I finally played a game of Solar Storm this evening.
And that’s about how it panned out. I played at the “medium” difficulty, which is the second-easiest of five. The difficulty determines how many wildcard resources will be shuffled into the draw deck: 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8. I can say I made eager use of those wildcards – and was extremely grateful for the appearance of the final two when my draw pile was nearly extinguished, because despite burning all of my bonus actions on scavenging in a quest for one single blue card, it was determined to hide from me!
Pleasingly true to its ilk, the game went right down to the wire with three of the eight outer rooms of the ship at maximum damage and me still requiring one additional turn, and the result of the game consequently at the mercy of the final damage card to be drawn. Fortunately for me that card turned out to be damaging rooms which could still absorb it, and I was able to take my victory actions.
The theme didn’t jump out at me; but it was only a first game so I was focused on the mechanics. I believe it’s a game that will feel more thematic if you make a bit of an effort.
I’ll be interested to find out whether it feels different each time I play. Pandemic creates little narratives by virtue of the the way it will target different areas of the map every time you play. Here the playing field is shrunk to only 9 locations, and although that 3x3 grid is randomised each time you play, I don’t think the same sense of variety could emerge from this. It’s a trade-off for the size of the game, of course (which was one of the reasons that I bought it; and indeed I played this very easily on a small table), so it’s less a criticism than an observation.
I expect that if it has longevity it’s going to be rooted in those difficulty levels, and in how enjoyable it is to learn how to optimise my moves as I bump the difficulty up.
Playing time says 30-60 minutes, which sounds about right – I took more like 1:45 for my learning game – including set-up, re-reading the rules, and packing up after – so I can imagine future games being around or under the hour mark.