The Captain Is Dead

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 7 out of 10

   ajewo

   Thematic, cooperative "Star Trek" game which comes in a small box. The gameplay feels somehow similar to Pandemic (spend 4 actions to move or interact with different stations). The theme and the alerts add a lot of "safe the ship" tension. Pros: + Artwork (unique style) + Components (cool plastic standees) + Theme (many game elements make thematic sense) + There are a lot of fun characters that play quite differently + Tense alerts: with scanners, you can see what is coming and prepare for them + Anomalies: constant, passive negative that requires the players to think differently and how to overcome new issues. Alert deck is semi-sorted and gets more difficult over time. + Simple hand management: there are four types of cards: blue, yellow, green, and red. Each station on the ship requires a combination of these color to be spent activate it. + Plenty of stations that can be used by the players. Each station may be damaged, which will be more or less bad depending on the situation. E.g., transporter let you beam anywhere on the ship, scanners are needed to prepare for alerts, torpedo room is needed to destroy enemy ships, computer room is needed to draw new cards, communication room that lets player switch cards + Some special events like locked down doors + Aliens (NPCs) are very dumb and just block the stations. Players have to shoot them by simply spending 1 action for 1 kill unless you carry a more effective weapon. + Some equipment that help for different tasks (fight aliens, repair, teleport) + Scales well with all player counts (wide range) Neutrals: # Language dependent # Not that easy to teach: introduce all different stations available # Thinky, planning game: only luck of the draw, a lot of open information, but still some uncertainty, so that some decisions must be made by chance. # Rules are okay, could have been clearer # Expansion (Adrift) is 97% compatible with this game (was made for the old version of this game) Cons: - Potential alpha leader issues - Turns often feel predetermined: you do what your role wants you to do, e. g., engineer repairs, science officer does science, admiral does battle plans etc. (the adrift expansion mitigates this a bit because each role gets a new random ability) - The purple characters are harder to play and more situational than the other characters (often less useful) - Adjustable difficulty by increasing the game length which is not that great Similar games: * Lockdown is a sequel to The Captain Is Dead. Standalone cooperative Sci-Fi game that has some stealth elements. It has basically the same mechanics but adds more rules and complexity. It is also harder difficulty-wise) * Dangeous Planet is a sequel to The Captain Is Dead. Standalone cooperative Sci-Fi game that has some Tower Defense elements. * Pandemic (thinky cooperative game with hand management, different roles, movement, and area control) * Horrified (cooperative horror game with a Pandemic-like action point system and colored cards needed to fight unique monsters)

2. 9 out of 10

   braxler

   Cooperative game where everyone is trying to beat the game together with different difficulties if you find normal too easy or too hard.

3. 6 out of 10

   Born-of-Ashes

   Wanted to like for the Star Trek adjacent theme, art is cool. However, gameplay is same old solo style coop. I totally checked out during the game and it didn’t impact their performance at all.