Unsettled is a co-operative survival adventure game with a planetary exploration theme. Your ship and small crew are lost in space far from home and must discover the resources necessary to survive a long journey back.
This is a puzzle game, where exploration is key and maximising your actions across a revealing planetary board. You must solve a mystery and uncover important supplies before your alloted time runs out. There are no enemies or combat, but the environment and creatures your discover will affect your ability to succeed each mission.
Each planet is represented by a grid of locations to explore, and usually they are initially hidden from view. Your crew is supported by Luna, a robot, and you will search the landscape to reveal new areas, build scientific outposts and unearth key resources to utilise in your mission. A planet will have its own unique theme to overcome and three different survival tasks to complete, and presents a new challenge. Your crew members will start with a selected key ability which will assist as your work as a team.
A turn consists of allocating 3 three dice in a worker placement style to various actions on your board that are available. This will cause the dice to tick up or down, and when exhausted they use extra time up to be used as an action, however one dice each turn will be rested to reset a little. Learning new skills during the adventure and building stations are a key part of success and you will get have more options and abilities as the game unfolds. There is a lot of interraction between players, in setting each other up for more optimal turns.
The game is a puzzle, more than an adventure, features high co-operation and has great planetary artwork and thick dual layer boards to work with. The core game comes with 2 planets Wenora (fungal spores – difficulty 1) and Grakkis (storms – difficulty 2), but many more are available to puchase as expansions. There is some randomising to your starting abilities and the lay out for each mission which helps replayability, however once you consitently beat a scenerio you will likely feel the desire to move onto a new one. The game is fun, requires planning and thought and looks great.
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Expansions
There are expansions to bring in new challenges to the game, my additions highlighted green = own, blue = part owned, red = not purchased) :
Planets
The core expanability is via new planet modules which have unique themes and three missions. This is where you likely will get the most new enjoyment from the game.
Koguya – vines (difficulty 1) , Gniir – frozen (difficulty 2) , Kaelyfos – giant creature (difficulty 3) , Blackout – ship restoration (difficulty 3) , Yendraal – coral (difficulty 3) , Voqorr – labyrinths (difficulty 3) , Strannos – fire and lava (difficulty 3) , Taawa – day and night (difficulty 4) , Zehronn – crystalline crypt (difficulty 4)
Modules
There are a couple of dashboard expansions which will add actions or new abilities to your game. Scientific Specializations and Scientific Fascinations.