Master of the Galaxy

Master of the Galaxy is the sort of game that deserves a boxing-ring introduction: in one corner, an interesting idea; in the other, the rulebook, prepared to have a go at you. It is not badly written, and its structure looks professional enough, but the translation has left behind small, stubborn ambiguities. Even details such as missing plurals where they matter can send you back through a passage when you ought to be playing. Rulebook grade: a narrow pass.

At its centre is reverse bag building. You do not simply empty a bag of cubes and refill it by routine; you have to make sure cubes find their way back into it yourself. That reversal gives decisions some weight, because drawing what helps right now is not enough. You must also consider what will still be available later.

Mercifully, the game does not let you sit in a corner playing multiplayer solitaire. To win, you have to throw punches. Players are pushed into conflict, which is exactly the right instinct for a game about galactic domination. But rules ambiguities keep interrupting those clashes for arbitration, while choices such as the size of the score tracker add needless fiddliness. At that point, the bag is not the problem.

That is a shame, because there is a game of real interest beneath the hassle, with ideas that have plainly received thought. It needs a revised edition to sort out the rulebook and smooth over the clumsy production details. As it stands, it is a low six and hardly worth recommending.