ISS Vanguard (Gamefound: Commander’s Pledge)

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 10 out of 10

   cardiner

   Oh this is everything I hoped it would be. Currently 3 planets in and honestly I have nothing to complain about, so I can just give a rundown on how each of the respective departments feel like for me. Production: As always with AR - stellar, everything feels perfect and looks awesome, quality is there as well and UX have done great job here as well Theme: If you like Sci-fi, this wont disappoint, beautiful environments, awesome story and everything fits within it perfectly Aesthetic: Oh same as above Gameplay: Planetary Exploration - There definitely is gameplay loop here with dice and cards, but is pretty simple, but the way game starts limiting you with choices that makes it so satisfying, every decision matters, might be that you cant achieve everything on planet so you have to choose. And each role plays good within what they be focusing on as well. Ship Book - This is considered as maintenance part, but it plays crucial role in game itself, as this is how you get your upgrades, this is how you choose to where to go next, this is how you get new people on board, this is how you progress with ship and landers and facilities, originally I though this will be same as slumbers in Etherfields, but i was wrong, I enjoyed this part as much as planetary exploration if not even more. Story: Again, if you like game like Mass Effect or No mans sky, films like Interstellar, Star Trek, Aliens, you will love this to the bone. Mechanics: There is minimal mechanics per say, main gameplay loop and mechanic is manage you dice which you roll and spend for necessary actions, that is it, you have card deck that can be designed in a way to mitigates dice rolls and modify them, the deck is useful for other things as well, but main purpose is to optimise you success with rolling dice. Everything else is make good choices when presented and figure out which facilities to activate in Ship Book, but that is again just making a relevant choice to you Honestly, currently I am completely hooked, apart from maybe each planetary exploration feeling quite long with 3 players, there is nothing I dont like here, Originally I though that I would not enjoy the Ship Book part, but I love that, and maybe mechanically it would feel a bit too dry or with not enough meat on the bone, but it is actually quite okey and it does not get in a way of exploration and story which this game is all about Highly recommend, also Personal Files are awesome as well, play with them if available to you, adds another objective for each character and a bit of personal story for your crew-members !

2. 4 out of 10

   amanal_lake

   For something that was supposed to be a top rate design there are some niggles in the choices made. The dark colours of the Deluxe Dice make them hard to read the colours in poor light. The ship book insert for Awaiting.... could have had holes so it would store with the ship book. The secret Envelope had a poor seal. The divider cards don't quite go into the Deluxe Section Boxes. The App needs separate volume sliders for the music and VO. In addition customer support is non-responsive on the dice issue. They have come back and said that the dice are rubbish and that they knew so before they sold them, yet still want me to pay to replace them. But the game itself is so thematic, so much fun and the story so incredible I can't give it a very high score because some of some of the poor components.

3. 10 out of 10

   AndyLiu

   Fantastic, my favorite part of it is the Personal File Expansion. This extended narrative even has a literary quality to it. The different approaches and strokes used to bring so many characters to life are admirable!