I ordered this without watching much footage first, mostly on the strength of the theme, and it’s been one of the best blind buys I’ve made in a long time. The rotating solar system ring is the mechanical heart of the thing, planets actually move position between rounds, which adds a layer of genuine unpredictability that never feels like it’s fighting the rest of the design. Card-driven actions narrow your decision space in a way that somehow reads as focused rather than restrictive, which is a harder trick to pull off than it sounds.
There’s a specific beat, discovering the alien species partway through, that landed harder at my table than almost any moment in a game this year, a real tonal shift that the rules explanation undersold going in. I’ve heard people describe the core loop as “just another action efficiency puzzle” and I understand the critique, at its most basic level you are optimizing actions, but the theme comes through strong enough that it never felt like an abstract puzzle to me, it felt like actually doing the science.
The rulebook explanation runs long, budget real time for teaching this one properly, and interaction between players is lighter than some in this weight class, mostly blocking and racing for specific spots rather than direct conflict, which some of my group wanted more of. I’ve already looked up a third-party insert for this because the stock box organization doesn’t do the components justice, which tells you where my priorities are. Five stars, gorgeous artwork, real replayability, and one of the only games that’s made we want to actually go learn more astronomy on my own time.