Galactic Cruise, a new worker placement game, launched in March 2024. Kickstarter and attracted backers with an intriguing premise. As the head of a department at a space tourism company, we're trying to raise our profile to replace the soon-to-be-departing CEO. Galactic Cruise is the debut title from Kingson Key Games – comprised of game designers TK King, Koltin Thompson, and Dennis Northcott – and it was an instant hit. With a current rating of 8.3 on BoardGameGeek The game convinces the players. We were able to play the German version, published by PD Verlag (e.g. Rats of Wistar), we'll take a closer look and share our experiences with you in the following review.
We are greeted with a warm hello at Galactic Cruise, a company that organizes space cruises. The beloved CEO is retiring in three years. As department heads, it is our task to prove ourselves and leave a lasting impression on the board of directors. At the end of each year, an annual general meeting will be held to assess the progress of all departments. Whoever has accumulated the most points after three years will be appointed the new CEO of Galactic Cruise.
To do this, we must deploy our workers in the Galactic Cruise headquarters round by round and perform the corresponding actions for each space. Galactic Cruise is a classic worker placement game. At the start of a game, each player receives two employees and two unlockable experts. While employees are the standard workers, experts possess a special ability that varies from game to game.
Standard worker placement manner
When it's our turn, we usually place one of our workers on one of the six locations in the headquarters (center of the game board). We then get to perform two actions. Each of the six locations has two actions that we can perform. If a location is connected to an adjacent location via a development marker, we can also perform the actions of the adjacent location (depending on the marker's connection, these actions may cost money or be free if they are our own).
These actions allow us to prepare various things so that we can later send spaceships into space and earn important points and bonuses. For example, we can acquire resources needed to launch a spaceship or gain advertising to attract guests and have them visit different destinations. We can purchase and build new spaceships or segments to entertain our guests. We can also plan trips and promote them to our guests.
In addition, we can build developments to gain skills or perform certain actions more easily. We can draw agenda cards that grant us special bonuses or hire experts to acquire more and "better" workers. After we have performed two actions with our placed worker, it is the next person's turn.
Theoretically, this can displace one of our workers from their location, granting us a small bonus. Additionally, we can then use this worker again in the next round. If we have no more available workers (or don't want to use any), we can also call a meeting and retrieve all workers located in headquarters. For this, we receive the same bonuses as for being displaced by other players and can also perform any action adjacent to one of our developments.
Step by step to the launch of our spaceship
The goal of deploying our workers is to eventually launch a spaceship with passengers. For this, we need a destination, a spaceship with cabins (spaces for passengers), resources, and, of course, passengers. All of this must be well-planned in advance to even get the spaceship launched.
Pay particular attention to your guests' preferences to gain more bonuses and victory points more easily. There are three types of guests: adventurous, relaxation-seeking, and family. Each type prefers different segments that provide bonuses. Furthermore, guests also have different preferences for visiting planets. Visited planets grant victory points but must be promoted through "marketing" during the journey. Guests who are a good match for suitable planets are easier to persuade and therefore require less "marketing." All of this information should be gathered beforehand to ensure nothing is left behind during the journey.
Once we have fulfilled all the requirements to launch a spaceship, we can assign one of our workers to it. All preparations are then checked, victory points are awarded for the launch itself, and the ship can depart. At the beginning of each subsequent turn, the spaceship flies to the next destination of the planned journey, granting bonuses and victory points. When the journey is complete, the worker returns to their personal player board, and a new journey can be planned with the spaceship.
The Annual General Meeting
The game runs for three years. A year ends when the progress tiles are full. Scoring then takes place. Points are calculated based on the number of dice placed on the progress tile and the number of unlocked "wings." Wings are unlocked by fulfilling company objectives. These are classic tasks that specify a quantity of something (e.g., launch two spaceships) that must be achieved.
The number of dice placed is also determined by who has the highest reputation. This person receives an additional die for scoring. Reputation is gained (in the context of the story) by doing good things for the company, such as replenishing the company's resource reserves. However, reputation can also be lost if one tries to perform certain actions in a "faster" way. For example, to install segments, one normally has to collect them first and then install them. However, with the Install action, one can also collect and install segments directly. This, of course, costs reputation.
The third annual meeting also marks the end of the game. Once the corresponding progress tile is full, one final round is played and trips are undertaken. Following this, in addition to the standard annual scoring, there are various final scoring rounds. The player with the most points at the end wins and becomes the new CEO of Galactic Cruise.
Information about Galactic Cruise
| Number of players: 1 – 4 Age: from 14 years Playing time: 90 - 150 minutes Difficulty: Expert game Classification: Worker Placement Author: TK King, Dennis Northcott, Koltin Thompson Illustrations: Ian O'Toole Publisher: PD-Verlag, Kinson Key Games Official Website: Link Year of publication: 2025 Language: German Cost: 139,99 € |
Conclusion
At first glance, Galactic Cruise seemed significantly more difficult than it actually is. When the game arrived, my initial thought was, "Oh, this is going to be tough!" The rulebook is thick, and there's also a huge compendium. The player aids are small booklets with eight pages of "quick rules." However, after reading the rules and then playing, getting the hang of it was quite quick. After a short time, I had the game down pat. This is because, as an experienced gamer, I'd already seen all the basic mechanics in some form or another. The worker placement, in particular, was very classic, without any twists or anything that stood out.
The player aid was a real help during my playthroughs. Those eight pages were absolutely essential, as the game has many small rules and things to keep in mind to navigate the game. It was also perfect for explaining the game to new players. However, explaining Galactic Cruise was a real chore. It took a good one to one and a half hours to explain Galactic Cruise. Considering that the game itself often lasted three hours, you had to set aside a significant amount of time for it.
My first few games were generally enjoyable. I had a lot of fun upgrading my spaceships and launching them into space. But it quickly became quite tedious, because even though Galactic Cruise is a great game, perfectly balanced and polished, everything in it (except for the theme) feels like something you've seen done better elsewhere. In the end, for me personally, Galactic Cruise is just another complex worker placement title without much that's new. For example, preparing a spaceship for launch is essentially just placing a worker to collect various items. You gather resources for the launch, collect passengers for the journey, collect segments for the passengers, and so on. And once the spaceship is on its journey, you need more collected items to score victory points. Galactic Cruise is purely a collection game. And that ultimately left me somewhat disappointed. I would have liked to see some kind of twist.
Galactic Cruise was a game that was great fun across all playthroughs. I would definitely play it again if it were suggested. The sheer quality of the components is also excellent. But in the end, Galactic Cruise just didn't quite ignite my interest, especially compared to other worker placement games in my collection. It simply doesn't offer enough. Add to that the fact that the game is so expensive, and I'm rather disappointed. There are three expansions for Galactic Cruise that might enhance the gameplay. However, the base game alone doesn't leave me completely satisfied, even though Galactic Cruise itself is a really good game.
