I went with standees on this one. Done with plastic dolls when they're not necessary. This was a good even-handed overview, and lines up with what I expected. I look forward to playing this one!
Excellent. I think people who are trying to decide on whether to "buy" the game or not should watch this. Most of the "popular" reviews are by people with a full RUclips recording setup and they got the game FREE from Awaken Realms so they will tend to mostly tell you glowing things about the game. It is nice to watch reviews from just regular backers who paid for their game and want to share their thoughts with us ... just like Ian did with this video. Actually, Ian... you just encouraged me to maybe try to do a video or two in addition to all the written articles I write at My ISS Vanguard. If I can enjoy your video with just a simple beige background, maybe I can do that too!
Thanks @Len. I'm a big fan of balance in all things, reviews being no different. Don't get me wrong, I love the game; but I didn't just want to come out and say "game good, should buy it"
Do you have any thoughts on how it compares to Tainted Grail or Etherfields. Those AR games did not really click for me but I keep coming back to this one based on theme. I think TG and EF had too many insta-fail moments to be enjoyable.
Thanks for the review. Given your thoughts on the crew, and crew management overall, what are you thoughts on the value of the Personnel Files? It seems like it could be not worth it given the limits on promoting crew members.
I love the personnel files, I just don't think that they see a lot of play. A lot of work went into them, and you can only achieve the crew members personal mission when they are rank 2 and they go out onto a planetary exploration which I feel is a pretty narrow window.
Yeah, I'm loving the personnel files as well. Agree that you're not going to see much of them but I think it's a must have add on. You may get to see more of them of course once we receive the wave 2 campaign.
Playing solo you manage so many more crew, maybe if you were just managing the one section you’d pick and choose your crew a bit more based on their backstories. I tend not to get too attached to the red shirts when I’m managing 36 crew members though.
Thanks for your thoughts on the game. Looking forward to eventually receiving mine here in the US. Any recommendations on where I should move to in Australia??? 😂 Glad for the heads up on some things to consider / be aware of. Will be interested to experience the ship phase and crew management as I'm now a little concerned that it will be far easier or less involved than I had anticipated. I was hoping for some really tough decision trade-offs for that part of the game.
The ship phase used to be a lot more involved, AR took the feedback and changed it more into a narrative shaping this which was the right thing to do, but without time pressure on the campaign, even if you didn't have the extra command tokens you could just do more planetary explorations and subsequently get more ship phases since you're not on a turn timer or anything (at this stage of the game anyway)
How are you finding playing 4 handed? I'm playing 2 handed solo and just finished my 3rd planetary phase after about 10 hours. Wondering if it will be slower playing 4 handed
The game is definitely slower four handed (though quicker than it would be for four players) because a lot of your objectives require a good deal of movement around the planet board. It's offset by your sections being a lot more well rounded, I don't feel like there's scenarios that you just can't handle which would be the case with two sections
@@ianhancock7112 yeah. I may have to try 4 handed after losing my first crew member last night. Although it will depend on how the ship round goes as I think I need some upgrades to the lander as well
@@odgregg Make sure you’re spending the energy (or crew) to scan the planet you’re about to land on. The landing process can be rough, and ensuring you have the right structural mods on your lander can make a massive difference
@@ianhancock7112 yeah. I had fully scanned this planet. Used the best mod I had and still got injured on way down. I probably should have sacrificed supplies instead. One thing I did find a bit confusing the first ship phase were the situations, which caused me to lose a command token on the 2nd ship phase which didn't help
@@TheMarvin676 well it is definitely quiet compared to other videos and I had to turn my music all the way down just so I could turn your volume all the way up.
True, but Ian does not have a professional RUclips recording studio, so I was happy just bumping up the volume to the max. I appreciate his personal look at the game versus the reviews by professional reviewers who got a FREE copy of the game from Awaken Realms (so they naturally will tend to emphasize the best aspects of the game, even if doing so unintentionally) Good Job Ian
@@LenLindsay nobody is arguing one way or the other. I'm just reporting that the volume is way too low. Don't need professional equipment for that. Just an FYI.
Thank you for your comment, very detailed! 😁
Just got my copy and really enjoyed your video. Lots of good points to consider
Thank you for sharing your thoughts about this game.
I went with standees on this one. Done with plastic dolls when they're not necessary. This was a good even-handed overview, and lines up with what I expected. I look forward to playing this one!
Thanks for the honest review!
Excellent. I think people who are trying to decide on whether to "buy" the game or not should watch this. Most of the "popular" reviews are by people with a full RUclips recording setup and they got the game FREE from Awaken Realms so they will tend to mostly tell you glowing things about the game. It is nice to watch reviews from just regular backers who paid for their game and want to share their thoughts with us ... just like Ian did with this video. Actually, Ian... you just encouraged me to maybe try to do a video or two in addition to all the written articles I write at My ISS Vanguard. If I can enjoy your video with just a simple beige background, maybe I can do that too!
Thanks @Len. I'm a big fan of balance in all things, reviews being no different. Don't get me wrong, I love the game; but I didn't just want to come out and say "game good, should buy it"
thanks for this, been looking for a mass effecty type of coop space exploration. I just late pedged.
Do you have any thoughts on how it compares to Tainted Grail or Etherfields. Those AR games did not really click for me but I keep coming back to this one based on theme. I think TG and EF had too many insta-fail moments to be enjoyable.
Thanks for the review. Given your thoughts on the crew, and crew management overall, what are you thoughts on the value of the Personnel Files? It seems like it could be not worth it given the limits on promoting crew members.
I love the personnel files, I just don't think that they see a lot of play. A lot of work went into them, and you can only achieve the crew members personal mission when they are rank 2 and they go out onto a planetary exploration which I feel is a pretty narrow window.
@@ianhancock7112 thinking out loud here, but I wonder what kind of house rule could fix that?
Yeah, I'm loving the personnel files as well. Agree that you're not going to see much of them but I think it's a must have add on. You may get to see more of them of course once we receive the wave 2 campaign.
Playing solo you manage so many more crew, maybe if you were just managing the one section you’d pick and choose your crew a bit more based on their backstories. I tend not to get too attached to the red shirts when I’m managing 36 crew members though.
Thanks for your thoughts on the game. Looking forward to eventually receiving mine here in the US. Any recommendations on where I should move to in Australia??? 😂 Glad for the heads up on some things to consider / be aware of. Will be interested to experience the ship phase and crew management as I'm now a little concerned that it will be far easier or less involved than I had anticipated. I was hoping for some really tough decision trade-offs for that part of the game.
The ship phase used to be a lot more involved, AR took the feedback and changed it more into a narrative shaping this which was the right thing to do, but without time pressure on the campaign, even if you didn't have the extra command tokens you could just do more planetary explorations and subsequently get more ship phases since you're not on a turn timer or anything (at this stage of the game anyway)
How are you finding playing 4 handed? I'm playing 2 handed solo and just finished my 3rd planetary phase after about 10 hours. Wondering if it will be slower playing 4 handed
The game is definitely slower four handed (though quicker than it would be for four players) because a lot of your objectives require a good deal of movement around the planet board. It's offset by your sections being a lot more well rounded, I don't feel like there's scenarios that you just can't handle which would be the case with two sections
@@ianhancock7112 yeah. I may have to try 4 handed after losing my first crew member last night. Although it will depend on how the ship round goes as I think I need some upgrades to the lander as well
@@odgregg Make sure you’re spending the energy (or crew) to scan the planet you’re about to land on. The landing process can be rough, and ensuring you have the right structural mods on your lander can make a massive difference
@@ianhancock7112 yeah. I had fully scanned this planet. Used the best mod I had and still got injured on way down. I probably should have sacrificed supplies instead. One thing I did find a bit confusing the first ship phase were the situations, which caused me to lose a command token on the 2nd ship phase which didn't help
The volume is way too low for this video
Odd, I can hear totally fine.
@@TheMarvin676 well it is definitely quiet compared to other videos and I had to turn my music all the way down just so I could turn your volume all the way up.
Way too low indeed. I am listening to this on my way to work, so not the most silent of backgrounds, and I had to turn on subtitles.
True, but Ian does not have a professional RUclips recording studio, so I was happy just bumping up the volume to the max. I appreciate his personal look at the game versus the reviews by professional reviewers who got a FREE copy of the game from Awaken Realms (so they naturally will tend to emphasize the best aspects of the game, even if doing so unintentionally) Good Job Ian
@@LenLindsay nobody is arguing one way or the other. I'm just reporting that the volume is way too low. Don't need professional equipment for that. Just an FYI.