Stats:
No. of players: 1-7
Amount of time to play: 90 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5 min

The Captain is Dead is a sci-fi themed cooperative board game. Aliens have attacked your ship, the captain has been killed, and now you need to fix the jump drive to avoid imminent death.

The Captain is Dead Rules Description:

You start The Captain is Dead by getting a role and some skill cards. Skill cards are used to do things on the ship, like fix things, fire torpedoes, or research upgrades. Your role determines the play order, gives you a special ability, a few starting skills and the number of actions you get on your turn.

You win by fixing the jump drive. But you lose if your shields drop to 0%, too many aliens are on the ship or getting to the end of the alert deck.

On your turn you can take an action to kill an alien in your space, move up to two spaces, give or take a skill card from another player on your space, or use the action of your current space. Some systems on the ship make these actions easier or more economical. The teleporter lets you move anywhere on the ship for an action, the comm system lets you give or take cards with players in other rooms.

Each round you take your actions and then resolve an alert card. Alert cards disable systems, damage your shields, add aliens to the board and may even injure players. Injured players have a limited set of actions they can take need to be healed in the infirmary.

Aliens do not attack you, but in order to use a space they occupy you must first eliminate all the aliens. Some of the alert cards represent alien ships that will hover outside your ship and increase damage done to your shields.

There are four types of skill cards; tactical, science, engineering, and command. Tactical cards are used for shooting the torpedoes at alien ships and repairing the shields and other systems. Science cards are used to eliminate anomalies and research upgrades for your ship. Engineering skill cards fix the jump drive or teleporter. Command cards get you battle plans that can help the crew in various ways or they may be used to override the alert card.

Each role has a skill card hand limit and you can get more from the CPU core. You may take from three face-up cards or the top of the deck.

Fix the jump drive and you survive to fight another day. But if the shields are blown off the ship, you’re overrun by boarding alien, or you get through all the alerts, you meet the same fate as the captain.

Quick Review of The Captain is Dead:

The Captain is Dead is a balancing act. You will need to fix systems on the ship to stay efficient and alive, but at the same time must repair the jump drive. How easy that tightrope is to walk depends on your team’s roles and your luck.

The components for this game are excellent. The art and design are very stylized and looks fantastic. The plastic standees might annoy some people but I think thy go right along with the game’s style. The rule book is pretty good. Everything is in there and it is good at getting you playing the game quickly. But it is not the most organized when you want to look up a specific rule.

The Captain is Dead doesn’t introduce anything particularly unique to the cooperative board game genre. But the theme is cool and it looks great. I like that up to seven can play but above four is a bit too much.

This game can be swingy based on the number of players and the roles you have. Beginning players might want to choose their roles to avoid frustration. And veterans might enjoy the challenge of dealing out random roles. There are 18 different roles which add a lot of replay value to the game.

If you like sci-fi themed games and are looking to add a cooperative board game to your collection, pick The Captain is Dead up.

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