There is a sizable and consistent literature theorizing how to design games to be educationally effective but there is currently conflicting empirical evidence on the benefits of educational games, even games designed based on these theories. To address this, a video game was specifically developed based on these theories to teach high school students evolutionary biology. 98 Students from 10 classes across 5 schools in New York State were assessed in terms of content knowledge, motivation, and depth of understanding before and after participating in the game module and typical instruction. The research design was a combination of switching replication and a Solomon 4-group design. It was found that when the game was used after typical instruction on the topic, some groups saw limited gains in multiple choice scores, short answer depth, and motivation measures. There was a strong order effect where students that received typical instruction on the topic first and then participated in the game module saw the greatest benefits. However students that received the module first may have seen gotten less out of typical instruction. This suggests that gamebased lesson can be beneficial or detrimental and must be used carefully to be effective. These findings have many limitations regarding sampling and fidelity.