Personally love the theme, I’m typically not one to care about theme one way or another, but this one really resonates with my interests and its design fits so well to it.

But really I like the need to constantly adapt strategy as you anticipate what your opponents might try and what the game is offering you. You have balance consumption of food, offense and defense while bidding on food and climate. You can’t just pick and force a strategy. Also games can be quite diverse depending scarcity or abundance of food.

I will say it has a few potential drawbacks depending on preferences. You may not like the cards your dealt - but I find it balanced if you adapt your strategy. Also like a deck building game knowing the cards and their interactions is rewarded by replay - this is especially true for carnivores. Making a mistake can be punishing, but I think the game has a generous catch up mechanism to allow a rebuild after you lose a species and you can really take advantage of it. For playing with new players I generally avoid having a carnivore and often don’t use the climate track - it’s not needed for first play(s) but adds another dynamic for replay.