First of all, let me start by saying that we have played this game A LOT. Well over 100 games from the original base game to map packs and the Marine Worlds Expansion. It fits our gaming bill – it makes you think, the result can swing at the last moment (This happens a lot) and it has almost endless replicability. It’s not perfect, but it so nearly is – we’ll come on to that later.
I’m not going to go into a deep overview of how the game works as it has been out for a few years but the essential mechanism fits all the Euro gamer tick boxes, hand management, worker placement, end game bonus targets and multiple ways to accumulate victory points in an effort to secure your winning outcome and never forgetting, that due to the genius of the game designers and the mechanics of the game you will never ever have quite enough resources or turns, to do everything you want to do. Economy of turn management is paramount.
The base game is terrific, perhaps a little challenging if you’re not used to the different mechanics and decisions that you might face – some quite early on such as which action cards to turn over and in what order and whether to sponsor projects to earn more income or additional workers. These early choices can put you ahead early and open up other options to gain an advantage on your opponent, but don’t go too fast too soon as you can only do actions at certain levels – having extra workers might be a frustration if you can’t use them….
Once you get the hang of the action card and upgrade mechanic the game opens up and the strategic possibilities are almost endless – do you build and expand and fill your zoo or do you build international zoo partners an university collaborations or do you focus on sponsor cards and your end game bonuses?
One of the drivers behind your strategy will be those end game bonus cards that give you victory points at the very and of the game. This can be a bit of a lottery as you pick one from two at a certain point so and some are devilishly difficult to achieve – if you get two challenging end game card it sometimes benefits to ignore them and go for an all out appeal or project strategy. (you may wait in hope you get an animal card that allows you to swap an endgame card-but these are often expensive and can’t be played until later in the game)
The overall look of the game is fantastic – quality board – double sided with different orientation a real bonus for more than two players. The images on the cards are photographs not drawings or cartoons which really adds to the look and feel of the game – the Marine Worlds expansions especially adds colour and vibrance to the gameplay.
We have a house rule and we draft one from two maps at the start as there are now 18. One observation is that the newer maps feel stronger than some of the older maps but it doesn’t always mean they are winning choices, however I would always pick say, Caves or AI from the expansion than Observation Tower.
Commercial Harbour and Silver Lake still do stack up very well against any map but we’ve found Animal Rescue and Commercial Harbour to be the most successful of all the maps.
Marine Worlds also introduced new action cards – these are drafted two from three at the start of the game and again can be a bit unpredictable and some are stronger than others – association cards that when flipped give you discounts on the cost of sponsorships are better than say a +1 on action card level. But these do add another level of strategy and advantage over base game actions.
The maps are clear and easy to manage from a visual perspective although they can be fiddly when they get busy and you need to squeeze in a petting zoo into the mix – the hex based configuration works really well and you can run out of space quite easily leaving you holding a big level 5 animal in your hand with no room to place them.
The Marine Worlds added two new enclosures for – you guessed it – marine animals – fish, octopuses and various other creatures, again beautifully photographed and a fabulous expansion to the base game.
Sponsor cards are great for added income and bonus points but are a slightly weaker game element, unless you have an end game bonus based on them they can be almost immediate discards, particularly if you get conditional cards eg you need 4 microscopes in your zoo makes it difficult to play early and with a hand limit of three cards they can be blockers if you hold on to them – the bonuses can be worth it but the chances are you will have to discard to keep – one of the many choices this great game throws at you.
Ark Nova has terrific replayability, the map variety, end game bonus targets, base sponsor projects variety, your action card choices all combine to offer up many strategic combinations.
The one thing I/ haven’t mentioned yet is the card display. Your best laid plans can be undermined on the turn of the cards on the display – you might need large animals for your end game bonus and all that appears are fish and small monkeys – you’ve had it. Never underestimate the appeal of a petting zoo! Great satisfaction can be had from waiting to play the Horse Whisperer and then filling your petting zoo for 27 appeal! That has happened once across all our games.
The game is probably due a further expansion – some gamers on BGG have produced their own maps and there was an “Ark Nova lite” released at Essen Spiel in 2025 that introduces the concepts and strategies as an introduction to the main game. We’ve not played it and herein lies one of the game’s slight downsides is that its so good that we probably won’t go back to say playing Wingspan as it feels a bit light now for us – purely a personal opinion.
A new expansion might cover a nocturnal enclosure, Insect House or even attractions such as rides, but it would have to not be gimmicky so it fits in with all the other game mechanics, or perhaps a more commercial view with different attractions or buildings but again as there are already specialist shaped buildings it would have to be something different.
The final endgame scoring can take a bit of working out as it based on the hi-lo numbers on different tracks and sections but that is a minor gripe. Its not often we have to get into detailed counting but that doesn’t mean to say the games aren’t genuinely close – they are. You might feel well ahead as you play your final turn and then your opponent plays and Eagle or an Elephant and burns your appeal track lead and then uses a Determination action to sponsor a project burning your lead on another scoring track or taking a second final scoring card. Final turns in many games have swung the game dramatically.
Overall we love this game and would recommend it for anyone looking for a challenge, with lots of replayability, it looks great and plays great.
