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Unplugged Games > Vanished Planet (Boardgame)
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Awarded Best Family Game of 2005 by Games Magazine, Vanished Planet is a space themed game where each player represents a race trying to save their homeworld from destruction. A mass of alien darkness starts at the center of the hexagon grid and grows straight outward towards each home world, slowly partitioning the game board into six different sections. Players must complete tasks to earn enough victory points before all the home worlds are extinguished. This space-themed cooperative game emphasizes long-term development and resource gathering and features a high degree of tension as most games are won or lost in the turn or two just before their home planets are swallowed by the darkness.
Players start with a ship at their home planet at one corner of the hexagonal board. On your turn, you may move your ship through adjacent hexagons to "tag" any resource icons located there. Once a location is tagged, it provides resources of a particular type on each succeeding turn. Players take basic resources they have gathered and are able to exchange them for other resources like specialized workers, or basic technology. Workers and technology can then be exchanged for additional ships or technology improvements that actually affect game play. Since so much of the game is focused around exchanging one type of resource card for another, it is much easier to play the game if someone prints out some of the resource reference charts available online. For example, the simplest "high end" unit is an extra ship, which costs a Doctor, Soldier, energy, and an ore. However, to obtain a Doctor, a player must first turn in a colonist, a money card, and two research cards, while a Soldier is simply a colonist, an energy, and an ore. Since there is no time limit on purchasing technology and worker cards for items and technology, a player can step through purchasing a Doctor and Scientist and then using them to buy a ship, but it is simpler to just turn in 2 colonists, 2 energy, 1 money, 2 ore, and 2 research to buy a ship. Having the net cost in basic resources for the high end items is very handy. While costs for each item are listed on the game board and in the rules, players rarely purchase intermediate improvements since advanced improvements are the only things to typically affect game play.  In addition to tagging resource sites, players' ships must also navigate to specific sites to obtain and complete missions in order to earn victory points. Visiting a satellite allows a player to draw a mission card. These missions typically require either a long journey, like visiting several locations throughout the game's galaxy, or require the player to discard intermediate and advanced technologies. Players must then obtain the necessary basic resources, purchase the required technologies, and then discard them. Often, a player's ship must be at a specific location on the game board before the required resources can be discarded. Obtaining the necessary resources is typically not difficult, but travel through the galaxy is very slow and arriving at the desired destination in time can be difficult. Players are only allowed to help one another out by making a card for car card trade with a single person on their turn. The rules recommend, but do not forbid trading cards of unequal value ï¾–trading an ore card for a Dimensional Shifter for example. The game easily accommodates any number of people up to the maximum of six, as victory points are scaled according to the number of players. It is just slightly easier to win with more players, as there are more players with which to trade. Since trading is only a small part of the game, and there is only a small amount of planning between turns, players who are slow to make decisions can slow the game down. This is particularly a problem for games with more players. Keeping track of the complex exchanges between simple and more advanced technologies can be a bit daunting for some players, but almost all resources are public knowledge so advice can be freely given by other players. This gives everyone something to do during other people's turns, but could also be a problem if one person begins the run the entire game through their recommendations. An advanced version of the game can be played with each alien species given a unique ability, but increases the required number of victory points needed for a win. The advanced game does not greatly increase the complexity, but helps to give more personality to each race and thus strengthens the theme of the game. Without the special powers of the alien races, the game can become a somewhat tedious conversion of basic resources into more complex ones depending on the mission card of the moment. Long term planning plays an important role in ship routes and basic resource acquisition, but only rarely do situations develop that require short-term tactical decision-making. Particularly near the end, the game plays much like a group puzzle with all players looking for ways for each player to spend their resources in a manner that will reward them with their needed technologies. Convoluted trades can arise as one player may have a surplus of one item but might not have an easy way to distribute it. In the end, Vanished Planet is a fun group puzzle activity, but does not draw me in strongly enough for me to consider it a game. There are choices to be made, but many of them only weakly affect the final outcome until the final few rounds where efficient use of all players' resources becomes paramount. The last few tension-filled rounds can be highly entertaining as players strive to come up with resource solutions to fulfill their missions, but less cerebral players may find the somewhat complex resource exchange system to be a source of a headache.  
I have found the exchanging of resources from one type to another to be challenging for younger children, and the pace of the game lends itself to a slower, thinking style. A child who is good at conversions of one type of thing to another will do well, but kids who might struggle with all the options available should probably steer away. I'd stick with our recommended 10+ and not try to push it too much lower. Kids younger than 10 will still be able to play, but will typically have to be heavily coached by others. Depending on their attitude, interest, and attention span, this could become troublesome. There is very little to be offended about in this game, with little to no violence to be found. What could be more wholesome than six alien races joining together to save their galaxy?
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