“I am drawing two more cards and then this combo’s with this”.
“Wow…”
“And I scrap that and that is target opponent discards which means + 3 combat and then +2.”
“Wow…”
“And +2 and from this destroy base that is triggered because I have that and so that is destroyed and gain 2 authority + 3 + 4 authority.”
“Wow…”
“And I have 1+2 that’s 3 +3 that’s 6 +1 that’s 7 trade!”
“Wow…”
“Wait have I already drawn a card this turn have I done this already? I don’t remember if I have already used this.”
“Wow…”
Overview
Let’s clarify: this is a review of the co-op mode of Star Realms, which is in its default form a competitive fast-paced two-player space-themed deck-building game. However, in certain packages, you get challenge cards that let you play solo or co-operatively against powerful boss enemies. This is the tale of those challenge cards.
Base game
Before we get to the co-op aspect, a quick summary of the base game. If you have ever played with a deck-building game before, you will find Star Realms very familiar. One could say this game is deck-building in its purest form.
You have a deck of cards that represent your space empire in the form of ships and bases. Your starting deck consists of weak ships, and you build up your forces over the game. Every turn, you draw 5 cards, with which you can:
- trade (acquire new ships from a shared trade row);
- gain authority (heal back damage you took);
- or do combat (attack the other player directly and thus lower their authority or destroy their base(s) in play.
The goal of the game is to lower the other player’s health authority to 0. As you gain more and more powerful cards, your deck will become a well-oiled machine of death, with lots of combos, powerful attacks and whatnot. You always have to carefully consider what to add to your deck. If your deck gets burdened with cards you don’t actually need, you’ll turns will soon turn into a slog.
There are four factions in the game, with different themes and mechanics. For example, there is a diplomacy-focused one with lots of healing, a zerg-style hive-mind faction with powerful combos, etc. Your cards have powerful combos if you manage to play multiple ships or bases of the same faction in your turn. So it’s usually worth focusing on one or two of the four available factions.
Challenge cards
As mentioned earlier, in certain packages, you also get boss cards you can play against. The best place to start, if you do want the challenge cards, is the Frontiers expansion set. There are also 2 bosses in the Gambit Set – although our copy mysteriously did not have those! Or, if you are like us, and have the base game, and want to try co-op: the internet is your friend… You can pretty easily find pictures of the bosses online, and the Frontiers rulebook also have a bunch of details. Once again, I emphasise: there is no co-op mode in the base game.
So, let’s assume you got your hands on a boss card. Basically, every boss will come with their own set of rules. They usually use the trade deck to randomise their attacks. For example, a boss might just draw the top card, and if it belongs to the Blob faction, do X damage against you. They usually have a large health pool, and you the players attack it like you would attack each other.
The usual conundrum
Overall, the base game is fun, very addictive, deceptively simple and yet very strategic.
The question is, is co-op also fun? Or does it join the long list of otherwise great games where co-op is just an afterthought, and as a result, they suck at it? (Looking mostly at you, Stardew Valley and Scythe.)
The Good
Everything that’s good with the co-op mode actually comes from the base game, but to be fair, they are still valid.
Stuff from the base game that is still good
- engine building and combo finding is satisfying to execute;
- for such a simple and abstract game, there is a strong theme here, factions really feel unique and all cool in their own way, and bosses are also like that;
- the addictive nature of the base game translates quite well to a co-op experience: you still enjoy drawing that HUGE combo you have been working toward and finally do 50 damage in a turn, but now you are not destroying another player, so they actually share your joy.
The Bad
Bunch of issues here. We are going to start with a very subjective issue of mine and then see why the bosses don’t really work as intended.
Set Problems
Star Realms has a jizillion different sets and expansions, and I have… well maybe not a jizillion, but a lot of issues with that:
- First of all, we do have the Gambit expansion, and officially, that is where you find two co-op challenges. And yet our copy had none! Blasphemy, I know. Check out the official card list on google sheets, the cards should be there but they aren’t. Shame on us for buying them early I guess. So, there is a print out option, right? Right…? No? OK….
- The expansions that we tried (Heroes and Gambit) were garbage in general, so I have no intention of buying more cards. It feels like Star Realms has a very neat and robust base system, and does not need any other rule tweaking. As far as I can tell there is even some retconning going on with the cards, like there is something wrong with them if they are from a pre-2019 package. I like my base package, thank you very much. Or maybe it’s just the errata, don’t know, did not read that carefully. There is definitely something weird going on with the different versions.
- Lots of duplications. Let’s say we like the co-op mode and want to buy Frontiers. Well, first of all, we can hope that our package has the correct cards. Putting that aside, it will definitely come with a bunch of cards we don’t need. For example, all the default cards. We do have that from the base game. Could you just release the challenge cards on their own? Arkham Horror – The Card Game did a similar thing, oh, to actually play the game, you have to buy two copies. With the rulebook and the tokens and half the cards that you don’t actually need twice, yes. I hate that approach and won’t abide by it.
- For now, we had to play by pictures we found online. Which might be our fault, but we still did not like it. And I would like to echo my sentiment again: Release the co-op mode!
Bosses are forced and boring mechanically …
The game was very obviously created to be played as a duel to the death between two human players. It has just the right amount of strategy to be interesting, it feels balanced, and exciting.
There are a lot of things that won’t make sense against an automated boss that doesn’t even have its own deck or hand. What happens if it would have to discard? Or draw new cards? How does it decide if it should scrap the card for a more powerful one-time ability? The answer is usually very disappointing, and somewhere on the lines of, well, instead of whatever is on the card the boss will just do X damage. Pretty soon, you have taken away half the layers of the base game, and remember, there were not too many layers to begin with, just enough for a light game.
At the end of the day, a lot of bosses are just a chunk of health points, and they do X1 + round_number * X2 worth of damage every turn and heal back X3 + round_number * X4 worth of health authority. It feels like a very boring and long race.
… but they are also very complicated somehow
The funny thing is that somehow they managed to make those boring systems also be very complicated. Every boss has its own ruleset, and it’s usually not a quick summary card, it’s like two pages in the rulebook. See, all those exceptions that don’t make sense with the current boss need to be listed individually. Needless to say, it’s very easy to miss some rules.
The base game was not great on the “keeping track of what’s going on” side, but it’s an outright arithmetic nightmare now to calculate the dozens of damage and healing everyone does in a turn. In the base game, once you start doing a lot of damage, the game is usually over in a couple of turns, but not here. It’s not complicated or anything, but it does wear you down. Be prepared to calculate the sum of 10+ numbers every turn. And I like math as much as the next guy, but we might as well be doing a 3rd-grade math exercise book at this point.
No Strategy
This is kind of a shared problem with the base game: once you draw the cards, your course for the round is largely set in stone. If you
- have an option to attack the other player, you will use your attack;
- can heal, you will heal;
- can draw cards or make the other player discard, you will do that.
Quite rarely do you have to choose between different actions. Most of the turn you just administer whatever is on the cards you have drawn.
The only real decision you have to make in the base game is deciding which ships or bases to purchase from the trade row. And I think there’s nothing wrong with that, Star Realms really does have the deck-building aspect at its core. Not only do you have to consider your cards you have purchased so far, the potential combos, and the opportunity cost, you also have to pay attention to what the other player is adding to their deck. For example, if they use a lot of bases, that available base destroying ship became much more valuable. Or you might want to simply take a card away from them.
None of that is a factor in the co-op mode. The boss you attack is usually quite abstract, as mentioned above, it’s basically a number of authority points to wear down. So what you do is usually decide between the two of you (can’t even imagine it with more players) who collects which two factions and then stick to it.
The Co-Op
Based on the admittedly not complete research we did on the different bosses, co-op unfortunately fails in one of the two extreme cases of “How Not To Do Co-Op”:
- Option 1: you are attacking the same boss from two different separate areas and have very minimal common strategy or ways to help out each other. For certain bosses, there is not even any scaling for more than one player: one player takes a turn and then the boss attacks them. You are essentially simulating two solo games at the same time.
- Option 2: you are one team, you are completely fused, share resources, and take your turn at the same time. The main issue with this approach is that you have to be aware of every tiny aspect of the other player’s turn and plans in order to work together.
As we mentioned a couple of times in other reviews, the best co-op experience comes from games where you have to discuss overall strategy carefully, but not the tactical decisions. And Star Realms co-op mode is just not doing that.
The Recommendation
Base game of Star Realms is great, and if we were recommending non co-op games, we would recommend it. However, the co-op mode is a resounding NO from us: it’s a dry, clunky and unnecessary addition to an otherwise fun game.
So, to answer the question we posed in the beginning: yes, Star Realms does join the group of otherwise great games where co-op is an afterthought and it sucks. However, don’t fret, we have some recommendations:
- If you want a great co-op deck-building game, Spirit Island is still our absolute favourite.
- If the game does not necessarily have to be great as long as it’s OK, but you want something lighter: Big Book of Madness is cute and light.
Info
| Release Year | 2014 |
| Genre | Deck Building |
| Difficulty | Medium |
| Number of Players | 1 to 2 |
| Length | 30 minutes |
Rating
| Overall | Bad |
| Story | Mediocre |
| Co-Operation | Terrible |