About
Star Realms is a fast-paced deck building game created by Darwin Kastle and Rob Dougherty (Magic: The Gathering pro tour champions and hall-of-famers.) Its unique outer space theme and “ally” mechanic set this apart from other deck builders. It also features an intuitive design that makes it easy to learn, but with a wide array of strategies to make it interesting for veteran gamers, too.
Full disclosure: This page contains affiliate links, which means that if you click the link and make a purchase, I get a commission at no cost to you. I only recommend products I truly enjoy, in the hopes that you’ll enjoy them, too.
GARLIC
Here at Cedar Creek Games, we rate games based on the GARLIC scale, a 6-point system to give you a good idea whether this game will flavor your collection with delightful taste, or whether it will just stink up the whole house.
A game can score up to 10 points in each of six categories, to give you a well-rounded view of the game. Then, we’ll total up the scores at the end. Let’s go!
Gameplay – 9/10
While Star Realms plays like a typical deck builder, it benefits both from its streamlined mechanics and the added strategy of the ally mechanic. The different resources your cards produce are clearly defined, and the limited amount of text on cards makes the game play quickly and easily.
The game features four colors (factions), most of which have ally abilities that trigger whenever you play another card that turn of the same faction. So it’s not just “stuff your deck with every good card,” but each purchase makes you think about whether it’s worth it to add in another colored card, if you want to stick with a certain faction as your main color or switch into a new one, etc.
Artwork – 8/10
White Wizard has done an excellent job with the artwork in this game, given the circumstances. They’ve taken an impersonal theme (space ships) and not only made each card look beautiful, but they’ve made every single card/ship feel unique, too!
That being said, it’s still a game about space ships.
There are no unique characters to associate with (other than Heroes in some of the expansions), and no real story other than fighting for control of the universe. While this category is not a critique of subject matter, it’s just hard to get as excited about another space ship as it is a hero or character with a personality.
Again, they’ve still done excellent work, even given the constraints.
Rules – 9/10
The rulebook for this game is simply a folded paper insert within the deckbox. It’s nothing special, but it makes perfect sense. Why would you create an 8.5″ x 11″ book to go with a game that otherwise only needs a playing card-sized box? Still, I think a bit more effort could have gone into the quality of the rulebook (read: rule paper) itself.
But the fact remains that the rules are superbly written. They’re clear, organized, to the point, and contain images to illustrate the rules. Well done!
Luck v. Strategy – 8/10
There’s a great deal of luck involved in which cards show up on the trade row during your turn and which cards you draw from your deck. But you control which cards you purchase from the trade row, which determines how your deck plays later in the game.
This is a mechanic where your resources may be determined randomly, but you choose what to do with those resources (what cards to buy, which bases to attack, etc.). I prefer this to a game where you use your resources to produce a random effect, because it puts you more in the driver’s seat.
I’d say this game is about 60% luck and 40% strategy, which is a bit more luck than I prefer. Games can be pretty swingy because you’re relying so much on the trade row and whether you draw into your combos or not. It could benefit from more of a strategic element; even adding a sixth slot to the trade row could help here, I think.
Intuitiveness – 10/10
Given the amount of strategy that also goes into this game, it’s remarkably simple to learn. I’ve instructed someone (with no real gaming experience to speak of) in the basics of this game and had them playing within 5 minutes.
There are only a handful of situational rules that need to be covered as they pop up (scrapping from the trade row, unique discard/draw abilities, etc.), but otherwise, it’s a breeze to learn.
Component Quality – 8/10
The only reason we’re docking points here is for the rulebook and the deckbox. Both are a bit flimsy. I think a little bit of extra consideration/cost spent here would have made great improvements.
Otherwise, the cards are all great quality, printed on a nice, sturdy cardstock. Throw some sleeves on those bad boys, and you have a game that will hold up to hundreds–if not thousands–of playthroughs!
Summary
I love this game. I don’t think I can stress it enough.
I. Love. This. Game.
It’s the perfect balance of intuitiveness and strategy that makes it a no-brainer to bring to any game night. Total newbies enjoy how easy it is to learn, and veteran gamers enjoy trying to optimize their deck as much as possible.
Not to mention the fact that there are already multiple expansions available. As soon as you get tired of playing with the base set, you can pick up expansion packs cheaply to add a metric space ton (is that a thing?) of new and interesting ships and bases!
Expansions also add new card types: heroes, gambits, events, etc. There are even unique “challenges” (if you can get your hands on them)–cards that allow you to play solitaire-style against an enemy. They even feature a co-op mode, so you can join with your friends against a common threat instead of fighting each other!
There’s even an app available for iOS and Android! It’s my #1 game app, combining a story mode, PVP pass-and-play, and online PVP play all into a beautiful, seamless app.
Needless to say, there are a ton of things you can do with Star Realms. It’s robust, fast-paced, strategic, and all around an enjoyable game.
A few small tweaks to the engineering of the components and the overall story of the game would do wonders.
Otherwise, we are giving this game a GARLIC score of 87! We salute you, Star Empire!
… er, White Wizard!
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