I agree 100% that it is a reasonable fun family game. But I think it would benefit greatly from a optional rule set that more closely matched the feel of the movie.
“In space no one can hear you die. Because you don’t.” lol I agree the Final Missions might not scale well. But there is a thematic variety. The designer Scott Rogers posted his ‘Driector’s Cut’ optional rules on BGG that alter the set-up and game mechanics a bit and is more difficult. A lot of BGG users have created variants that attempt to introduce character deaths into the game and/or adustments that makes sense. The designer is adamant though that death was not a design directive lol If you play the game once in a while the RAW work fine. The one adustment that’s reasonable is to not have Jones (or Ash) cause the game to end on the Morale tracker, it's anti-climactic. I’ve played with various variants but not enough to decide which ones I like yet. Some games I complete 4 faceup objectives then another 4 revealed faceup without a Final mission. I play solo 3 characters (more than that is too difficult for me to concentrate). Ripley with Parker & Brett’s abilities of all people work well together imho. The illustrations and minis look good.
One thing I would add is how the game amps up the tension the longer the game gets by the cards. The quiet cards mostly move the alien one space and the damage to morale is lower, but once played they are done. They never get reshuffled in. The Alien cards move the alien more and cause bigger damage and the Order cards(Ash cards) each have a card that reshuffles those cards into the deck. So as the game moves on the game becomes more difficult. This is also how it makes the game more difficult with more players, because you burn through the quit cards faster.
Thanks for your review. My family loves this game for its simplicity and straightforwardness. It does tell you in the rules which missions to take out on the smaller player count 😀
I just think of the morale tracker as a joint health tracker. There were several times in the movie where they were attacked as a group and had to run away so it kinda makes sense.
Re-theme it to be about how the Scooby Doo gang go to space, and the alien is really Ash in a rubber costume, and suddenly the mechanics fit the theme.
Just a thought... as well as a 'family' audience, they may also be targeting people who are ostensibly non-gamers, hence wanting it to be thematic with lighter rules in a similar way to the recent Jaws game.
i have an idea, what about nxt time u make more spaces somehow i the hallways or corridors for the players to move essentially slowing them down while the alien moves normally there and ash has one fewer step than the players, lets say if u divided those long corridors into three spaces f .ex...
i think the moral tracker should work as a "shield" slowly getting weaker and depleted and instead of automatically ending the game the players either gets automatically killed separately or individually NEXT time the alien lands on them OR the player has to roll a dice and only survives on a six or on a five and six 😬🙊🙀👽🐈👻
No one dies? I can understand that avoiding player elimination is a must in contemporary boardgame design, but it's quite out of tune in this setting...
In the movies when someone meets the Alien it usually ends bad for the human as it should. I wish the game was the. Running away is such a lame mechanic and totally unreal. Try that meeting a bear or such in the wild, they wont just stand there LOL
An easy rule to implement would be that when the morale would drop to 0, instead of doing this, kill off the affected character(s). This would be towards the end of the game anyway, so those players would not have to be out of the game too long.
