Projecting

Terra Mystica is quite highly regarded within the board game community. But even more highly regarded is its "sequel," Gaia Project. It's substantially the same game, but with the fantasy theme swapped out for science fiction, and some new wrinkles added.

They're not trying to obscure the fact that this is much the same game as Terra Mystica -- it's subtitled "A Terra Mystica Game" right on the box. I'm also not experienced enough in Terra Mystica to know exactly what's changed between that game and this one; I can say when you don't remember the old game super clearly, learning this game feels like a lot. But I can also say that based off of what I do remember of the original game, there are at least benefits for the added complexity here.

For example, a sideboard to the game displays several tracks that players advance on throughout the game. While this was an element of Terra Mystica, Gaia Project ups the number from 4 to 6, and sprinkles gameplay rewards -- some fixed in each game, some randomly assigned in different plays -- along those tracks. There's more ability to pursue a long-term strategy here, which can change from game to game as you focus your advancement on different tracks.

And not all the changes in Gaia Project are about making the game "more involved." One aspect of play is about terraforming worlds to one specific type (among seven) suited to your particular color's tastes, before building on it. In the original Terra Mystica, remaking terrain was done with a set of punch tokens you would place on the board -- and it could sometimes lead to odd disputes between players where someone would wrench a territory one way, but then another would wrench it a different way before it could be built on. Gaia Project eliminates these silly squabbles (and that pile of tokens) by making the terraforming a more conceptual thing that has to happen all on one turn, right when you want to build.

I did enjoy Gaia Project, but with some of the same reservations that struck me about Terra Mystica. It's a game where the players have asymmetric powers -- each player can do something just a little bit different from every one else. That's good for replayability, if you aim to try all the available powers. It can be difficult to balance. It's next to impossible when you take player experience and skill level into consideration. Powers that are perfectly balanced between two players both equally savvy about all the games ins and outs? That's one thing. Balanced between new players who might not be learning at the same pace, or who might both be focused on one aspect of the game (and not this other, where a particular asymmetric power shines)? Basically: chalk me up with the chorus claiming that "this part" of the game feels "too good," and give me about equal weight with anyone else in that chorus.

Gaia Project is actually a Top 10 game over on BoardGameGeek. It's not a Top 10 for me personally -- not even close -- but I think I can see why it would be for some. And I certainly see how it would reward repeated play, which any game so beloved must do. Will I play it myself long enough to tap into those layers of strategy? Probably not. I think I would rather play this more than Terra Mystica. I also think that it's just way too complex overall for me and the gamers I most regularly play with. For me personally, I'd grade Gaia Project a B.