(Image credit to Ravensburger)
Written by Ed Carter, Staff Writer
Alien: Fate of the Nostromo; card playing, action movement, cooperative
1-5 players
Published by Ravensburger
“Alien”: One of the scariest movies from the 1970’s.
If you have never seen it or are not familiar with it, STOP and go watch the movie then come back to the game; it will make it much more enjoyable knowing the source material. Director Ridley Scott says it is ” a haunted house in Space” I have to agree; with the low lighting, tight corridors and sense of claustrophobia all while a Killer is on the loose, it definitely feels like one.
Ravensburger games tackled the challenge of making a game that captures that tension from the movie. Many have been made as a “bug hunt” and if you are looking for that, then Nemesis is the game for you, but this is not that. In this game, your morale is slowly decaying as the Alien is hunting you down and all you can do is fend it off. You don’t win by killing it, you win if you can survive it! Players are racing around the Nostromo to complete objectives, crafting items and weapons they can use to keep the Alien away from them, while the morale is dropping with each turn. It’s a race against the clock to complete your objectives and the Final Mission before all morale is lost.
Welcome aboard: Setting up the game
To start, take out the game board, place the morale marker on the indicated space based on the player count. The game has a specific setup in regard to the placement of the concealed tokens and scrap, so refer to the setup instructions. Note, when placing the concealed tokens, first shuffle all of them face down and randomly place one in each designated room. Keep the remaining ones in a pile still face down. Take the objective cards, and shuffle them, drawing one for each player plus one. placing them face up at the top of the board, and returning the rest to the box. Take the Final Mission cards, select one, keep it face down, and return the rest to the box. Take out the Encounter cards; shuffling them into a face-down pile. Take the item tokens, additional scrap, and the remaining concealment tokens, still face down, placing them into individual piles as a supply. Give each player a crew board, and the matching figure. Place all figures into the Galley. Give each player a reference card and place the Alien figure in the Nest. Decide the first player and you are ready to start.
So What do you do here? The Crew Action Phase!
A turn consists of two phases; the Crew Action Phase and the Encounter Phase. In the Crew phase, players take a number of actions based on their crew board. These actions include Move, Pick up/Drop off, Craft item, Use item, Trade, and any Special action indicated on their crew board. Actions can be taken more than once unless otherwise indicated.
A move action allows you to move from one adjoining room to the next. Some rooms connect the lower portion of the ship to the upper. If a player moves into a room with a concealed token, immediately flip it over and resolve the action indicated. A clear room means nothing happens. If the token shows Jonesy the cat, reduce the morale. If it reveals the Alien, immediately place the Alien in the room and reduce the morale indicated on the token.
Whenever you move to a room and the Alien appears, you reduce the morale by 2 and must move 3 rooms away. Certain items can repel the Alien, reducing the morale lost. Refer to the player summary card for the effects of each item. In addition, some items have a limited use. When a new item is picked up, place it on its “2” side and when used flip it over. If it is used again, it is discarded and must be re-crafted if needed again.
A player uses a Pick up/Drop off action for any items or scrap in the room. To craft an item, take the required number of scrap from your inventory and craft the item. Items are used to complete objectives, provide help with fending off the Alien, or weapons to send it away back to its nest. Players in the same space can trade items or scrap.
OMG! What is that thing? The Alien Encounter Phase
After a player has taken all their actions, they move to the Encounter Phase. Draw the top card from the Encounter deck and follow the instructions. The Encounter cards will show if the Alien moves and how many spaces. It also indicates how much morale is reduced if the Alien encounters a crew member, and if any Scrap or Encounter Tokens are placed in the designated room on the card. To place scrap, take the designated number from the general supply.
None of us are safe, what can we do? Objectives and the Final Mission
Objectives are usually completed when taking a designated item to a required room. The player does not need to leave the item there, just have it in their inventory when entering the room. Once the players have completed all of the 0bjectives, they can reveal the Final Mission card. If the players complete the Final Objective before the morale runs out, they win the game.
Final Briefing: Last Transmission
It is hard to try to capture the tension that the movie is about, but the game does a good job of that. Players lose morale constantly and they are in a race against the decaying morale to complete their goals and win, all the while being incessantly hunted by the Alien, which they cannot kill, but only fend off. Since the Alien never dies, it never stops. Every turn it moves and hunts and breaks down morale when encountered. The concealed tokens do a good job of adding mystery and tension, is the room clear or is there an uninvited guest lurking in the shadows and through the crawl spaces? or is it just Jonesy the cat?
I am going to give this an 8/10. I think it is a fun clever game and the variety of missions adds to the challenge, but once you complete all of them, then you have an idea what items to craft and where they need to go. There is an advanced mode where you can throw in Ash the, traitorous android, for an additional challenge. There are a good number of objectives to run through so that adds to re-playability as well.
I think the mechanics are solid, the encounter cards, the concealed tokens, and the challenges to make items when there is only a limited supply of them, all while the Alien is lurking and reducing the morale with each encounter.
Unlike Nemesis or Alien Encounters, this is a breeze to set up and get going. Shuffle some cards, place some tokens and figures and that’s it. When table space is limited, this is a good one that can be easily taken to a coffee shop or game store and takes up minimal room.
I am a hard gamer to convince as this is one of my favorite IPs of them all, and I was really looking forward to this when I heard it was coming out. I am not disappointed with the result, and I love that is not like the other Alien games, where you hunt it down to win. You have to avoid it at all costs in this one, in order to win, The less you encounter it the better, and that is totally reminiscent of the first movie. The crew was being picked off by this predator and all they could do was get away as much as they could as nothing they tried to use could kill it. Only the vast vacuum of space could finish it off. or did it?
Alien Fate of the Nostromo is available at most game stores, online, and in Target and Walmart. For a game that is true to its IP and simple to get to the table, this is one worth looking at.
Check out more board game reviews by Movin Meeples.
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