Dino Survival Card Game

The game itself is 3 stars, the cards are 5 stars. Let me explain!

The gameplay is simple and easy to learn for any skill level. However, the design of the box and card backs are a bit too simple for my preference. The game could use some polish and additional depth as many creatures share the same stats or abilities, but all that said, it is a fun game with moderate replayabilty.

However, the cards themselves are really nice and the quality of materials is outstanding. The deckbox is durable, the cards feel nice to handle and will resist wear & tear better than your average cards. Every card has unique artwork that makes it easy to distinguish every creature at a glance. And I say creature instead of dinosaur because the amount of animals represented is very diverse! They all comfortably land in the Mesozoic Era, but the 3 periods of the Mesozoic are represented by terrestrial, marine, and avian species. There is a lot of research poured into every card and the art is simple, but charming. You can feel the passion that went into these cards and that alone is worth the price. If the gameplay leaves something to be desired, the cards make excellent flashcards to learn about a variety of ancient species. From the popular favorites like T. Rex, down to the lovable underdogs, like Tanytropheus.

This is a perfect game for paleo fans and I am excited to see the upcoming Cambrian expansion expand upon this game's solid foundation.

The cards themselves are fantastic! The artwork, information they provide, and the gameplay are unique compared to similar games. The cards make sense, and how you play is not based on random scoring, but on an actual system that plays to the strengths of the specific dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles. I must also say that David's customer service is exceptional. He contacted me when he noticed that the postal service had not delivered my order. He then shipped another deck of cards to replace the original that is still somewhere travelling around with the USPS (at the point of writing this review). Overall, a great experience and game!

The art and facts for each card are excellent and the game is pretty easy to understand

If you play this game, I insist that you attempt to pronounce the name of each dinosaur card you play.

As a science educator and practically lifelong dinosaur fangirl, this game makes me happy! I collect STEM games and have been disappointed by some which are just "skins" (i.e. the artwork fits but the actual gameplay has nothing to do with the concepts), and too many dinosaur games are either extremely basic & made for 4-year-olds (nothing wrong with that, you need to introduce them somehow) or else focus on the epic battle between 2 species which didn't live in the same time or place. I'm happy to say that Dino Survival does a nice job of balancing facts and gameplay. The artwork is cute & reminds me of dinosaur books from my childhood. It is a very easy to learn game with just enough strategy involved to satisfy veteran gamers. (Predictably, my husband did send an Allosaurus to munch on one of my sauropods! How mean!) It's a great family game or game to play with more casual gamers. Since I am an astronomer, I also highly approve of the end game trigger. I am looking forward to seeing what the Cambrian Explosion game will bring.