Full disclosure: I’ve by no means performed a recreation produced by the Recreation Crafter till now. For the uninitiated, the Recreation Crafter is a print-on-demand recreation publishing firm i.e., they’ll produce no matter recreation designers ship them, for a price, with out questioning recreation high quality. Their elements have a stable status, however as for the video games themselves, effectively, there’s at all times an opportunity you discover a gem, akin to Andy Weir’s self-published novel The Martian. Otherwise you is perhaps upset by a multitude that clearly wanted additional playtesting.
On this evaluate, I’ll be shining some mild on the Recreation Crafter title Galactic Duel, a 2-player-only space management recreation designed by Drew Grant that performs in 10-20 minutes. It’s obtained an area theme and a few cool-looking astronaut items. So can it rise to the joy stage of The Martian, or is it one more instance of a recreation that wanted extra growth?
Gameplay Overview:
A recreation of Galactic Duel begins with 10 planets laid out, every with a selected energy and level worth. Every participant takes 12 astronauts of their coloration.
On their flip, a participant will
- Place one in every of their astronauts on a planet
- If ready, activate an influence on a single planet the place they at present have majority presence
As soon as each gamers have positioned all their astronauts, the sport ends. Decide majority on every planet and award factors accordingly. Highest rating wins.
Recreation Expertise:
Galactic Duel is a enjoyable little recreation. The maths of ten planets being in play with every participant solely accessing 12 astronauts means that almost all is usually achieved with a single astronaut holding down a planet all by their lonesome. It additionally implies that putting a single astronaut in anyone location can instantly wipe out your opponent’s majority. A two-astronaut differential on a planet can appear insurmountable. After which there are particular planet powers like “swap the positions of any 2 astronauts” or “swap the positions of all astronauts on two totally different planets” which have the power to fully upend the bulk standing from one flip to the subsequent. The sport is a continuing steadiness of making an attempt to manage the powers that you simply deem essential, whereas additionally positioning your self to have the bulk at game-end in places that might be price bigger level values; planets are usually price wherever from 1 to 10 factors every.
The kinds of planet powers are available a few totally different flavors:
- Accumulate, commerce, or steal public or non-public assets that may very well be price factors if you happen to management the proper planets
- Rating large factors
- Transfer, swap, or relocate yours and/or your opponent’s astronauts
- Place or take away meteors on a planet; if a 3rd meteor accumulates, that planet and all astronauts on it are eradicated
By design, some planets are price extra factors than others, and the powers on some are higher than others. You can’t management the whole lot, so strategically timing when to go for almost all on which planet is vital. It’s a brief recreation that manages a pleasant gameplay arc.
Sounds fairly good to this point, proper? Just like different two-player space management video games like Misplaced Cities or Hanamikoji, Galactic Duel has easy guidelines, however many fascinating selections. A key distinction is that Galactic Duel is a recreation of good data. That is usually a constructive in my ebook, though it may possibly endanger replay worth with out variable set-up. Galactic Duel does include three distinctive units of 10 planet powers, every of which actually makes the sport play fairly otherwise. It nearly looks like three video games in a single field. That being stated, gamers will nonetheless ultimately develop a meta for every set of planet powers, so replay worth will ultimately endure.
There’s a built-in answer to replay worth, in fact, which is to easily combine the planet powers throughout the three units collectively. The rulebook doesn’t present steering on this, however it’s apparent that sure playing cards want to remain collectively. For instance, set C has one energy which says “place 1 satellite tv for pc on any planet” and one other energy that permits you to rating 1VP at game-end for every satellite tv for pc in play. Different powers, like “copy the power of one other non-Finish Recreation planet energy” are extra generic. So, growing replay worth is definitely doable, however it requires extra planning than a easy shuffle. Notably, there’s additionally one planet energy (out of 30 whole) for which I didn’t care. It concerned rolling a D20 and auto-winning if you happen to rolled a 19 or 20. In a recreation of in any other case good data, this simply didn’t appear to suit.
One other minor grievance is that whereas the astronauts, planets, and different elements of Galactic Duel are completely pleasing in look, the theme is totally pasted on. One may say the identical for Misplaced Cities and Hanamikoji, but when your theme is a mere inventive selection, I might attempt to differentiate from the opposite 1700+ space-themed video games on the market.
The best present weak spot of the Galactic Duel, nevertheless, is the clear second-player benefit in at the least two units of planet powers. The skinny margin of astronaut majority within the recreation implies that getting to position the final astronaut, in addition to probably shifting extra astronauts round on the final flip (because of a planet energy), permits the final participant to good their remaining positioning, and that’s fairly essential in an area-control recreation. I performed 4 video games with every set of planet powers (12 video games whole, half being first-player). The second-player gained in 11/12 video games. The ultimate level differential in these video games various between 0 (tie-breaker guidelines utilized) to 10 factors. There are two explicit planet powers in set C that allowed the primary participant to prevail precisely as soon as. In the end, the one truthful option to deal with the second-player benefit at current is to require 2 consecutive performs of the identical recreation setup, the place every participant will get an opportunity as second-player, after which sum the 2 scores. The sport solely takes about 10 minutes, so it’s not a horrible answer.
Remaining Ideas:
Galactic Duel is a brief space management recreation with good data, easy guidelines, and enjoyable selections all through. Every participant has barely sufficient astronauts to cowl the ten planets, so each placement issues, and gamers should rigorously steadiness when to concentrate on robust planet powers versus large factors, with the management of the galaxy continually shifting forwards and backwards. The three distinctive units of ten planet powers imply there are plenty of actually good concepts within the field.
Nonetheless, a extra randomized set-up is required to assist with replay worth, and the foundations have to be tweaked to mitigate the robust second-player benefit. Extra distinctive theming may additionally assist it stand out from the gang. With a few comparatively simple modifications, this recreation has the potential to go from good to nice.
Remaining Rating: 3 stars – An excellent, brief, elegant, 2-player design with enjoyable selections that’s near being an incredible recreation
Hits:
• Easy guidelines
• Attention-grabbing selections
• Tense back-and-forth participant interplay
Misses:
• Lacks replay worth
• Sturdy second-player benefit
• Overdone, pasted-on theme
