Page 11 - spielbox 03/21 - English

the technology cards – the core of the game – have martial names such as ”Plasma Can­
non“ or ”Human Experiments,“ they don‘t show any graphics, but are just plain white. In terms of sex appeal, this is
closer to Excel than to En­ terprise. But the further the game proceeds, the more obvious it gets that this de­ sign is absolutely necessary.
Depending on the course of the game, more than a dozen new cards will be ac­ tivated on the main board,
so that, over time, it will turn into a kind of teeming picture. So the plainness of
the graphic design helps players to keep track.
During the game, you act on two fronts: On the main board, you activate better actions; on the ex­
ploration board, you struggle for majori­ ties on the planets. In the first games, the technology board is highly motivating, since you are eagerly guessing which cool actions will be activated by cards such as ”Android Armada“ or ”Galactic Empire.“
Also in terms of content, Beyond the Sun is plainer than expected. Truly spec­ tacular actions don‘t come into play at all, but only more efficient variants of the standard actions: Move your spaceships additional spaces. Colonize a planet at a lower cost. Build stronger spaceships. On the technology board, you need surgical precision – if, in a scattergun way, you re­ search everything that‘s available, you‘ll finally just get umpteen different ways of
doing always the same.
The explora­
tions provide for
some more ac­
tion. The plan­
ets improve
your material
supply substantially
and are lucrative points sources. But
the number of planet cards is so low that there is always some squabble coming up for majorities. This makes the game pleas­ antly interactive, but not too destructive. Once you conquer a planet, you take your own spaceships off the board, thus making room for the competition. And although everybody has only one action marker, there will be more of a scramble on the technology board than you think, since the few really inexpensive central actions are always sought after.
On an emotional level, Beyond the Sun is, nevertheless, relatively tame. Great ”aha“ moments and spectacular actions don‘t happen. You are motivated to build up a good engine, colonize plan­ ets as soon as possible, and achieve ob­ jectives; but in terms of the mechanisms, everything seems a bit interchangeable. All the planets and technologies are somehow similar, so that, in most cases, it is of minor importance which new cards you will draw. What‘s really appealing, however, is the juggling with the limited action cubes; as in Through the Ages, this makes you tear your hair out time and again, since you are always lacking some resources somewhere.
So, in the final analysis, is Beyond the Sun the better, leaner Eclipse? It clear­ ly isn‘t. But it is not worse either – it‘s
just different. Regarding the theme and a few mechanisms, they have a certain similarity; but other than that, they are two com­ pletely different games: Eclipse is an epic three­hour arms race for large player groups that comes up with spectacular battles where the neutron bomb does exactly what you
expect.
In contrast, Beyond the Sun is a
well­balanced and relatively placid and abstract eurogame, a race for the optimal use of resources that experienced players get through in about 70 minutes and that works perfectly with any number of par­ ticipants. In the end, I can say that I will put Beyond the Sun on the table consid­ erably more often, since it provides good entertainment, without the necessity of
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Title: Designer: Illustration: Publisher:
Players: Age: Duration: Price:
Reviewer
Gerald Rüscher
Alan How
An amazing “heroic” drawing game for 2 to 4 Dungeon Masters featuring art by John Kovalic!
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taking half a day off for it.
(sbw)
Beyond the Sun Dennis K. Chan Franz Vohwinkel Rio Grande Games, Strohmann Games 2 –4
about 12+ years
about 60 – 120 minutes about 60 Euros
Playing appeal
7
9
spielbox 9