Oceans - Sink or Swim? (SU&SD Review)

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[@Farpezio]

I know they probably work together on the videos but I love the idea of them just sending each other request for shots without context. Like "hey quinns, can you send me a clip of you pretending to be a fish" or "now pretend I'm interviewing you and you don't believe in weather" I love it

[@shutupandsitdown]

No that's exactly how it works

[@KindredBrujah]

@@shutupandsitdown I prefer to believe he asked Quinns and Tom to make a face like they're smoking a pipe and then actually used that footage to make them look like fish.

[@stevenandersen6989]

@@shutupandsitdown Could you guys finish reviewing the Evolution Franchise with The Sequel/Stand alone, Coal lobbyist hating, Evolution: Climate?

[@Chris-Parsons]

17:40 "Look at this fish!" *Is transparent* "...It's probably quite clear by now..." A fine move, Matt.

[@sojou.RN.]

A fine move indeed

[@jjmj4971]

A fine move.

[@Ruxinator]

"Look at this fish!" *Transparent fish*

[@Hoayaboi]

Underwater tax evasion sounds like the most fun crime ever

[@rickypaco1000]

“I wish I could do that!” That’s what my 5 year old said while watching that part.

[@georgiost6189]

Sunless Sea was so ahead of its time...

[@lostmarble540]

like most crimes, its sounds fun until you realize only rich people can do it

[@mosquitobight]

Especially if you're Mr. Krabbs

[@estebanrodriguez5409]

Isn't that the plot of Bioshock?

[@gomezthechimp1116]

"You`ll be playing games with other people." Haha. Nice one.

[@Last_March_of_the_Gents]

Glad I live in nz! Still got my weekly board game night

[@peterclarke7240]

Bloody colonials with your competent politicians and sense of collective responsibility to each others' safety... Just don't come crying to us when you run out of... Erm... Just smeg off, OK?!?!

[@gomezthechimp1116]

@@Last_March_of_the_Gents Your smugness is insulting sir. I’ll have you know that our great leader assures us he did everything possible to prevent 100000 unnecessary deaths and that we’re the world leaders in, well, everything. And I believe him. Rule Britannia!

[@scuba92186]

@@Last_March_of_the_Gents It's probably worth the price of imported board games. 😶

[@tylerrapillo377]

The 42-second buildup to that joke is making me salty guys

[@rickypaco1000]

Yep. He went there

[@BenVonHandorf]

That feeling of validation when you own and like a game and SU&SD reviews it and likes it! And you already own it, so you don't have to feel left out since you can't buy it anymore because it's sold out immediately.

[@JerreMuesli]

That's why bought it 5 minutes ago?

[@funkoxen]

Yeah I've got it too from kick-starter. It makes my brain bleed though.

[@tilofobes7451]

Ha, they really need to warn publishers. This is selling out right under my eyes.

[@dominiccrapuchettes1898]

That feeling of validation when you design a game and SU&SD reviews it and likes it! :-)

[@funkoxen]

it makes my brain bleed in a good way, i hasten to add :)

[@FrostyCosmic]

The Deep Deck seriously takes this from a good game to an amazing game, absolutely love this game.

[@ethanreimund2549]

*Warning* Don't play during worm month if you value not getting eaten

[@JackRackam]

Spent the whole first half of this video going mad thinking for sure you guys had already reviewed this before I remembered I'd seen it in a livestream. No wonder because I definitely would've remembered that salt joke!

[@Kithanalane]

I don't know about a review but they do remember them doing a live play of this game with the developer maybe on Twitch.

[@alamos52]

No criticisms? The one criticism I've consistently heard it's that success depends heavily on a good starting hand. And that there's limited replayability because it becomes obvious what the 'best' cards are /what the best way to build your engine is, partially because the first half of the game uses the more limited and repeating card pool

[@steverodriguez123]

"It's a family shoal"😂 😂 😂

[@TorIverWilhelmsen]

Remember, if your pee-pee actually looks like a sea cucumber, see a doctor.

[@euntaikim6157]

Love your videos... you guys make my vague feelings about games into a solid language and that’s very helpful!

[@acerumble4991]

I'm part of a support group for those who have survived Ecco the Dolphin, it's helped me greatly and you're welcome to attend.

[@colinfreyvogel3014]

I played Ecco at a very young age. The tornado at the beginning scared me away for a long while, but I eventually got around to playing it more and getting to the machine which scared me even more, and I couldn’t make myself continue. Maybe someday I’ll go back, but more than likely I’ll just remain scarred

[@trduity]

The fangirl in me squeaks in delight whenever I open KZbin and find a new video from you guys

[@riccardoorlando2262]

The fangirl in me does exactly the same.

[@oc4074]

Another Italian fangirl doing the saw here

[@TheRealPunkachu]

I don't have a fangirl in me but the one in my basement seems to enjoy it.

[@riccardoorlando2262]

@@TheRealPunkachu thank you for noticing! Can I have some water now please? UwU

[@dsyphoria]

What a review! Vintage SU&SD with jokes hitting so fast you have to watch three times to catch them all. 20 minutes of brilliance. Oh, and I guess the game looks good too.

[@JerreMuesli]

Gotta catch'em all

[@Chris-ro2pu]

This was super entertaining to watch. You clearly love this game Matt! Keep it up!

[@kyleb8117]

Kickstarted this one and I was so excited to share it with family and I'm happy to say the game was light enough to get their interest and make for a smooth game. We played with the Deep cards on our second game and they did just fine and had a blast. I'd easily recommend it to anyone. Glad to see you guys cover it.

[@NHE2112]

The way Matt delivered that "Ughhhh, my fish are gonna die," at 09:22 had me rolling. That's the hardest I've laughed at something in a SU&SD video yet. Excellent review; I'm going to obtain a copy by the end of the day.

[@andrewjolly319]

Best review in ages. Nearly 12 months since I played my last boardgame!

[@jamesmccarthy962]

Recommend trying Table top simulator on steam, sadly your friends would need to buy it as well (though it is on offer currently i believe around £15) but it lets you play hundreds of games for free via those people have made in the workshop. Oceans has an excellent version on there (:

[@andrewjolly319]

@@jamesmccarthy962 Yes, I did try it back in April but none of my friends really caught onto the idea. I am definitely the instigator of boardgame nights and people just come over and hang out and play whatever I suggest. No one really wanted to be sat in front of the computer all evening I guess. Hopefully we'll be back to normalish by this time next year!

[@BadBookend]

I will pretty consistently start a SU&SD review going "Ok, even if they really really like it, I'm not going to immediately purchase it" and then find myself on Amazon, purchasing the board game, telling myself "at least I am using the affiliate link so they get some money, I’m really just supporting the show" I bought about 6 button shy games because of Tom, and now just purchased Oceans.

[@Kitamines]

Loving the more frequent content, cheers SU&SD crew!

[@Michaelrsted]

Bravo... bravo. Truly A Master at work here. That review was truly perfection. Precise, made so much sense, I got a perfect understanding of the game and if it could be for me. Mixed with clever jokes with multiple layers, philosophy, humor, information, build up and punchlines. The care for details and delivery. Spot on. You sir are a master. I’ll give you a standing virtual ovation. Ohhh and I’ll definitely pick this game up also. :) Cheers

[@tylerrapillo377]

"It puts the PISS in PISSeidon" is my new catchphrase

[@garyv83]

Is that a reference pearnapple in that office chair? Is that a reference pinapear in that office chair? Is that-is that.....is that a fruit in that chair?

[@void_presence]

I have the 'deluxe' version of this game (and love it); it comes with acrylic fish to replace the cardboard ones, sleeves for all the cards (two different back for the deep cards and the regular ones), and cloth bags for points (similar to the bags for Evolution).

[@ANAKHA8]

I do too. Ditched the sleeves. I think the cardboard fish are nicer... and not plastic. The cloth bags are nice though.

[@djdoit31]

@@ANAKHA8 Funny you said that. I wrote the company and complained about the sleeves. They weren't even the same size.

[@RyanOSullivan]

This video really missed a trick with the absence of a callback to Quinns in the sea...

[@jamesmccarthy962]

So pleased you covered Oceans this is my favourite game from over 200 i have played and is very popular with all my gaming friends. Played it in person several times before the pandemic hit us but i recommend anyone who wants to play it with others who cannot due to social distancing and such you can get it for free on table top simulator on steam and it is an excellently made electronic version, perfectly replicates the physical game. Aquatic is my favourite them in general but this game excels in the smooth fun gameplay, perfect level of competition (i love that any species reduced to zero population does not die then you have until you must age so you can save them) and the art is brilliant particularly the deep deck (: Finally the vast number of trait cards and the different scenarios each time add so much variety to every playthrough

[@mikael6043]

16:42 Your Alan Partridge is spot on

[@willhelm94]

Literally my only criticism is that it would have been amazing to see biological facts about the species on the cards. That would be so cool

[@ThePickaxePenguin]

Wingspan has spoilt us

[@funkoxen]

It doesn't work like that really given that you are building your own species from scratch and many deep traits dont exist in nature.

[@funkoxen]

It doesn't work like that really given that you are building your own species from scratch and many deep traits dont exist in nature.

[@bane9179]

Nice was really waiting for a review of this one

[@psyoptic]

Seeing a review from Matt just fills me with glee

[@MozilloGames]

I spent ages trying to find this game after seeing it on the SUSD streams... I now have a copy and sometimes just get it out to touch the pieces and look at the cards. One day I'll play it... one day

[@MrStormbourne]

The Climate expansion to Evolution is a massive improvement that I wish they would give a shot

[@SolviKaaber]

I’ve only played this game once and really want to try it again, we barely scratched the surface of the deep deck.

[@Riley512]

Free app available

[@h_k_hellion7268]

I see what you did there

[@perspicacioussimpleton7288]

Been waiting for this since SHUX!

[@Arkham_UK]

Great work Matt!! So proud

[@willow93932]

"The Infinite Bath" dude I'm already laughing my ass off

[@penguwave4025]

So excited this finally got a review. Oceans has been on my wishlist for a while

[@edstervedster]

8:25 I totally spat out my drink

[@IronSalamander8]

I gotta say that the point you make about 'what's fun, vs. how the game wants you to play' is something that I find happens all too often. Maybe it does indeed work well here like you mention, but I find that commonly turns me off of games that I would otherwise enjoy.

[@15Indianajon]

Damn you Echo!!!! This one is definitely going on my 'to buy' list and don't worry Matt I'm with you! Over evolving looks the most fun component. Oh and Quinns, if you read this on an unrelated note there is a great program on BBC radio called Bengal to Baker Street in 80 paintings that was aired yesterday that I think you would like. I'm sure it will be on the Sounds app.

[@Bokosuka-yl7eq]

What you described in the beginning is how I would describe my grandfather.

[@CyclopsScott]

I have seen the news! That aside when stealing the player guard after the main one fell off the table was so good.

[@Dinoman9877]

I would really like to see you guys do a review on Evolution: Climate. It vastly improves on the original and does even more than Flight did (though there's sadly not a way to get them to work together cleanly). Most importantly is that you can't idle now depending on how the climate changes. If you can't evolve your species to respond to it and if you can't put a stop to the heating or cooling, you're gonna have issues, while also trying to balance the fact other people wanna munch on your stuff. It makes it much harder to make the 'stagnant' ecosystem and impossible to break Cooperation chains that plagued base Evolution and even Evolution: Flight.

[@dilarus8231]

As a Samuel, I will indeed make these decisions for myself going forward

[@soulofastro]

I had tons of fun playing this with friends before the pandemic. It's an amazing board game.

[@teppich626]

there's the "su&sd recommends" logo in the thumbnail, but not in the video :O maybe it got lost in the waves of excitement?

[@shutupandsitdown]

It did

[@WetWhoops]

This was an amazingly hilarious. Thanks for the review!

[@drjhero]

Matt is killing it! I love this review :)

[@Garethprice1979]

Another great review!

[@jeffweber8244]

This video was missing a seafood cooking segment.

[@LukeTheGinge]

We actually have The Deep cards house-ruled to be available from turn 2, regardless of the Cambrian Explosion being in effect. They’re too much fun to wait for!

[@scottcameron174]

"weather is a hoax" & a 'c' being "lies" are thus far my favourite quotes of 2021 and on my birthday no less.

[@SidneyBatchelder]

Oceans has been my ALLTIME favorite game ever since it came out. Happy to see it show up as a SUSD review ^_^ Love y'alls!

[@Nonscient]

You krilled this review

[@ukaszduda6887]

Amazing work Matt!!

[@otakuribo]

"Look at this fish!!" *Transparent*

[@jakebrill5990]

"C is for lies" will live in my head rent free forever lmao

[@grandad1982]

Evolution: Climate is one of my favourite games. No fish though.

[@clarakoenig7923]

Matt's final "keep it fishy! oooooh yeaaaah" is big Sokka of the Water Tribe energy. Even the haircut is the same.

[@TinyPirate]

You play Oceans how I played the Jihad card game back in the day: a brujah damage deck that never won games but with which I took great delight in burning up elder vampires in a single round.

[@blacksheep9950]

Bounced off Oceans and kept my copy of Evolution instead, but I found someone keen to buy my Kickstarter copy so everyone was happy. The Deep deck is a great mechanism, though.

[@candymandan]

I felt a tingle in the air tonight. You were expected.

[@tahunuva4254]

I tasted myself

[@tahunuva4254]

*TAZED, TAZED

[@lucypatton42]

Whoa! Was not hopeful for this because I was not a fan of Evolution, but so far it looks pretty good

[@golgarisoul]

I love me some Cambrian Explosion, not gonna lie.

[@gir73]

I certainly wasn't expecting some kind of cambrian explosion.

[@kyokorebit]

no one expected the cambrian explosion

[@djdoit31]

So excited when I saw you reviewed this game. It's the first time you've reviewed a game I already owned.

[@tristanfareel7184]

Mate I was scared by eco the dolphin! I thought it was just me. You legend 🤣

[@alexcannobbio710]

I was on the fence about this game, i love the oceans but wasnt sure about the game, now im definitely getting it

[@NyleGames]

My favourite thing about Evolution was the simulation aspect. Likewise I got trashed almost every game but I didn't care because it was interesting, seeing the way everything interacts in strange ways. Oceans looks even better, and I'm excited to play it! :D That box too, gosh!!

[@jamesmccarthy962]

He did not show you but the back of the box also has a really cool design as well, the front shows a surface card and the back shows a brilliant kraken from the deep deck (:

[@louisxyz1]

That burn of the dinosaurs made the meteor jealous. Or something like that.

[@zippy5131]

I am sorry but, when I saw those two cards Tentacled and Bottom Feeder I laughed out sooo loud. Forgot I was ill then remembered as the pain hit me....... Cheers made me smile..

[@JesseAStern]

The passive Scenario cards trigger when their ocean zone empties and stay active even if it gets more fish. Only “event” scenario cards trigger every time their ocean zone empties

[@mpcox]

Not exactly. Rulebook page 11: Blue Scenario cards are active whenever there is no population in its Ocean zone. Which means if you put fish back in that zone, it deactivates. This is backed up by the FAQ on page 6 of the reference guide.

[@AhJong0]

Neat looking game, one I’d love to try. The Pissiden joke had me in stitches 👍

[@SamWilsonanimation]

yeah your right i do need to make these decisions

[@preachermansam86]

I hear ya

[@DingoAteMeBaby]

That slow zoom out was really immersion breaking

[@bigguy978978]

Wait this game doesn't get the SU&SD seal of approval? Strange Edit: Probably forgotten in editing

[@HubbiNashrullahM]

I was wondering that too! I kept hoping the badge would appear til the last second..

[@HubbiNashrullahM]

but wait, there's a SUSD recommends badge in the thumbnail

[@bigguy978978]

@@HubbiNashrullahM I guess they forgot to do it in post

[@Blakestefer]

@@bigguy978978 on their website it doesn't have a seal of approval. Edit: there's a reply from them in here, and it was indeed something that was missed.

[@jeansiggy470]

They just started a kickstarter for a new version of evolution, hope you will do a review on it in a few months if it is worth it

[@Krakeer]

I bought this game immediately after seeing this review and boy do I love it! Thanks susd, you are the best!

[@blackmagicmath1315]

Only thing I can say is go and play Evolution Climate, which by the way is not about climate change, though the climate can change (and does a lot). It's a great improvement over Evolution (and can be combined with Flight)

[@GMnofxpx182]

Matt this is the best video you've done since you used to do the cooking and gaming videos. I entered this video thinking this game wouldn't be for me and left with a smile on my face and a pending order. This is a family shoal. OMG 😃

[@MensHominis]

Wonderful review, the game looks very intriguing! To take a bit of a stand for *Evolution* though here, too, I want to say: I've only played *Climate* and though you'd wish for some more trait cards, the climate aspect really brings more strategical depth into the game. With climate, you can easily hurt a huge alpha predator because he can't have both many attack and many anti-heat traits at the same time. I don't want to imagine how annoying such a creature would be in the original game, surely. _Addendum:_ I own *Oceans* now, too, and I like it because it's much less brutal than *Evolution* ... though one major factor for this is the fact that species are way more short-lived, it's all s big come and go in the ocean. So you develop less of a bond to your lil monsters. Additionally, the species boards are simpler and there really aren't many trait cards without the "Deep", so you'll all play more as a whole ecosystem and less as specific species. Which is cool because it leaves both games viable on their own, imho.

[@DinoGramatikov]

Seconded. Climate's the best of the bunch.

[@MensHominis]

@@DinoGramatikov - 🖤. The only problem is when you're the only player at the table willing to go full apocalypse to stop someone who's snowballing. :D

[@joerihessels8230]

Climate is indeed great, I love the passive aggressive tug of war for the weather effect on top of the main game!

[@suist4r]

I think Evolution is the better game even without expansions. Oceans is a decent engine builder, but player interaction just falls short of my expectations. It's just not tense gameplay. It's just fine.

[@anonleft]

Well, you can also starve him by simply not giving him any targets until he dies, or eats his way through his player's other species....

[@searose6192]

I have only played the app on both Oceans and Evolution. I really love playing evolution, definitely in my top games. Oceans the jury is still out for me.... mainly because there are some thing that the app doesn’t really explain well which makes the strategy murky. I really like the ability to control how quickly the game end and how soon the Cambrian explosion occurs. I also love the deep cards. Bits I am not a fan of is only feeding one species per turn (though I may like this more as I play longer) and then the inexplicable times when the app simply won’t let you feed any species (maybe a glitch?) even though they seem able to feed based on traits and available food. Overall Oceans is more complex and maybe has more depth? But it’s also more confusing so far.... I still love evolution though👍🏼

[@B0nd07]

@7:46 Bill Wurtz: "it's the Cambrian explosion~ ♪" "wow, that's animals & stuff" kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqamn2urrZeamNU

[@preachermansam86]

As a Samuel, I am pleasantly freaked out now

[@volkerklass7741]

That little twitch in his eye at about 4:00 shows that he is going as mad as we are in this seeminlgy never-ending lockdown. I feel you, Matt, I feel you.

[@Chris-ro2pu]

My gf’s ears perked up when he mentioned Echo the Dolphin! She thought she was the only one who has played it!

[@SoloBoredGamer]

Glad I wasn't the only one who didn't get a hair cut between lockdowns :)

[@crono92]

The Underwater tax evasion line meda me LOL

[@moeben7354]

Great game instantly fell in love with the art work this one is going into my collection! :) By the way I would be super interested in an review of "High Frontier 4 all" I wonder what you guys say about this behemoth.

[@joerihessels8230]

I really like this game! The deep is indeed amazing, I usually lose because I try to make a redicilous predator, leading to too much sunken cost ;) The one thing I dislike is the slow start before the cambrian explosion on repeat plays. Playing two cards, aging two fish and being able to play deep cards is what makes the game shine! A shame we only get to enjoy it the second half of the game.

[@TMHUpNorth]

I got this a week ago, my girlfriend and I have already played it 4 times. We definitely recommend it!

[@AlephN]

I have a weak spot for engine building card games with nice themes... Next to Wingspan on the wishlist it goes.

[@funkoxen]

Fish>birds

[@samuelvink1482]

19:30 umm, how does he know my name?!

[@patrickstar3470]

I think this is the funniest review I've ever seen

[@secondengineer9814]

14:55 That was like three asides ~deep~.

[@jamesmccarthy962]

For those finding it hard to play games in person i want to recommend that this amazing game has an excellent free to play version on steams Table top simulator (: Feels identical to the base game

[@jamesmccarthy962]

@@isaacm6052 Aye i loved their playthrough, matt mentioned there they would be reviewing it in the future but i did not realise they would get to it so soon (:

[@THESP-rz3hg]

Good to see SUSD standing up to Big Weather. I mean, they SAY that snow is falling from the sky, but I don't know how that works and I don't think anyone does. Now tell me what I should think about this excellent game. :)

[@PeppoMusic]

Arrrrr the sea...