Stats:
No. of players: 1-5
Amount of time to play: 30 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 10 min

Space Alert Rules Description:

Space Alert has you playing as a crew member of a ship that needs ten minutes to scan a sector of the galaxy. After the scan is completed the ship automatically hyper jumps you safely back to base. It is a simple mission. What could go wrong in ten minutes?

Space Alert is a cooperative game that is played in real time. You have 12 turns during which you must survive invading spaceships, internal threats or ship malfunctions. The 12 turns take place over ten minutes. For those ten minutes you listen to a soundtrack. The audio will tell you when and where the threats come from.

You may take one action per turn. You give your crew member actions by playing cards. Each card has two functions one presses a button (A,B,or C) while the other moves you around the ship. The ship has six locations and based on where you are the buttons do different things.

From fighting intruders with battlebots to firing the ship’s guns at incoming threats it all can be done with the press of a button. Buttons also help you keep shields and guns energized and ready to use.

You just need to be in the right place on the ship and make sure you are pressing the right button. I know that sounds simple but it all takes a good bit of coordination. Coordination that is made harder with the pressure of the ticking clock.

A scenario is split into three phases. In each phase you get five cards and once a phase is over (as announced by the soundtrack) you can no longer touch the cards you played in the previous phase. You do get to add the cards you pick up for the next phase to the ones in your hand that you didn’t use in the previous phase.

You may also have the opportunity to give a card to another crew member or draw a new one from the deck. Again the soundtrack tells you everything you need to know.

After the third phase of the mission is over you and your fellow crew members get to see what happened one card at a time. If your ship takes too much damage it and you are destroyed. If your ship survives you tally your score and celebrate the victory.

A Quick Review of Space Alert:

Space Alert is a truly unique game. I like co-op games but my one complaint about them is I could play them myself as the best move is usually fairly evident. Enter Space Alert! The real time element of this game takes team planning and playing to another level. You can’t just play everything out by yourself. You need to coordinate with the other crew members and you need to do it quick.

Space Alert is fairly complex and getting new players involved takes a bit of time. That said the tutorial CD does a great job of adding layers to the game so I new player won’t be too overwhelmed too quickly.

The first night we played this was hilarious. We laughed at all the stupid mistakes we made and then sat back to see if we survived or not. Sometimes our errors came with dire consequences but other times it was funny to see how poorly we played yet still managed to survive.

This leads me to the biggest negative of this game replayability. Even though the threats and tracks are random after a several plays the game isn’t quite so chaotic. Sure you’ll still mess up but it will happen less. I am not sure if it is familiarity with the cards or timing of things but the game got a bit stale for us.

The one night four of us played and even used the harder threats but there were a few turns in a row where crew members were just sitting around. I have heard there are programs that help add more scenarios to the game. And there is even an expansion. So maybe these will remove the staleness from the game.

It is hard to say I liked this game less as I got better at it, but it is true. One of the best things in this game is seeing a misstep and realizing it might kill you all. Then waiting to see if it does. Knowing you’ve contained all the threats is good but less exciting.

I rented this game from BoardGameExchange and loved the experience. I am not sure if I will buy it but I recommend everyone try it once. It truly is a unique board gaming experience that is fun, team-building, and tense.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 4 out of 6
Luck 3 out of 6
Player Interaction 6 out of 6
Replay Value 2 out of 6
Complexity 5 out of 6
Fun 5 out of 6
Overall 5 out of 6