Unfathomable

Thanks to the kindness of a certain influencer, I finally got the new “Galactica with tentacles” to the table—a game I probably would never have tried under normal circumstances, since I am not a fan of the original. The production is very nice, though: thankfully, it does not seem to have fallen victim to the general cheapness that has gripped FFG lately. There is lots of cardboard, lots of bits, and in general it has that satisfying, full-box feeling of a game that wants to spread all over the table.

At its core, the game remains almost entirely Galactica, only it feels a little more streamlined. Players are trying to keep the group alive while cultists hidden among them want to sabotage it. The main change is that the old jump track has been split into a travel track and a ritual track, so the humans now have two fronts to watch instead of one.

That change struck me as making life considerably harder for the humans, especially when the cultists take consecutive turns and can keep applying pressure without a break. In theory, the balance comes from the items, which give players more options and more things to do on their turns. In practice, though, the real meat is still the suspicion: once it became clear who the “toaster”—or rather, tentacle person—was, the interest and the fun dropped noticeably. Thankfully, the cultists wiped us out quickly and we were put out of our misery.

In the end, it is better than I expected, but deep down it is still Galactica. I would not buy it myself, but anyone looking for a Galactica-like game can pick it up without fear or hesitation.