It’s time to look to the sky for discoveries. Study planets, moons… and maybe even some alien lifeforms. Utilize your resources wisely, as they are limited, and expand your tech effectively in order to improve your skills. Get ready to truly understand the vastness of the universe.

What Is It?

Multi-Use Cards – Players can use cards for abilities, free actions, or income, depending on how they play them

Area Majority – Players can add their markers to various sectors on the solar system board through the “scan” action. When full, the sector resolves, and the player with majority will get additional bonuses

“Contracts” – Some cards will have missions on them which players can get bonuses for if they perform certain actions or fulfill certain criteria

End Game Bonuses – Players will earn milestones throughout the game which will let them unlock end game scoring. They can also gain end game scoring on certain cards.

Who Is It For?

  • 1 to 4 Players – For me it’s too hefty of a game for solo, but if you’re primarily a solo player, it can be a really fun experience. At 4, it’s fairly long, though I like that you don’t have the neutral player tokens. I’d maybe land on 3 being ideal for me
  • Ages 15 & Up – There’s a lot of rules, pretty weighty. It’s definitely not for younger or less experienced players
  • Fans of Euro games and space themes
    • Players who like a lot of options for actions turn to turn

PROS

  • Aesthetics – Looks great on the table
    • Iconography is clear
  • Components – Excellent quality across the board; I love CGE’s re-wood components
  • Rules are well written and very detailed, which is much appreciated for these heavier games
  • Variability – The solar system board is modular and 2 out of 5 aliens are chosen randomly each game
  • I like that there’s a lot of actions to choose from each turn – leads to many different strategies and paths to focus on
  • Reference books are detailed and very handy
    • The player boards also serve as reference for your actions, which works well

CONS

  • Set-up/clean-up is a beast
  • Can be a lot of downtime between turns – players can get AP as they weigh all their options each turn
  • While the alien reveals mid-game is neat and exciting, it can also feel like an interruption, especially in early plays, because players have to learn additional rules/info
  • I kind of thought it was strange that players could only score 3 of the 4 end game scoring tiles
  • Resources can be very tight, which can lead to a few dead turns or passing earlier than you would like

Final Thoughts

This game definitely has a lot of moving parts, and they fit together well. You have a lot of interesting choices to make turn after turn, so long as you can afford them. The main actions all had various costs associated with them, but I found that if you didn’t tuck a lot of cards for income, it was hard to afford actions after only a few turns. Because of this, I found having cards very valuable as they could often let you do other actions for only the cost of a few credits, so I tried to focus my income on credits so I could afford cards.

At the same time, I want to point out that others I played with focused more on scanning, and others on orbiting/landing on planets. There are a lot of paths to try, and it seems that you can be fairly successful going any route. However, the biggest thing to note is that it’s important to get points early on so you can get on those end-game scoring tiles, because if you aren’t quick to grab those higher points, you may fall out of the game in the end.

If you like chunky Euro games with a lot going on, plus a really well-done space theme, this is worth checking out! I think it was a little too lengthy for me to come back to it too often, but if others wanted to play, I’d definitely be up for it from time to time.

Additional Information:
My Final Rating – 6/10

Designer – Tomáš Holek
Artists – Ondřej Hrdina, Oto Kandera, Jiří Kůs
Jakub Lang, Michaela Lovecká, Jiří Mikovec
Jakub Politzer, Petra Ramešová, František Sedláček
Petr Štich, Petr Štich (III), & Josef Surý
Publisher – Czech Games Edition (CGE)
MSRP – $69.99
Website

*I was provided a copy of this game to do this review*

If you like what I do, consider Supporting Me.