I printed out two of Alexander Shen’s games at the same time, Trap Construction Corp and This Mars Vacation. Of the two, I had higher expectations of This Mars Vacation.
Spoiler: I was wrong.
This Mars Vacation has you trying to create enclosed areas on a ten by ten grid while meteorites destroy squares.
Each turn, you outline a box, representing walls. Scoreable blocks must be completely enclosed in walls. You score enclosures every turn before
rolling for meteorites.
You roll two ten-sided dice for each meteorite, determining where it will land on the grid. Meteorites will destroy walls or render enclosure spaces worthless. And if they land on a space that’s already been hit, they expand the damage to every orthogonal space. More than that, you roll for more and more meteorites each turn.
After seven turns, you score your board one last time and total up your points.
Now, while I said that I like Trap Construction Corp more, there are elements I do like about This Mars Vacation. Oddly enough, some of them are also why I don’t see playing it much.
First off, it takes at least four turns to score any points, which is half the game. And, even if meteorites don’t destroy your precious walls or enclosures, you get points very incrementally.
And the random nature of meteorites falling means it’s very hard to effectively plan ahead. All you can do is hope for the best. Particularly since there will be six meteorites on the last turn. One hit can destroy your entire game.
BUT that’s also the best part of the game. The random rain of meteorites is what gives the game any tension and makes it interesting. Take that away and all you have is a solitary variant of Dots.
There are Shen games I pull out all the time. They have a proven track record for making bite sized, coffee break games that are actually good. I don’t think This Mars Vacation is one of those games but I do think it’s an interesting game.
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