AI Space Puzzle Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review AI Space Puzzle, a cooperative deduction game published by Portal Games. In this game, most players take on the role of people who have been evacuated from Earth on spaceships and one player performs as a distressed AI that has partially malfunctioned.

Limited communication co-ops is one of my absolute favorite subgenres in the co-op sphere. With mega hits like The Crew, Sky Team, and this year’s A Message From the Stars, the subgenre is finally gaining in popularity. I was quite enthused to get to try out AI Space Puzzle.

But does it live up to the heights of the other genre staples, or will it fall silent in comparison? AI Space Puzzle is a cooperative deduction game for 2-5 players that takes about 30 minutes to play.

Earth has been ravaged by nuclear disasters. The surviving refugees were sent out into space, suspended in cryo-sleep. You wake up to the sound of sirens blasting through your ship. The ship’s reactor is malfunctioning, and it’s up to the ship’s damaged AI system to guide you through the repair process.

In AI Space Puzzle, one player will be playing as this damaged AI system, and the other player(s) will be playing as the surviving astronauts trying to figure out what the AI system is communicating to them. It is up to the astronaut players to stand on the correct squares while holding the correct keycards by the end of the game’s countdown. It is up to the AI to get the players to those positions as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

But, due to the damage the AI has sustained, its communication is limited to a few select tiles. Maybe they can communicate the color of a key, but not the room. Maybe they can give a little check mark indicator to enforce a positive choice, or maybe they only have a little “x” indicator to enforce a negative choice.

Each of the game’s 40 scenarios dictates what goals need to be accomplished by the astronauts, and what communication chits the AI player must get them there. It is up to the table to stop