cwinkler7

When I first saw this game set up, I thought that the giant gear in the center was such a gimmick and couldn’t possibly lead to interesting gameplay… boy was I wrong.

This euro style worker placement game is very deep and seriously makes you think and plan. The strategy here is not just what you plan to do this turn, but you must calculate many moves in advance, sometimes 2, 3, or even 4 turns ahead. And by turns, this game literally revolves (puns intended) around turning a giant gear system.

The victory conditions all feel very Mayan…the three main ways to win are: —build a temple to please the gods, but dont **** them off or suffer their consequences. —Use the crystal skulls to gain victory points. —construct buildings worth points. Ok well that last one is not unique at all. In fact it reminds me very much so of Puerto Rico or 7 wonders with some of the later buildings reminding me of the guild halls from each game.

If this game has any short comings, its that you can simply ignore whole paths of victory points, which I feel is an issue in many euro games. I can completely choose not to get any crystal skulls and focus exclusively on building the temple and base my strategy around that. Being that there are many avenues of victory, the player to win is most often the one who chooses a path that the other players are not competing for control of. Other than blocking points from my opponents, there is no real benefit to diversifying my strategy and dipping my fingers in each vein of victory points. Its almost always better to stay focused in one area.

Regardless, the mechanic alone of the gear is enough to keep me coming back for more. Mechanically Its one of the most unique games I’ve played and certainly deserves a place on your game shelf.

I am in love with Space Alert. Everything from the art, to the general aesthetic, to the strategy, the social elements, the gameplay… the soundtrack!?!? What a whopping pile of awesome this game is. Lets break it down.

Artistically, this game looks great. The ship itself is not only pretty, but you can actually get gameplay cues from the layout of the ship… (you see where the reactors are, you see how the ancillary cannons have a different energy source, you see the elevators, etc.) All the threat cards are well illustrated and the graphic art makes sense. The tokens look and feel functionally great.

The gameplay is chaotic and just **** fun. Each round only takes about 10 minutes or so to complete, but wow what a ride. Stressful, yes. But always a great time, even when your ship gets blown to bits. The soundtrack really adds that extra element of chaos and seriously lights a fire under your ***. Its simple but effective.

The best part of this game is the co-op elements. Working together with your buddies in a “just believable enough” scenario to overcome the imbalanced odds of the game is great fun. Its just taxing enough to put any group of friends up to a serious challenge, but never so far out of reach that if you lost you couldn’t conceivably beat it with better communication and cooperation in another round.

My only complaint is that there is no indication of the difficulty of each soundtrack. But thats really it. I highly recommend picking this up if you have a group of friends that are willing to learn the rules (which takes a while) 10/10

I love the theme and feel of the game. The artwork is decent but does a good job of setting the tone for the game. You are competing estates striving to build the best castle.
Mechanics are solid.. my favorite being the ability to combo your building placement. That’s what really makes this game mechanically unique and sets it apart from a lot of other euro style games.
There are times where you simply get screwed by the dice but that adds to the fun of it all… and that’s the only element of luck. The rest is pure skill, planning, and strategy. Great replay value. Super fun for 2 players but also great for 4.