Galaxy Trucker is really two games in one. In the first part, players will build a spacecraft of junk parts, trying to prepare it as best they can for the dangers present on the upcoming flight. The second half of the game is the flight itself, where all manner of terrors will wreak havoc with even the best-designed ship.
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The ship-building portion of the game on the iPad works fantastically well. There are two different methods of ship building: real-time and turn-based. Real-time ship building is identical to the tabletop version. There is a pile of chits lying face down on the table, where you can select a token and see if it is something you want to add to your ship. You can reject tiles and put them back into the public pile, or you can add them to your growing ship, but once you do that its permanently attached. In the pile, youll find parts like extra crew cabins, cargo holds, laser cannons, engines, shield generators all with different connectors, that dont always fit together. As youre building and revealing tiles, your opponents are doing the same, so you constantly have to be on the lookout for parts you may need suddenly being thrown atop the pile of hidden parts.
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As events happen, the players ships are animated, playing out the events as they happen. Attacked by smugglers? Watch the laser cannons fire and see the baddies come onto your ship and haul away your cargo. Meteor storm? Here come the meteors smashing into, and breaking away, half of your ship. Abandoned ship? Watch your little astronauts head over to captain the new ship home for scrap. While the flight is really just a simple race mechanism, adding all this fluff really makes Galaxy Trucker pop on your iPad. None of it was necessary, and the 2D-into-3D effect is initially a little weird, but it really makes the game come to life.
So far, Ive only been talking about the gameplay itself, which is brilliant on iPad. But thats just the tip of the iceberg. The game comes with a lengthy single-player campaign that youd expect from an RPG and not a silly board game conversion. The map is made of planets and asteroids, each with its own quests and routes. Youre free to fly the routes you want instead of being railroaded down a certain story path, and each route offers its own unique rules and dangers. I really cant express how incredible the campaign truly is. Ive played around 15 hours, and I still havent revealed half of the map yet.
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Galaxy Trucker game offers a lengthy and brilliant tutorial for those just getting into the space trucking business, and has a rulebook (Yardmaster, I hope youre taking notes) that was built from the ground up for the digital version. Also, each card can be expanded and the rules for that event are displayed on the screen during the game. No need to leave a game and check out the rulebook.
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Galaxy Trucker isnt a game for everyone. People looking for a sober and realistic space game will hate its light-hearted tone. People who only play games to win will hate it. Perfectionists who cant stand to watch their creations explode will hate it. You shouldnt hang out with these people. These are bad people who are just wrong because Galaxy Trucker is too good not to love. Honestly, I cant find any flaws with the game, and can see myself playing it for years. Galaxy Trucker isnt merely the best board game on iPad this year, its the best board game on iPad ever.
