Race for the Galaxy is a futuristic card game in which 2-4 players try to settle the galaxy's planets. The most interesting thing about the game is how the phases of the game work. During each turn, players choose from five different phases that they want to happen: Explore, Develop, Settle, Produce and Consume. Then, all players do those phases and whoever picked each phase gets to do that phase at a bonus. As for phases that no one picked, those don't happen that particular round. So in terms of turn structure, Race for the Galaxy has a very different turn structure.

But of course a cool mechanic alone does not make a good game and Race for the Galaxy is a deck of slightly more than 110 cards for $30. Let's have a look at how the game works, how it plays, and the type of player to whom it would appeal.

Just like you can't talk about Race without talking about the mechanics, you also can't talk about it without discussing the iconography. The game has a decently steep learning curve since each card's functions have been summarized into icons. They're absolutely essential since players will have enough cards in front of them that they need to be able to look at the cards and know what they do at a glance. New players, however, will have to pick up the cards over time. It takes a game or two to start to really get a handle on the cards, but luckily there are reference sheets that cover a lot of the initial questions.

A great thing about the game is that it has a huge amount of decisions. Developments are worlds paid for by discarding cards from your hand. So you might have a seven-card hand with a card that you could play by discarding everything this turn. Or instead, you could opt try to play a few cheaper cards over the next few turns. Every time you play a card, you're not only choosing what cards to play, but also what cards not to play as you put them in the discard pile to pay for your choice.

Race for the Galaxy is a game that takes a game or two to figure out, and I have to say that it's worth it. I'm excited to continue to learn it, but I'm not sure how I'm going to convince people to play it: “Hey, so let's play a game, but let's agree to play it twice in a row and the first time you play you'll be lost and unsure what to do.” So while Race for the Galaxy is a fun game to learn with a group of people, it's probably not the game you want to bring to your next family gathering.

The game also isn't for people that want a lot of confrontation in their games. Maybe I have still getting a hold of the strategy of the game, but my turns seem to influence my opponents in the same way that my rolls in Yahtzee influence other players.

Yes, we're choosing what turns happen, but it was pretty rare for me to base a decision on what phase I wanted to pick on what I thought my opponents wanted to happen: after all, if they really needed to produce on their turn, they will choose the produce action. People call this sort of game experience “multiplayer solitaire” but I don't mind it. I don't always want to play a cutthroat game where everyone tries to destroy and foil everything that I might do.

I've talked a lot, so far, about the problems with Race for the Galaxy. I have just a couple games logged at this point, but I enjoy the game. I like building my set of planets and trying to find what series of cards will work well together off one another. It's fun starting with a planet that has one small special ability and taking it to a large group of planets that does a lot of the things well. 

The game crams a lot of action into the time it takes. So overall it makes the game not only feel like it was worth the time, but also worth the money. If you've got a dedicated group of people who enjoy learning new rules and figuring out a new system, Race for the Galaxy is worth picking up.

Mike Hulsebus would rather play Yahtzee with a group so people can appreciate the rare two Yahtzee games. Leave comments below or email him at mikehulsebus@gmail.com