The game has a myriad of minor issues which include the number of fishes being fiddly, creating too many fishes can consume table space, the decision space is shallow, and tracking interactions can be taxing to remember who is what.

But all of these end up be strengths, the counting of bits for setup kinda doesn't matter, you can make a mess of your economy but still have fun, you are never too stuck in the numbers, and though tracking and be taxing, you are always curious on other player's turn to see if theirs actions will reward you with some food.

And in the end you make some silly fish, and maybe throw on some deep traits, and laugh. It's a great game for those learning about engines and economics, or those not looking for anything heavy nor light.

We really enjoy Evolution. Oceans felt very similar, but with a few twists to the mechanism to keep the game fresh and challenging.

In a two player game, we weren’t initially in love with this game. Even as a “deluxe” version, I found the production to be mediocre at best. The cards are thin and paper-like, the punch tokens were difficult to punch without damaging the tokens, the reef component did not assemble nicely, and the paper “player food concealer” barely conceals anything. Gameplay at two players just seemed tiresome to track all the abilities and not rewarding most of the time.