Zeke
United States
Bloomington
Minnesota
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The object of Mission: Red Planet is simple…control various geographic areas of Mars and exploit them for their wondrous natural resources. To do that, you just need to launch a few astronauts over and establish a presence on the ground. Of course everyone else is trying to do the same thing.
Each player has 9 role selection cards. Similar to Bruno Fadutti's classic Citadels, with a couple of big differences. Firstly, all the players have all 9 role cards. Secondly, once you use a role card it is discarded until you use the special "Recruiter" role to replenish your hand.
On the launch pad, the rockets are waiting. And there are plenty of roles designed to screw over this normally orderly rocket loading process.
The Secret Agent starts the launch process immediately, regardless of how many empty seats are remaining. Looks like my astronaut will have plenty of leg room on this flight.
The Saboteur blows up a rocket on the launch pad, killing every waiting astronaut inside. They don't built 'em like they used to!
The Femme Fatale seduces one of your opponent's astronauts, then dumps him out of the airlock.
The Pilot changes the destination of the rocket to an entirely new geographic area.
The rest of the roles help expand your territorial claims on the red planet.
The Soldier lets you shoot an opposing astronaut.
The Travel Agent stuffs the rockets were more of your astronauts.
The Scientist (with his attractive coal-powered thinking cap) discovers secret information about different geographical areas. You might find out a particular region is highly radioactive, and steer clear. While your opponent might wonder why you are using your pilot later to steer all of his astronauts towards a seemingly highly-profitable stretch of ground.
The Explorer lets you move your astronauts from region to region on the surface.
Finally, the Recruiter resets your hand so you can use all these roles again.
The fact that each player has all the role cards at their disposal makes the game highly chaotic. One turn might be a simple matter of loading your astronauts, but then the next turn there might be 3 or 4 different negative consequences happening in rapid succession.
One turn started with 4 empty rockets waiting on the launch pad. Two of the rockets exploded (Saboteur), 1 rocket prematurely launched (Secret Agent), leaving only 1 rocket left to accept passengers.
As you can see, much of the skill of the game is in planning and adjusting for these sudden changes in circumstances.
Things can get messed up on the planet, too.
No one knows what resources are in each area until an astronaut can land and investigate. The 3 different resources are worth 1, 2 and 3 victory points each. So even if you have the most astronauts in an area, it might end up being in a bad, not-very-profitable section of the planet.
When someone uses their scientist, reads the discovery card, and then proceeds to move his astronauts AWAY from that area, you know there's probably something up.
Sometimes in a game you will discover the correct actions to secure victory early, and then its just a matter of going through the motions until the end. This will never happen in Mission: Red Planet.
So, did I like it?
I loved it.
A certain amount of chaos makes victory always seem a little closer when you are down on points, and a little farther away when you are leading the pack. At any moment, a carefully directed rocket packed with opposing astronauts could wreck any area control strategy.
And blowing up rockets is just frosting on the cake.
The rules and progression of play are very clear. There are a few minor differences between the rules printed on the cards and the extended version in the rulebook. But nothing game breaking.
One of my friends was a little annoyed by how many points some of the random "secret missions" at the end of the game can give you. But if you dominate the resource collection through the game, you are certain to win regardless of how many weird bonus points your opponents pull out of nowhere.
The art style reminds me of railroad robber barons, and the scheming of the game play fits right in.
A wonderful game, ready for anyone who appreciates a little chaos.
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