Tabletop
Choosing the Right Heavy Sci-Fi Board Game
The heavy Euro market is completely saturated with space exploration themes, but a shared sci-fi setting does not mean a shared playstyle. We break down four massive space games by their core mechanics so you can match the right footprint to your group's cognitive preferences.
As fun as it is to play any number of medieval-themed board games (many of them about agriculture, for some reason), I’m a science fiction nerd at heart, and there’s something thrilling about science fiction board games. For example, I honestly enjoy the dungeon crawling in Clank!, but I really enjoy Clank! In Space for reasons that go beyond the actual mechanics of the game. As important as the actual game is, theme can still play a big role in things. And this article goes over some of the big science fiction games in our collection sorted by increasing levels of rules complexity (BGG Weight).
It’s weird to think of Terraforming Mars as our baseline here, but this 10-year-old game really did make a splash when it first came out. This depiction of a near-future where corporations are trying to terraform Mars through the joys of engine-building. This game also popularized the whole massive deck of unique cards principle that we’ve seen implemented in subsequent games like Ark Nova and Earth, to name a few.
That said, the game can feel largely like group solitaire as everyone is working on their own engines instead of trying to deal with others. There are very few cards that allow for different player interaction, and all of them also include limited penalties that dissuade their use. Plus, in a game like this, trying to pull other players down deliberately will not only make you feel icky, but it may also waste resources that could have been invested in advancing your agenda by a greater degree.
This game is great for groups that really enjoy the dopamine rush once their engine really takes off. It’ll take a few turns for players to get set up, but once things start humming, they can really sing. Plus, you get the benefit of seeing the Mars board slowly fill up with tiles that represent forests taking hold and oceans forming across the planet’s surface. The base game’s production value also isn’t the best, especially when compared to the other games on this list.
A more recent release, SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is a brilliant evolution of games of the genre by providing so many different options to consider. The multi-use cards are at the center of this game experience, and they provide so many options for creating an efficient path to victory. Plus, the whole spinning solar system board really makes for a great table presence.
This game’s main avenue for competition is more of a race as players try to maximize each of their moves and weigh the sequence of their actions very carefully. There are a lot of rewards in the game for being the first to do many actions, and players will find themselves aiming for such rewards in favor of setting up longer plans.
This is as pure a Euro puzzle as it gets, and it caters to players who love operating in this tight decision space. You may not be able to do a heck of a lot of things over the course of the game, but this game will make players feel like each of their actions had a lot of weight.
This is another newer game, and Galactic Cruise is the third in this list based on the weight of its rules and mechanics because the team behind it aimed to create a Vital Lacerda game. What we ended up with is a somewhat whimsical theme of cruise ships in space powered by some very novel game mechanics. It’s worker placement game with a variable board that players manage through building networks that allow them more action choices over time. Plus, you get to build rocket ships.
The game still has more of a solitaire feel, with some positive interactions, as you can bump players out of occupied worker spots (allowing that player to collect a bit of income) or you can pay other players to use their network to expand your action choices. It’s a more positive sense of interaction that fits with the theme of the game.
And that’s the kind of group that will enjoy this game - those who enjoy a heavy Euro experience with limited but more positive avenues of interaction. You’re still jockeying for action spaces and racing to secure cruise routes first, but that’s the extent of your confrontations at the table.
I guess Galactic Cruise gave things away, as a Vital Lacerda had to be at the end of this list given it has a BoardGameGeek complexity weight that’s well over 4.5. On Mars is a brilliant puzzle where the worker placement mechanic is bound by where you are - in orbit or on the surface of Mars. And the way the action spaces are divided between these two areas is quite brilliant, thus forcing players to carefully consider what actions they can take before hopping on the shuttle.
This is a very crunchy game and player interaction sort of goes out the window as you’ll more likely see your fellow players hunched over their personal boards as everyone tries to figure out what to do next. It’s a great puzzle, don’t get me wrong. But Lacerda games just feel different.
This is a game for the hardcore veteran gamer. Even among Lacerda Games, On Mars is one of the trickier ones. It takes a fair amount of time to teach and even more time to play, and players won’t feel great after their first game. Things really lock in after repeated plays, and then it’ll be truly rewarding.
Sharing a science fiction theme doesn't mean these boxes belong on the same table. Whether your group wants the solitary dopamine hit of a humming engine or the punishing reality of orbital logistics, matching the mechanics to your players' mental bandwidth is what actually gets these massive games off the shelf.
