Space Alert, Coming from Chvatil and CGE
Earlier in 2008, Czech Games Edition had promised to announce a “very innovative” game for release at Spiel 08. Now’s your chance to judge whether that description is accurate.
Space Alert is a new team survival game by Vlaada Chvatil, designer of Through the Ages and Galaxy Trucker. As you might guess from the “team survival” phrase, Space Alert is a cooperative game in which players have to complete a certain mission: travel by hyperspace jump to a particular galactic sector, scan that sector for whatever activities might happen there, then jump back to the docking bay, ideally with limbs and spaceship intact.
The hyperspace jump is automatic; ten minutes after you arrive, the ship’s computer will jump you home, assuming you’re still in one piece – but that, of course, is where the challenge comes in. The ten minute timer takes place on a CD soundtrack – sixteen different soundtracks are available on the two CDs within the game – and during that time the central computer will announce when you take action cards, when you can exchange cards with others, when you can’t speak (due to white noise), how much time remains, and (no surprise here) when and where your ship is attacked by alien hostiles.
Says CGE’s Petr Murmak, “Players need to distribute tasks among each other (who will fire weapons, who can handle energy manipulation, who will take care of intruders), they need to coordinate their actions (the player handling energy has to know when others need it to refill shields or shoot weapons), to synchronize fire (because of enemy shields, it is very effective to shoot them from more weapons at one time), etc. Because of the multi-task style of the problem, time limit, and card limitations, it is not possible for one player to control the entire game, which is the usual problem of cooperative games; the best (or loudest) player tells the others what to do. In this game, a strong captain who can organize his crew’s tasks is a benefit, but the other players have to be active and reliable, too.”
Murmak says that preorders for Space Alert and the
Posted by W. Eric Martin on Sep 12, 2008 at 10:30 AM in Game News, Boardgame News / 4237
Comments:
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This sounds very interesting. Hopefully one can hear what’s on the CD while everyone is talking. I will most likely add this to collection just to give it a try. The name is pretty bad though… “Space Alert”? Posted by Bobby Doran on Sep 12, 2008 at 10:04 AM | #
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This is my dream game. Can anyone bring me back one from Essen? Please. Posted by Frank Branham on Sep 12, 2008 at 10:53 AM | #
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Doesn’t Chvatil EVER design anything mundane? You know a nice little area majority or set collecting game? Remarkable. Posted by Larry Levy on Sep 12, 2008 at 11:16 AM | #
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I see a game night with Galaxy Trucker to get you there, Space Alert to clear the place out, and then Space Dealer (with CD) to colonize the cleared out place. Sounds a bit like real-time Space Hulk. Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Sep 12, 2008 at 11:35 AM | #
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I,too, am looking at this game as having a very high “must play” factor for me. I like cooperative games, I like “different” games, and this seems to qualify all around. Putting in mechanisms to try and hinder “one player plays for everyone” issues is great. I will be hoping it gets picked up over here in the US at some point… Posted by Matt J. Carlson on Sep 12, 2008 at 11:49 AM | #
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What languages? I’m definitely on the list for this one. Posted by Jonathan Greisz on Sep 12, 2008 at 02:55 PM | #
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What Frank said. You know, the whole “dream game” thing. And “bring me back one from Essen.” And the “please,” too. Posted by Jon Theys on Sep 12, 2008 at 03:41 PM | #
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It would be awesome if it included foam blasters, ala Cash n’ Guns. Posted by Jonathan Greisz on Sep 12, 2008 at 03:50 PM | #
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I was ready to order after reading the headline… Posted by Rob Cannon on Sep 12, 2008 at 04:36 PM | #
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Wow. What’s refreshing about Chvatil is how he jumps from one game style / genre to another without seemingly missing a beat. Graenaland, Prophecy, Through the Ages, Galaxy Trucker and Space Alert have, well, absolutely nothing in common with each other except awesomeness (well, I dunno if Space Alert is awesome but it certainly has the right pedigree!) pk Posted by Patrick Korner on Sep 12, 2008 at 10:09 PM | #
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Actually...Graenaland is the odd one out. The others have quite a few similarities. Prophecy and Through the Ages are much closer than people realize. Prophecy just spreads out card acquistion over several turns, and adds a die roll to the mix. Posted by Frank Branham on Sep 12, 2008 at 10:43 PM | #
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Space Dealer kinda crashed and burned with my gaming group, but I need to play this even if I have to drag them kicking and screaming to the table. I’ll just tell them it was by the same guy who did Galaxy Trucker (which they liked) and forget to mention that other game. Posted by Matt Fullenwider on Sep 13, 2008 at 01:33 AM | #
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Props for it being Co-op. Time constraint w/a soundtrack is interesting. Agree about the name being a weak selling point- i.e. uninteresting. Maybe something was lost in the translation from Czech? Posted by Steve Gerke on Sep 13, 2008 at 03:01 AM | #
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Seems awesome. The name seems fine to me.
It seems like it would be cool to have varying length games/soundtracks.
Posted by Lee Fisher on Sep 13, 2008 at 08:07 AM | #
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I’ll definitely give this a try. Is anyone else getting Battlestar Galactica vibes from this? Minus the Cylons of course. Posted by John DeMorris on Sep 14, 2008 at 11:31 AM | #
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Speaking of CGE, isn’t we supposed to see a Galaxy Trucker card yesterday? Posted by Nocad Lee on Sep 14, 2008 at 01:52 PM | #
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I’ve been wondering for a while what the Space Dealer formula (real-time strategy-like ‘euro’ gaming) was going to be evolving into. Well, after ~2yrs, here it is. Excellent. Looks very interesting. Posted by Robert Ramirez on Sep 15, 2008 at 03:27 PM | #
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The name is pretty average, but the cover art is kickin’. Sag. Posted by Sagrilarus on Sep 17, 2008 at 09:01 AM | #
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