Disclaimer: Free review key given to me by the developers.
It's not often you see a game so rigorously based on scientific theories of evolution and genetics, let alone one that does it's inspired-mechanics that so well designed while being very accurate for; in this case, how genetic and evolutionary theory works. Kudos to the developers for this, you guys put a lot of attention to detail and I appreciate that you keep the mechanics relatively grounded and accurate to how genetics and inheritance works. It's all there, as the game also cleverly (while not being too in your face or upfront about it, in a sort of learn as you do manner) teaches the pillars of population genetics, such as genetic drift and flow.
The amount of genetic options and variety, even for nearly cosmetic ones is quite a large pool; this can lead to a sheer amount of visual variety for creatures, even when the is realistically not nearly as much as you would expect in comparison to real life biology, it can still be astonishing to see all the massively wide visual variations for tribe members. It's very pleasing to see too, especially when your tribe starts to grow out in population and you end up getting wild members to add genetic diversity to the tribe.
One of the things I generally look for first with a game is how in depth a game's options menus are and how much accessibility and customizability a game offers to it's players. This is something Niche does just fine, at least, for having a bit of meat to the options to fiddle with. Sure, as much as I wanted more in-depth options such as lighting options or toggling the intensity/presence of visual effects and particles, it works just fine for Niche's indie status and the development team that is working so hard on this game. Another positive aspect I want to give kudos to, as much as I'd wish there was more here to the options.
The simple but clean graphical design of the menus and GUI shows to the indie pedigree of Niche's developer. This isn't necessary a bad thing, as most indie developers do not often have the resources or support to make more sophisticated or visually intensive/impressive interfaces and it ends up working in Niche's favor quite so! This suits the nature and theme of the game, where the mechanics are grounded and scientifically minded so there is not much need for an interface that is too complex or visually bombast.
The music reminds me of Minecraft a lot, and it is both the closest comparison in style and what came to mind to me when I heard the main theme more than a few times. Like Minecraft, a lot of the music is tranquil and relaxing. Music is often one of my favorite things about why I like certain games so much, besides a game's unique mechanics or setting/atmosphere.
The game can be a bit obtuse with how difficult it's mechanics are to grasp, especially if you are new to the game and are playing it for the first time. It presents an unique perspective, where both the genetics-based gameplay is easy to get into but at the same time, can be inaccessible for some players due to their largely accurate and realistic scientific basis that makes it daunting to approach from outside for playing the game for the first time. The mechanics of the game can be difficult to get the hang of and may take some time getting used to until you reach the point where you have sufficient mastery of them to understand and play/adapt to the mechanics presented without stumbling too hard. The difficulty in the mechanics may also be due to the somewhat poorly designed tutorial, which could be improved and made easier to understand and/or a bit better in terms of design and approach of how the tutorial teaches the player. I've seen complaints of the tutorial prompts being too slow, as for one example of why it's poorly designed.
Managing your tribe can get difficult later on, especially if your tribe starts to get larger than 3-4 members. This may be compounded by some of the interfaces, so perhaps redesigning them to make them easier to interpret and get info would be a good step forward, such as that the family tree isn't on par of the other menus in terms of design accessibility and ease of use to understand obtain information from.
