Game Review: Innovation

I sadly don't have official "unboxing" photos of the new game, "Innovation" (Carl Chudyk, Asmadi Games), since I picked it up at 2010 Origins and there was a hasty unboxing during the shuttle ride back to the hotel one night. Since that time the box has been collecting dust in our game closet (with no disrespect meant to the game--it's just so many games, so little time!). But we finally broke it out just a few days ago, and here's what I thought!

First Impressions
This is a simple card game that looks very portable. The box is oddly large considering that the game is entirely one large deck of cards (UPDATE: Newer versions of the game have a more svelt box!). The rule book and action reminder cheat-sheet cards take up a little wider space, but being flat, this is one odd packaging concept. (Note to self: Sew an awesome and portable felt drawstring travel bag for Innovation game deck.)

Set-Up
First, players set out ten stacks of "Ages" cards that represent the evolution of man--1 is Prehistory and it goes up to 10 as the Information Age. For what we can only assume is aesthetic reasons, the game rules have players set up these ten stacks in a circular pattern, with a spread of "Achievement" cards in the center. When tabletop space is limited, we'll probably just spread these out wherever there's space in an untidy row. Same diff. Then each of the players gets two cards from the Age 1 pile, and the game is ready to begin.

The Gameplay
So here's what you do: On your turn, you choose 2 actions to take from a list of 4 types:
option #1 - Meld (lay down a card)
option #2 - Draw
option #3 -Achieve (buy a victory point)
option #4 - Dogma (use a melded card's action)

Drawing cards from the game piles gives you more interesting possible actions to "dogma" later, and you can't draw without taking this action, so the typical sequence to follow throughout chains of turns is Draw-Meld-Dogma. Draw-Meld-Dogma. Draw-Meld-Dogma. (Still waiting for that first "Achieve" moment!)

The whole goal is to earn "Achievements", which are the equivalent of victory points. Us two-player peeps need 6 achievements, which by the way, can take an ass-long time to earn. I can't decide yet if that makes this a richly deep card game, or just boring. But anyway, you earn these Achievements by scoring points that act as currency, and playing your action cards--which are accumulated in color-coded piles in your giant-ass sprawling personal gameplay area (two players playing this game will barely fit on a coffee table)--to screw over your opponent(s) or advance yourself into new Ages (read: start collecting better action cards). Yes, there's a lot going on here. Again, turns will be spent not only collecting and playing cards, but also trying to play actions that either disrupt your opponent, earn you points, or maybe help you reorganize your current piles of playable cards.

The Review
Innovation is, if nothing else, an intriguing game. There are so many different action cards--and, really, "dogma-ing" (to use the new gaming verb husband and I coined) is the bulk of the gameplay--that every game is a bit different, exciting, and potentially mind-boggling. In this sense, it reminds me of the stupidly splendid game, We Didn't Playtest This At All. Anything can happen, and people can win in the blink of an eye, or the whole game can snap around with one crazy action. There's also a lot of excellent opponent bashing that can happen here, giving us a flicker of rowdiness. And all this comes from a simple deck of cards. Nifty! And portable!

That's the really good news. The bad news? It's a bit dry. A fresh spread of clever artwork on the cards, or a little injection of humor could have breathed easy life into a game whose mechanics are all tidily in place. Plus, if you're sitting down for a game, be sure to have plenty of table space in front of you, and tell grandma to put on her reading glasses, because you'll be pouring over lots and lots of text in this game. This isn't a terrible thing at all, but is not for someone who's already fatigued or impatient.
Those paltry criticism aside though, there's something that's just off-beat enough about the different card actions, and the opponent rivalry can be just brutal enough that's it's got me hooked for at least a few more plays. And if the gameplay starts flowing more smoothly (right now it's like gloppy spoiled milk chunking out of a carton because we're a little slow on the reading and light on the focus), this might be a permanent keeper and a nice way to mix up game nights. Different is good, even if it's a bit scary at first. For that reason, this game gets an affectionately high and hopeful grade.
B+