The Search for Planet X

Originally Posted 9/18/23

Brief Overview

Version Played: Tabletop Simulator - Steam Workshop Link
Cost (Physical Version): $45 (Link)
Overall Thoughts:8/10; Worth the money, have minor complaints

Quick Overview

The Search for Planet X is a board game that is about finding Planet X. You play on a round board divided into sectors. Your goal is to discover where Planet X is, based on information you or other players discover. As you play the game, you discover certain "Rules" about the system you're working in. So, for example, you might learn that "There are no gas clouds within 1 space of a comet". In order to win, you must figure out which sector Planet X is in, as well as what is in the two sectors adjacent to it.

In Depth Review

I originally heard of this game by watching this video by ProZD. He goes through classic board games that he feels aren't great, and suggests alternatives he feels are better. It's really good and I recommend watching it. Anyways, in that video he suggested The Search for Planet X as an upgrade to Clue. This grabbed my attention because I have a group of friends who generally like more challenging puzzle type games, as well as one friend who loves clue to begin with.

This game has a board game component as well as an app component. You can download the app to your phone or access it online here. The app is used to randomize where Planet X is, as well as to come up with all the clues and rules for the game. While this makes the game setup pretty easy, and it is nice not having to prepare all of that manually, it does concern me about the longevity of the game. In particular, I get worried that the game might become unplayable if the servers for the app ever go down.

That said, the app is really well done and allows you to play solo games against the computer, so if you want to play but your friends are busy you can keep practicing.

The Game Play Loop

When its your turn, you first choose an action to take. You can either Scan, Target, Locate Planet X, or research. Each of these abilities cost you time, with stronger abilities costing you more time.

Scan- lets you search for I believe one object that could be in a sector. You choose a range of sectors to scan, anywhere from 1 to 6 sectors. It then tells you if there is or is not that items in those sectors. The smaller your search radius, the more time it costs. This is because, generally, the more sectors you scan the less helpful the information is. For example, if I was looking for Comets in sectors 1-6, it might tell me "Yes, there is a comet in sectors 1-6". Which helps me slightly, but not as much if I only searched sector 1 and got a "yes" answer.
Target- You target a specific sector and the game tells you what is in the sector, or if it's empty. You can only use this action twice within a game. Also, Planet X will appear as an empty sector when using this ability.
Locate Planet X- This action lets you try to locate Planet X by saying which sector you believe it's in, and what's in the two adjacent sectors. This action costs the most time to do out of the available actions.
Research- This cost the least amount of time to use, but you can't use it two turns in a row. You choose a topic to research (Such as Gas Clouds & Comets) and the game will tell you a logic rule that applies to this game involving those two objects. For example, it might say "At least one gas cloud is adjacent to a comet"

Once you decide what action you're going to take, you then move your piece along the outside of the board the amount of time it takes to do your action. After everyone goes once, turn order is decided by who is furthest back on the board. So, if I targeted a sector (Which takes 4 turns), and my friend Researched (1 turn), my friend would then go again. I would not go again until I'm the furthest behind.

One other aspect of this game is that only half the board is within the "Visible sky". This comes into play with certain actions, where you'll only be able to do something in a sector that's apart of the visible sky. The visible sky changes based on where the player furthest behind is.

The last major part of this game is as the visible sky goes around the board it'll get to certain events. Some will reveal information, but others are what's called a "theory phase". During this phase players can submit what they think is in a sector face down and put it on the board. As the game goes on, you eventually reveal your theory and ask the app if it's correct or not. If it's correct, you flip it face up and you'll receive extra points at the end of the game. If it's incorrect, you'll take your theory off the board without revealing it and move forward one space as a penalty.

This system makes it so as the game goes on, more information is revealed to everyone, helping you try to narrow down where Planet X is.

The end of the game comes when someone successfully locates Planet X and the two sectors adjacent to it. All other players then have a chance to try locating Planet X, or get more points by submitting theories. The game is setup in a way where being the first to locate Planet X does not actually guarantee you a victory.

One other thing that's cool about this game, is when you're joining a game on the app, you can choose a difficulty level. This can be different for everyone, but it gives you more starting hints the easier of a difficulty level you choose. I really appreciate this because it should allow people of different skill levels to play the game together.

Conclusion

I really enjoy this game. I'm extremely bad at puzzle games compared to my friends, and despite that I still find myself having fun. Not only am I trying to keep track of the information I know, but also see what my friends are researching or doing, and trying to glean whatever information I can from that as well. I think if you like games where you have to put the pieces together to solve a mystery, this game is a pretty easy recommendation. The only reservation I have about this game is the fact that it is app dependent, but for now it's a lot of fun!