Imagine the Ice Age has ended and the world is warming up rapidly. What follows? A titanic struggle for survival! In Dominant Species: Marine, you take control of an aquatic animal class — fish, cephalopods, crustaceans, or reptiles — and your goal is simple: avoid extinction and, if possible, dominate everything before that famous asteroid arrives to end the party.

The game is an abstract simulation where you use pawn placement to perform essential actions such as speciation, migration, and adaptation. The board is modular, featuring hexagons that expand the ocean as the game progresses, creating a dynamic map. You need to spread your species across various habitats to activate powerful card effects and accumulate victory points.

For veterans of the original Dominant Species, the Marine version introduces some very interesting changes. Now, actions are immediate: place a pawn, and the action happens. This removes the mental burden of having to plan the entire round in advance and makes the flow much smoother. Additionally, dominance is now calculated globally by element type, rather than on a per-tile basis.

One of the biggest game-changers is the 'special pawns.' They aren't just cosmetic; they allow you to 'bump' an opponent's pawn to steal an action or access exclusive spaces on the action display. With the addition of Trait cards, each species starts with a unique ability, adding extra layers of strategy. In the end, the player with the most victory points will be crowned the Dominant Species, proving they were indeed the fittest to survive.