Gaia Project

We put it on the table before taking it online, partly because some games deserve to be seen in three dimensions before they become another arrangement of windows on a screen. Gaia Project does make a handsome spread: planets, pieces and all that carefully managed space. None of us had much affection for Terra Mystica, not because we disliked it outright, but because its uneven factions had left a slightly sour aftertaste.

With the recommended basic setup, this game ran smoothly. The rounds ask you to fit your plans into a map that offers no spare room, build towards your objectives, and judge where the next commitment is worth making. It is Terra Mystica’s familiar exercise for the brain, with the rougher edges attended to.

Players rub against one another through that shared lack of space, and through the incentives set by final scoring. The tile for most satellites is the unfortunate exception: it encourages some rather silly federation builds instead of better decisions, and the design briefly loses its otherwise neat composure.

We did enjoy the mental burn, and our Lost Ark habit meant the AI cubes were promptly renamed mokoko; it was the only genuinely memorable anecdote the game supplied. Gaia Project is precisely the improved Terra Mystica I expected: not great, not terrible, and a very dry but honest workout for the mind.