Congratulations on your survival thus far, fellow humans. Unfortunately, the hard work is not over yet. Now, all of us survivors must figure out who will get processed, probed, and who will be lucky enough to be freed.

Oh, and we’ll need to make those choices for the cows too because … well, the aliens think they’re humans too. Don’t ask me, man, aliens are kinda dumb. Hey, maybe that’ll help us out later… haha…

Anyway, there’s not much time, so let’s make these decisions quick and just try to make it out alive!

What Is It?

A negotiation card game that lends itself to some bluffing and some general silliness. Players spend 3 different types of voting tokens on Lot cards to ultimately process, probe, or free various numbers of hipsters and cows.

Players will choose an Agenda card to score in each of 3 rounds to earn victory points and, inevitably, mas CAO points. Whoever scores the most mad CAO points will immediately be sent for processing, appropriately, while the player left with the most victory points will earn their place in Alien-topia!

Who Is It For?

The box says ages 14+ and I’d say around that is accurate, maybe just a little younger too. The game is pretty simple, but you do have a lot of things to do, and a lot changing turn to turn especially with more players.

Those who like a light game that doesn’t require a ton of strategizing, as well as a silly theme will also get a kick out of this.

Additionally, players who like, and can get really into, negotiation may enjoy this because with more players you can really try to form alliances and try to convince others to use certain voting tokens on certain lot cards to help your own agendas.

Contents + Quality

Cards + Cardboard Tokens – All of average quality, get the job done. The tokens are all distinct colors, but also have images which would be helpful for a colorblind player. The art was definitely unique, and I thought it was pretty cool.

Player Pieces + Boards – These are neat, nice quality, distinct colors, and I like that there’s a human and a cow piece for each player. Which brings me to the boards, which are also nice quality, and having the two different tracks makes tracking everything super easy.

Rules – They are well written and laid out and have a bunch of good examples for gameplay.

Box – It’s a small box game. Everything fits in the box nicely and there’s no wasted space, which is great.

PROS

  • Iconography is straightforward and consistent
  • Silly/fun theme
  • Intro game can be helpful to get a feel for the cards and game phases (experienced gamers can dive right into the full game)
  • Passive aggressive points are cool and unique and give players a reason to go for some Mad CAO points to boost their VP later
  • Rebel variant is an interesting twist on the passive aggressive points

CONS

  • Lot cards/gameplay can stagnate depending on player choices (i.e. if people vote in ties on cards). It doesn’t happen too often, but it really depends on who you play with.
  • The game is pretty random and comes down to a lot of luck. You feel like you have more control than you do. A lot of times things work out really evenly across the board and it almost feels like your choices don’t matter a whole lot because of that.

Final Thoughts

While I thought that the game had some neat concepts, for me it was just a little too much luck from the agenda cards you start with to which lot cards come out, to not really being able to plan between turns since you don’t know how people will vote and what will still be out when your next turn comes.

I think I would recommend it to more “beer and pretzels” gamers, because you don’t really need to strategize. I feel like it is a cool game that’s more geared toward that audience than my groups. Cool game that I think a bunch of people would enjoy.


My Ratings:
Overall Game – 5/10
Difficulty – 2/10
Aesthetics – 7/10
Replayability – 7/10

Additional Information:
Designer – Seppy Yoon
Artists –  Jody Henning, Graham Judd
Publisher – Fight in a Box
MSRP – $30.00
BGG
BGA
Website

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

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