SpaceCorp: Ventures

The shipping notification for Ventures was one of the most welcome emails of the previous month. And when the parcel landed just four hours before a four-day board-gaming marathon, of course it hit the table immediately. I had read up on the expansion beforehand and had high expectations—perhaps excessively high ones. After the first game, I cannot say I came away exactly thrilled, even though this is a very honest addition to an already complex game. And yes, I still think that at four players the base game could use a few more cards in every era, so that it comes closer to the three-player experience.

In practice, Ventures does not change SpaceCorp’s core flow with new discoveries, colonies, cards, genetics, revelations, or a map. Its major addition is the 16 asymmetric companies: you choose one, and the small changes to its abilities transform how you approach the same game. It is striking how differently the game can unfold because one company does something slightly differently from another—enough that they may even make the four-player game work better.

Interaction mainly comes through the way these company abilities and the plans they enable clash with one another. Some companies seem to move forward almost by merely breathing, while others set up more complicated but extremely powerful combos, even for three turns in a row. There are also cases where a company looks broken only under specific conditions, yet is easily cut off or blocked by another one—Space Nomads against Transport Inc. is a telling example. The problem is that, if not everyone knows the companies in play well, the balance can fly out the window.

I would really have liked some colour-coded grouping by difficulty, or a few recommended company sets, so that the first games would not be such a wild experiment. But that is not exactly GMT’s way. In the end, Ventures gives SpaceCorp meaningful replayability and new life, while its solo mode is, as the internet says, infinitely improved. It simply does not touch the areas I expected an expansion to address. Then again, Butterfield has not said he is finished with the game—and I will probably keep some room on the shelf.