Niche a genetics survival game review

Did you pay attention in school when genetics was explained? Remember the rule that you have brown eyes because the brown eyes of your mom are dominant over your dads blue eyes? Isn’t is weird then that although most of your siblings have brown eyes, your youngest brother doesn’t? He has blue eyes! And that’s because your dads blue eyes count too, in a smaller way. So though blue eyes aren’t dominant but recessive they do pop up with an 1 to 4 chance!

The genetics survival game Niche is based on that principle. Start your tribe of Nichelings with just one male and one female, and see the pups being born. What color will they have? Will they have strong claws or white horns? Or will they be sickly because you put two animals together that weren’t the best match?

This educational approach to the game is packaged with a turn based strategy game and combined with rogue-like elements that will have you thinking: one more turn!

Niche has been available on PC for a couple of years. The game started life as a Kickstarter campaign and a very successful one too. An impressive $72,375 USD out of their $15,000 goal was reached, ticking off all the stretch goals as well.

Adam and Eve

Niche has a Story Mode and a Sandbox Mode. In Story Mode Adam and Eve are the start of a thriving tribe, travelling from island to island using flower ports and trying to get back to Adam’s home island. In Sandbox Mode you can choose what difficulty of islands you want to encounter and you start with two random animals. There’s no goal in Sandbox Mode, you can grow your pack and hop islands just whichever way you want. But, be sure that things will not go to plan!

In Story Mode you start out with you see little Nicheling pup Adam being stolen from the nest by a bird of prey. Luckily for him the bird drops him on an uninhabited island, a fall that Adam survives. While he recuperates, he finds Eve, a little female. Adam’s genes are always the same, Eve is randomised, making every game you play differ from the next.

This Story Mode includes a tutorial, that teaches you the basics. First, you learn how to move both Adam and Eve and how each animal has a number of tiles (moves) each day. Each animal has green gems in their chest, they represent action points and each action taken depletes one point. Newborns are very limited in moves and what action the can achieve. But growing up, the effectiveness of the animals actions is based on the stats of each creature. For instance, if it has nimble fingers it can gather more berries. If it has runner legs it can cover more tiles per turn. After all action points are spent you can end the day by holding X.

Every Nicheling has a lifespan of 25 days, after which they die. When they get hurt, the lifespan is shortened. Better not get too attached to an individual as it won’t be around long. Keep the management part of the game firmly in mind: you are striving for a healthy viable tribe of Nichelings!

Staying Alive!

The tribe has to stay alive, using 1 food per animal per day. Sure, you can have your animals mate and produce pups daily. But you have to feed them all too, which can be a real challenge. Be careful about roaming wildlife as they can hurt your Nichelings. And see the birds of prey circling overhead? Watch your pups: I was very taken aback when one I had carefully bred based on the stats I strived for being whisked away. I can only hope he met the same fate as our patriarch Nicheling Adam, being dropped to live on!

While you try to traverse the island you landed on getting to the Flower Port to travel to the next one, the environment of the island effects your gameplay too. Finding berry bushes for food. Finding poison berry bushes that you can’t harvest unless one of your animals has poison fangs. If they don’t, picking poison berries will lead to one day of their lifespan shortened. Daily! The smell and hearing senses are used to determine if there are predators about or maybe rogue Nichelings that can benefit your little family.

On some biomes animals are more prone to sickness. When a Nicheling has low immunity in its genes, it may catch a cold that shortens its life span. Not only that, but it spreads throughout your pack. On one run a pup I bred was born with a cold, affecting its mom immediately. I had a choice to make: lead the rest of the family away to safety by distancing themselves? Or just take my chances and let the cold run its course? I must confess I did the first….leading the others to the Flower Port and leaving her and her mother behind….not my finest moment….

Dip into the Genepool

Every animal has a cameo at the bottom left corner of your screen, showing the Skills (think Speed, Collecting, Scratching etc.) and what Traits it has (like how well it can hear, how fertile it is, if it can breathe under water). The Genes of the animals are shown, the dominant ones along with the recessive ones. You can see the Family Tree which also allows you to get a better view on the animal from front to back. And important: you can give the animal Mutations.

If you choose a Mutation for your animal there’s a 50% chance that its offspring will inherit it. At the start of the game a lot of Mutations are locked, mostly the more valuable ones which you will unlock during gameplay. Of course you can purely breed for how animals look and it is indeed fun to see what babies are born. But as this is a survival game I’d suggest you try to breed for specific genes making for a higher chance that you and your Nichelings survive longer.

Though the tutorial covers the basics, it doesn’t go into much detail about what genes to go for and which to steer away from. Rogue Nichelings roam the islands and some make for interesting additions to your tribe. Some you want to steer away from, bringing undesirable traits like hemophilia, Infertility and deformed paws. Every animal has two immunity genes and it’s not a good idea to mate two animals with the same gene as it will lead to sickness.

When your careful planning doesn’t lead to the results you want your game ends. And it doesn’t have to be because of a lack of food or sickness. I had one game that came to a standstill as I was left with all males, and couldn’t find a rogue female anywhere. The boys turned old without having the fun of meeting a nice girl, dying one by one.

The Good and the Bad

Niche plays well on the Switch and it is the perfect game on the go. You can play a couple of turns during coffee break even but beware: much like in Civilization it had me thinking: awww, just one more turn! I often fall asleep with the Switch in my hands at night. Not while playing Niche: I had to force myself to shut it down in the middle of the night. A sure sign of a great game!

The music and sound effects are very relaxing, with the Nichelings making little sounds when you let them do their turns. The islands look good, colourful and bountiful. And the Nichelings themselves have so many variations in colors, patterns and things like different tails and horns that it’s huge fun to see what will be born next.

As always, there are some things I’d like to see improved. The Tutorial could be more in-depth when it comes to desired genes, how sickness can spread, about mutations. And it should be possible to turn the Tutorial off when you make another Story Mode Run.

Moving across the island can be slow going. You can happily spend many life cycles in one spot making it your home. But if you want to discover the entire island, it takes a lot of turns. The vegetation is dense and the lack of food is a constant challenge. I know, that’s the appeal of the game too, but progress can be very, very slow.

Conclusion

A game that keeps me playing for just one more turn, and then one more, even when I’m tired after a long day is a great game in my book. Niche – A Genetics Survival Game isn’t a game for everyone. Of course, you can dive in and just create your family without keeping the genetics in mind. But the deeper I delved, the more the game appealed to me. Notebook at the ready, keeping track of what genes I wanted to strive for, making choices to make the gene pool stable and strong. I love it.

So if you like a game that you can sink your teeth in, and you love planning, strategising and playing around to get the best results, then Niche is your game. No fighting (well, aside from defending yourself from a predator), no violence, taking your time and trying to get a thriving tribe of Nichelings while exploring the surroundings. It will make for many, many hours of gaming fun.

What type of game is niche?

Niche - a genetics survival game is a fresh blend of turn-based strategy and simulation combined with rogue-like elements. Shape your own species of cat/fox/bear/dog-like animals based on real genetics. Keep your animals alive against all odds, such as hungry predators, climate change and spreading sickness.

How do you unlock more genes in niche?

There are various ways to unlock new genes. Some examples include: mutating them, exploring new tiles or completing a specific action.

Is niche on steam?

Niche - a genetics survival game on Steam. Niche - a genetics survival game is a turn-based strategy game combined with simulation and roguelike elements. Shape your own species of animals based on real genetics.