nothing to brag about. You buy this game for its exciting mechanics, not its components.
COMPLEXITY: 6/10
I’m giving this a deceivingly higher score. I’m not sure a novice gamer would enjoy this on the first play. You can take simple actions: draw a card, meld a card, claim an achievement, or dogma (which is taking the actions on an innovation card).
There are so many options that it can be overwhelming. There is also so much text on cards that deciding if you should meld a card versus holding on to it for a dogma action on another innovation is challenging. Finding engines and combinations between cards is an art form and quite enjoyable when you discover them.
If you have difficulty finding patterns, this game might not be for you. Often enough, I have heard friends and family fumbling around, saying, “I don’t know what to do” or “I feel like I am doing nothing.” I think the odds of what innovations you get can influence this and can be frustrating, but there is enough variety that you just need to experiment with actions to try and draw (or meld) higher-era cards.
I love this game, and the interactions between dogma actions are really interesting. The times that engines have been built outweigh the number of times I just drew terrible cards. Again, this is a game for heavy thinkers, but if someone wants to dabble into more strategy, be ready to play it a few times before things start to click.
TRAVEL-FRIENDLY: 9/10
As I said before, this is only a card game! It doesn’t even need the box it comes in. It might as well be a 52-card deck of playing cards! This game needs decent table space and can be a bit longer than some travel-friendly games I have reviewed.
Innovation can be played on a picnic blanket for a day in the park, on a hotel bed on a getaway for two (this game plays really well with two), or on a family cruise trip in the lounge. This is a highly replayable game you should pack on vacation.
UNIQUENESS: 8/10
In my past articles, this section has been difficult to score. What makes a game unique? Is it fair to compare just a card game to games with a lot of components? It is pretty tricky. I added an innovation section below to pinpoint the exact reason why I added the game to my collection and what bit of uniqueness should be weighed in here.
Innovation is a card game where you draw cards, play cards, and take actions. This is done in several games. The theme of civilization and upgrading your board state to get better actions or value is also quite common. This is scoring some points mainly due to its “dynamic global actions” mechanic, as I like to call it, described below.
Innovation:
This is a new addition to my articles because the fine lines between uniqueness and innovation were getting blended. Uniqueness has always been tricky to score accurately, so hopefully adding some detail here will clarify what a game brings to the table that is unlike any others.
In Innovation, the cards are used as resources, actions, scorable points, or achievements. If a card is used for points or achievements, the action is gone entirely from the game. By only using a portion of the cards each game, Innovation allows for high replayability.
This game offers the concept of “global dynamic actions,” quite unlike other games I have played. Some players tend not to like solitaire gameplay, so this game really urges players to pay attention to those around them and act accordingly.
The cards you play are the actions you have available to you. The cards also have varying icons on them that will enable more actions. Each player is in control of their own fate. Most worker placement games have varying actions available to ALL players, but in this game, you have to decide which actions will benefit you most. In some situations, however, the action you choose might be available for another player.
Whoever has the most icons on their innovations can force other players to take negative actions, or be the only one to take advantage of a card’s dogma action. Any player with an equal or greater amount of that icon may also participate in the action. This greatly impacts strategy and how things pan out.
Final Comments
Most readers should know by now that the main reason I buy games is that the game is unique to my collection. Another reason I am inclined to buy a game is if I can travel with it. I get bored easily and could always go for a game that fills the void. This game can fill that time if I have under an hour to kill.
Innovation is truly unlike anything I have ever played with such simple rules and design. My advice is not to let the bland looks turn you away. Check this game out. Don’t let a few games with poor odds get you down, and try again. There are a lot of exciting things to try out. I have cards I like the most and feel the strongest, but I like to change it up occasionally and try out some of the abilities I haven’t tried before, just to see how the game plays out.
Similar To: Puerto Rico, 7 Wonders, Free Cell
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Publisher: Asmadi Games
Game(s) Pictured: Innovation (First edition)
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