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Hey check out similar videos here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05uKspxQ89s&list=PLVduyMnVQjzNYPljUBqwgAXdMPQ9CEKWY

Introduction:
First of all, am not gonna waste your time with my story and who I’m, and what I thought this thing is about when the first time I saw it. But, I will just go straightly to the main point then start from there.
A few days ago, I was looking at reddit’s community of The Crew 2, and suddenly something very strange and unusual just caught my attention.
I discovered a shocking secret message hidden in the random tips bar of PVP.
https://preview.redd.it/g53tf0oxlxoa1.jpg?width=1030&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=541e93392b9f6d685b86cbe7b22fcead5c61c8a3
What you’re basically seeing here is a memorable quote from the famous Assassin Creed series. Following that quote there’s a secret message saying that this is a “Wrong game”. This means this is not only a random quote that’s been shared in there for no reason but also a secret message from the IvoryTower’s employers. This is also an official response from them to my recent critisism.
Furthermore, this secret message actually confirms something that I recognized of them and this game long time ago, something very consistent with what I know and recognized. More importantly, it’s the ultimate answer of all our major questions and concerns about The Crew 2. And especially these following major questions : “Why The Crew 2 is so different than The Crew 1, Why The Crew 2 and its major features were completely downgraded, Why The Crew 2 is so heavy and restricted and limited to its full potential, and lastly, why Ivory Tower was not taking most of our feedback and suggestions into sérious considerations”.
The reason why in a short simple answer is because the main story behind that quote has been put into practice on The Crew 2, and within its design structure and the multiplayer infrastructure. However, the in-game details on how it’s been put to practice will not be presented to you in this topic,but because this topic require another constructive and separate post to adress them properly. But, you will still be able to learn the main basic ideas of that secret message when it will be briefly sumarized in my Q&A, and my response to IVT.
How did I knew that was actually a secret message and an official response to my recent critisism:
I arrived to that conlusion mainly because of these four following reasons :
First, The message appeared in PVP and exactly after my recent criticism about PVP. (The link of my criticism is lost in this forums due to the complete overhal and redesign of its structure. So I cannot provide you the evidence, but what basicly this is all about is basicly criticising IVT about the lack of freedom in TC2, and all related).
Second, the quote talks about the freedom and that is main goal of The Assassins.
Third, the quote was a selective part of a complete Assassin Creed quote, and nothing else besides that part was quoted.
Lastly, It’s very consistent with what I know and recognized from The Crew 2, and that is the dominance through order and control. Which is basically the main goal of The Templars (The enemies of The Assassins).
Moreover, even if I’m wrong and this is not true, or if the message never appeared, my main topic today will still be completely true and on point. But I’m simply using their secret message (or whatever you call it) as my primary evidence to bring this topic through this direction, and use it effectively to prove my points. The other way of proving my points is by providing the in-game details and use them as my primary evidence, but it would be a lot difficult than proving them in this way, so I went with other way instead.
What does this secret message and offical response is stating:
The specific quote in that secret message is talking about freedom, this mean no one should have control over anyone or anything, you're free to do whatever you like, at anytime you want. Next to that, the statement next to that quote is rejecting that idea, it’s rejecting that freedom because it’s clearly stating that this is the “wrong game”, meaning this is not the right game for freedom, and also it will never be about freedom. However, the freedom that’s being rejected here, is not the freedom that was derived from this stupid non linear story of TC2, the freedom of driving and exploration, and the freedom of conquering the air, the land and the sea of the united state. No, It’s a freedom of game accessibilities, game features, flexibility, design structure, and the multiplayer infrastructure.
Why and how this secret message is the ultimate answer of all our major questions and concerns about The Crew 2:
Think about it as this way: The community wants freedom. This freedom is basicly the flexibility and the creative abilities of the game, it’s the main thing that makes this game so great and successful.
Next to that, the developers already offered you this creative freedom in The Crew 1, it was even wider and extent in that game. Moreover, It’s exactly what IVT was stating in that quote “Everything is permitted”, that’s because of the fact that you can do whatever you like at anytime you want. For example, you can play with your friends in private lobby and do CVC anytime you want, you can have full access to all the events in PVP and all the racing famillies anytime you want, you can turn on/off traffic and collisions in pvp anytime you want, you can search for lobbies and do anything else (play other events or play summit for ex) anytime you want, you can have full access to the open world and have full freedom while the pvp matchmaking is in progress, you can spectate in pvp and watch other players racing anytime you want, you can have full access to the roster and invites/add friends anytime and anywhere you want (invite friends in PVP or while driving for ex), you can have full access to the user interface from a mobile phone anywhere and anytime you want, you can fast travel anywhere and anytime you want, you can buy performance parts from tuner shops anytime you want, you can create content with the race creator anytime you want, and many many more freedom.
All these accessibilities and features are basically freedom. They are the flexibility. They are the huge potential of the game. They are the creative abilities of the game. And they simply gives the players the ability to control their own gameplay experiences to have an optimal and enjoyable gaming experience, and ultimately they gives them the sense of having the full freedom without being limited or controled by anything, like the control inside out the crew 2 pvp terrible user experience.
Well, Unfortunately, not with the game that we are dealing with today, absolutly not when the developers have turned into templars within their business in The Crew 2 and after being a nice friendly assassins.
The developers have realised that The Crew 1 got stolen from their hands and got dominated and fully owned by the first community and the players had so many opportunities of having control over their game, and that’s because of the extent freedom they gave them. It simply appeared to them that The Crew 1 was basically a photoshop, the entire game was hugely flexible and everything was permitted. So what they actually did is basically creating a new plans and adopting another strategy, and that is basically the dominance and control. They start establishing dominance and control everywhere in the game, by taking away that freedom from the community, by removing its flexibility, by removing the opportinities that provides the players the ability of dominating and taking control over their game, and eventaly by just killing its huge and valuable potential, by decreasing its creative abilities, by decreasing its huge flexibility, by decreasing its useful accessibilities. And that exactly what’s happening in The Crew 2, that’s why The Crew 2 and its major features were completely downgraded, that’s why The Crew 2 was so heavy and restricted and limited to its potential. And more importantly, that’s what you are complaining about, you are complaining about its huge and valuable potential.
Also, this new dominance based strategy that they’re adopting on The Crew 2, is apparently the main reason why most of our feedback and sugesstions were being secretly rejected. Because any feedback or anything that was demanding the freedom and the flexibility for the game, or in other words, the feedback that was going against that new dominance based strategy, was never been accepted or sériously taken into consideration. And still today being rejected and for the same exact reason.
For instance, like Akorr’s feedback and his expectations that he shared in youtube long time ago (check in this link) https://youtu.be/A-LuHrjJOik?t=899 (@Minute 14:59) When he was requesting more freedom and flexibilty for PVP, all his requests were being secretly rejected, and the same thing happened to my feedback. I did the same thing here in this forums, and way before the release of PVP, I requested more freedom for PVP and for many aspects of the game, and it were all been secretly rejected.
Not only my feedback or akorr’s feedback, but most of the community feedback, from both TC1 and TC2. All the feedback that was going in the opposite direction of their new plans and that new dominance based strategy was secretly being rejected, and still today being rejected and for the same exact reason. However, this does not mean IVT don’t listen to the communities and their feedback, they do listen in-fact-they know every detail about the community and their requests but they simply don’t want to accept anthing that goes against their new bussiness strategy and plans. They also like to fully understand and analyse their repeated responses and constructive feedback precisely.
What IvoryTower did offer to the community after taking away that freedom:
I will leave this question to Mr Stephan Janskowski (One of the producers of The Crew 2). Check this video here and listen carefully to what he says. (@Minute 1:08) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oanozhx_Ptc&feature=youtu.be&t=68
That’s it ladies and gentlemen, he concluded almost everything I’ve said earlier in this topic.
He's explicitly stating that he is offering you a new toys and new freedom as a complete and permanent substitute of The Crew 1 freedom. He took away the freedom that you wanted and that was already in The Crew 1, and gave you the freedom of driving and exploration, and conquering the air, the land, and the sea of the united state. Not to mention, the newly given conquest toys he justly said (Planes and boats, and instant vehicle swapping features).
Let me put this in a short story to understand better what’s going on. Basically it is like this. Stephan and his team discussed together and said to them, “Look, we gave a lot of freedom in The Crew 1 and as a result of that, the game got taken from our hands and got dominated and fully owned by the community. So what we should do and what the possible solutions to offer the players a good subtitute for their losts, if we take that freedom away from them. A developer came up with his instant vehicle swapping concept and said, “Look we should give them planes and boats and this cool new feature (the instant vehicle swapping feature, and we let them have full freedom and exploring the huge world and dominate the air, the land, and the sea of the united state as a complete new freedom”. Stephan said: Ok fair enough, we give them that as a new freedom then we take the advantage of that opportunity to establish a great degree of technical dominance and strict control over the game and then at the same time prevent them from stealing it from our hands.
So what they basicly did is that they took all the accessibilities of the first game that I mentioned before (accessible roster, accessible UI, accessible events, accessible open world … etc), and gave you the accessibility of the open world and the game content (accessible buildings, accessible roof tops, accessible rivers, skies, seas…etc). Then they took all the important and usefull features that were available in the first game, and basicly gave you the instant vehicle swapping feature along with some other features that you never asked for (Lootboxes, video editor, variable loot system…etc). So in other words, they closed all the open doors of The Crew 1. Took all the doors that were originally closed from The Crew 1 and opened them in The Crew 2. And they added some additional useless doors that you never actually requested and that’s it, that’s whole point of that concept and that direction. It basicly came from the idea that The Crew 1 freedom must be removed somehow, and replaced by another less or equal freedom in order to compenstate between the two games. And more importantly, in order to dominate The Crew 2 and to prevent the players from stealing it from the devs’s hands and controlling it, and also to keep retaining a direct, an unlimited, an absolute and comprehensive ownership and leadership over The Crew 2 indefinitely, while we the players keep owning america and dominating the air, the land, and the sea of the united state.
They basicly went against more than twelve million players that they were simply wanting to bring The Crew 1 to the next level and gets more out of its potential, only because they wanted to say to them this is our own game and nobody can touch it.
Or in other words, this is our own ground and nobody can dance. *facepalm* (－‸ლ)
But the problem is, that is not the freedom that the players wanted, the players never asked for planes and boats and that kind of stufs. The players wanted to bring The Crew 1 freedom to The Crew 2 and expend it a little further. But, since that freedom is clearly what the developers were troubling with in the first game, also what they were frightened of. They went fully against their community and the players wishes. And that’s exaclty why they made The Crew 2 as their own game and not the community game.
One last thing I would like to mention, The developers basicaly gave you a new freedom and wants you to go and explore the world, but the problem is, They did not even give you the incentive to do that. Like For example: landmarks, data station, hidden vehicules, map uncovering, acheivements and awards... These are the most valuable features of The Crew 1. They completely dismised all of that, yet they still want you to go and explore the world. Someone would say “But they gave us Photo ops”, Yes but these Photo ops never felt like a real incentive of exploration, because they are just basic events that ppl use them to gain more money and more followers. The first thing the players start to do in this game is they went straitghtly finding bugs and exploits in order to gain more followers, because that what the game always motivate you to do at the start, the whole story is about grinding followers. But in the other hand, the first thing that The Crew 1 motivates you to do is finding data stations to uncover the map, and at the same time unlock acheivements and awards, and discover landmarks and hidden vehicles.
Why IVT is sharing that secret message in public?
I don’t know exactly why they are sharing that message in public or why they are exposing their business infront of everyone who play PVP, but I’am pretty sure they though nobody would notice or care about finding the truth of that secret message, because they actually made it look like a mistake or a joke, they also didn’t reveal it directly in PVP, they actually hide it in the random tips bar. But they are correct, although the message is very clear and understandable, no one have actually noticed or cared so far. But not with somebody whos well familiar with their games and their business in the first game. I did notice, and understood exactly what they were attempting to state from that message.
Why am making this topic and what’s my main goals behind it:
Well, definitly not to expose IVT or because am a hater, maybe there’s some ppl here that thinks that am a hater and they are basing their judgement on my offensive actions in this community, but that’s not because of hate. That’s because of my frustrations and disappoitments of this game, and that’s completely natural, ppl always complain about these issues in the forums.
I’m not a blind hater and I never been so, in fact am a big fan of The Crew franchise and I always give it my love and my support, and so far this is my biggest useful feedback post I’ve ever gave to IVT. And of course this feedback gonna contain many bad offensive words, of course am gonna come up here and say IVT was ignoring the community and was rejecting our feedback, but let’s be fair and objective. The Crew 2 was it been mostly based on the community feedback or it was been mostly based on the developers ideas? Your feedback from The Crew 1 was it extensively been employed in The Crew 2, or only a few percentage of it was been employed? Most of it was been rejected right? And that’s why The Crew 2 was completely different than The Crew 1, and was not a continuous sequel of The Crew 1. So these statements they are completely valid and on point, am not giving you lies or speculations, or some random, or pointless thoughts. Am simply giving you my honest and my evidential feedback, my analysis, my final conclusions of this game. Next to that, my main goal from this topic is as following: Firstly, to inform you about what’s ‘truly’ going on with The Crew 2. And secondly, to bring back this game to its original form and full potential, and reverse it back to its original direction. And more importantly, to bring back our stolen freedom that has been taken away by the templars.
My response to that message :
Thank you for your confirmation and honest response Mr Templar (IVT), Without your confirmation and response this wouldn't be possible for me to make this topic and bring it in this direction. So thank you very much, you made it a lot easier for me. I’m calling you mr Templar because your goals are the same as their goals which are the dominance through order and control.
Let me first begin by asking you a very important question, and it is as following: ‘’Why you could never inform us or at least whisper about that from the beginning? Why you couldn’t stick a message in The Crew 1 PVP and quoted “Nothing is true, everything is permitted. No Wait… This is only a ‘Temporary experimental Game’, and not a ‘True Representative’ of The Crew Franchise and its true and definite DNA?”’’
Is it because The Crew 1 was a mistake, or because it was intented to build up your initial player base?
From my perspective, I don’t think that was actually a mistake, because you seems a very well experienced game developer. But even if that was truly a mistake, you still have done a more bigger mistake than that one, and that is The Crew 2.. Do you know why? because your reaction and response to the first game was so extreme in The Crew 2 and you have gone too far with that and maybe without even noticing.
But now obviously, you will come up and say: “Many players are happy with what we are doing in this game, so The Crew 2 was not a failure and we are doing a great job”. That’s definitly not true, that’s a very narrow perspective to obeserved it from. Those players thinks that there’s nothing wrong with this game because they are uncapable enough of recognizing what’s happening around them, they have no idea what’s going on with this game, especially the kiddies. But who knows, maybe they are just getting frustrated in silence and don’t want to bother sharing their frustrations with you.
The problem is, you are turning The Crew 2 into a payback while making it as a sequel, a payback to the extent that you can literally feel the game being mad at you and wracking your brain, you can feel the extreme reaction and your response to dominance and controm of The Crew 1. Seriously, I’ve never seen in my entire life a video game that is so heavy and restricted the same way as The Crew 2 is designed. Especially when it comes to the accessibility, the user interface and other core features like PVP, you absolutely nailed that one. The numbers of restrictions and downgrades are totally insane, It’s absolutely ridiculous. No flexibility, no freedom, even the player’s comfort got dismised.
More problems, despite all the criticism and the feedback that you received from the players and the reviewers. You still want to blindly reject all of that and keep insisting on using the same strategy that you adopted with The Crew 2, even though it was exactly behind its failure and the players' disappointments. And that was very clear from your message (Wrong game).
I understand that The Crew 1 was taken away from your hands by the community due to the extent freedom that you gave them, but let’s be very clear, wasn’t that the key reason behind its success? Wasn’t that the key reason why The Crew 1 so great and successful? Wasn’t that the key reason why The Crew 1 had more than twelve millions players? Wasn’t that all what they were expecting you to do in The Crew 2? Wasn’t that all what they want wanted? They wanted the freedom right ? Not the planes and the boats that you literally call freedom after your dominance, Mr Templar (Stephan) right? Just look around now and see, how the community is responding to The Crew 2? What they are saying about this game? Are they saying this is the game that we were expecting? Are they satisfied? It’s the opposite right ? So why you are going against your community then? Why not stick to the things that everyone love and appreciate then? Is it because owning and dominating the game is more important to you than simply giving away the freedom? Is it because the dominance is a lot easier for you than giving away the freedom? (Well… If that’s the case, then just go and give your condoleses to The Crew franchise man, because that’s what you are basically doing, you are simply killing it).
The dominance has gone too far Mr Templar (IVT), I think it’s about time you reconsider and revisit your plans and strategy.
And always remember, the huge success that was behind The Crew 1 was because of the freedom that you offered it, and the big failure that was behind The Crew 2 was because the dominance and the control that you established.
It’s all very clear and self-evident, you don’t need anyone else or me to inform you about that.
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Best regards,
KipOWNinAMRCA_hf The Crew Expert Raven-GT Mayor Sanu-DZ Raven-R35 UBI30-FreeNoob
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Bonus image 1: A slightly different theme than the one IVT used for their response, but doesn’t really matter, because they are both very similar and self-explanatory.
https://preview.redd.it/a66ab0iimxoa1.png?width=638&format=png&auto=webp&s=174fc5703a66ae7b8e83da30f4a72175e12e33b9
Bonus image 2: This is an only optional image, I wanted to share with you because it shows something interesting.
In The Crew 1, this easter egg was a happy welcoming face, but in The Crew 2 it got changed to an Assassin Creed logo. So this could be a sign of their dominance.
It really makes sense, because when you play the first game you really feel happy and welcomed in that game, you really feel like this is your own home because everything is offered to you a silverplate, everything is permitted. But in the other side, all what you get from The Crew 2 is just frustrations and disapointments, the game just keep getting mad at you and you wont stop getting disappointed. And at the end, you simply feel unhappy and unwelcomed.
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https://preview.redd.it/euuf54adoxoa1.jpg?width=946&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fcb9e915625861a291a84860da2a18ab9e436d53
Bonus Image 3: An exclusive preview on how The Crew 2 PVP should be design. This is how The Crew 2 PVP should look like if we use the same design structure of The Crew 1 PVP.
Personally I find this the best PVP Design in any racing game, there’s no racing game in the world that can offer you a huge collection of events and let you chose from it whatever event you like, anytime you want without limiting you into four or five events per race like the crew 2 pvp and other racing games. You see this is the creative freedom I like to have in racing games, the events collection is huge and variant and you can choose whatever event you like at anytime you want, for example, I like to choose only the events that suite my personnel preference and driving skills anytime I want, like that I can have my full freedom of choice in PVP. I also like to toggle traffic and collusion options as they are free to use anytime I want. And the best of all I’m free to go anywhere else and play whatever game I like to play and not being forcedly staring at that quote that always tells me you’re not free in this game and you’re in a wrong game. Seriously you will never find any racing game that gives you so much creative freedom in PVP inside a racing game never, all racing games gives you a limited choices and doesn’t allow to control your own gameplay experiences.
In my humble opinion all game companies are frightened of giving away the freedom and all of them like to strictly control their own games because people are able to control their games using freedom also, but in my opinion freedom is just fun for us and everybody, why would you limits and control my choices in PVP just to tell me this is not your own game that you bought from us, but this is only our own game and nobody can touch it, or this is a wrong game as you said, and we have also the direct, the unlimited, the absolute and comprehensive ownership and leadership over it indefinitely, so you can never own it definitely.
Do you know what they tell you my friends? they tell you wait for the daily rotations so you can play the events you like and not let you chose any event you like anytime you want. They tell you make for us community pvp playlists so we can share them for PVP, and you give them that?! and you want them to fix and improve the pvp for you?! LOol
https://preview.redd.it/pfric1trtxoa1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aa5d62ae8ee93607e64ed001daacb2340b0d9bd5
Bonus image 4: These two last images has no relation with the content I’ve shared here in this topic but it’s greatly important to share it with you all to comprehend what’s the secret sincere work behind this loveable racing game The Crew 1.
First of all, What is this? (⊙̃.o)
How do you know how important the first game was in the true eyes of the game developers… You don’t know how? Then check this out.
https://preview.redd.it/am0rbn57uxoa1.jpg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=911b9e514c5978ad98fad9fd25f9b7272a54faa3
This is a manual specially designed to teach you all of things in this original racing game and what to actually expect from its major features. Look how much effort they putted into this game and how much love they served into it, look carefully what inside their loving kind sincere hearts and minds.
https://preview.redd.it/pi67wsjeuxoa1.jpg?width=852&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=729caff5ae590e627257f536eae463bd9fc0f8e4
With all possible worlds wide languages? Yes, absolutely with all languages, but… WHO ARE YOU?!
(/¯◡ ‿ ◡)/¯ ~ ┻━┻
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Download link: https://www.mediafire.com/foldeau6iac0a36db5/FAQ+Manuals
Bonus image 5: This is a steve jobs’ quote modified exactly by me to importantly understand why this masterpiece is truly a masterpiece that benefit you. This is for you only IVT, solely big money my friend, biiiiig big money.
This is the first starting game officially made carefully with care and love and deep passion. The first game that fully made with deeply loving hearts the game developers. Finaly and additionnely, I want to say that I’m not gonna fall again in this massive trap that trapped me in the year two thousands and eighteen where the game has released as a deadly massive trap for all buyers and those who trusted you in the first game, the first game lovers who deeply knows what to expect from a first continuous sequel professionally and carefully designed with patience and passion and deep love. But not at all with The Crew 2 not at all, and not again with the third game, not again with The Crew Motorfest, because it’s not what we expected from you IVT. This is no more buyings from me till I completely recognize what I want to buy from you IVT.
Anyway, here’s the full quote: “The only way to do a great work is to love what you do, is to get deeply deeply deeply involved with what you do and do it closely and fully with heart, love, and passion, not with dominance, and control, ignorance, and hatred, and the eager desire to accumulate enormous material wealth from this colorful, flashy, eye catching, eye filling loveable, beautiful racing game.”
Verdict, this is clearly and evidently how you care about this lovely racing game and this is most importantly how and all what we wanted from it. But this is also my all most favorite racing game that i love so heavily and that i want for myself and for all the game lovers and crewers and that's it, this is all what i want to say.
https://preview.redd.it/ikn1j9gpuxoa1.jpg?width=2000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=584b08a01721b556586c6dd65aeb4202288091bd

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https://preview.redd.it/kz4up4z8zwoa1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=6fd37e8b53169fc64034fbd3d6442542d51159ff
Note: This blog post also exists in podcast form, if you prefer to listen.
A preview copy was provided by the publisher. I have 4 Total Plays at 2, 3, and 4 Players. This is a prototype, meaning the rules and components are not final. For example, the score track has changed since this prototype was printed and the basic wood pieces will be replaced by lavish minis.
Recently, I shared my 1st impressions of Galactic Renaissance where I mostly compared it to Inis, the other design in this Political Trilogy from designer Christian Martinez and publisher Matagot. In this preview, I intend to spend less time comparing to the two games and more time focusing on Galactic Renaissance itself. Let’s see where this takes us…
Long ago, the galactic empire fell into ruin. Peoples and their planets lost contact with each other, and the galaxy entered a period not unlike the dark ages. Intergalactic progress and cooperation was stymied and, for better or worse, aliens were no longer able to meddle in each other’s business. But from the ashes of a space dynasty eventually arises a renaissance. Portals are rediscovered. Secrets and knowledge are uncovered. Political relationships are reforged. And a new Galactic Senate is born — not one of compulsory conquest, but of peaceful and voluntary coalition.
Each player represents a unique planet and controls aspirational emissaries. These emissaries are sent throughout the galaxy to gain allies, establish institutes, discover foundations, and reawaken specialists — the ancient ones from the now dead empire who remain frozen in stasis to preserve wisdom and knowledge. While the shared vision is to peacefully rebuild an interstellar civilization, each player wants to come out as top dog in the Senate, and sometimes you need to step on some alien toes to get there.
Players are racing to 30 points by striving to fulfill the Senate Policies (scoring objective cards), which notably expand and change a bit during the game. The deck of these cards is fairly large (16 total) and you only ever play with a combination of 5, so you’ll encounter a fair amount of variety here from one play to the next. It’s not too unpredictable, though, as these cards generally encourage you to spread out across more planets with your emissaries and institutes. Sometimes your mere presence on a planet will suffice, other times the scoring requirements get more specific (e.g. have majority or minority on a planet, build an institute on a planet, be on planets with specific features like foundations or portals, etc.).
https://preview.redd.it/0bue7l8izwoa1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8c42a334100ee36962c9685f5294bf427dcd8b0
The manner in which you score points and win the game is refreshingly unique on multiple facets:

• You not only need to reach 30 points first to win, but you also need to score 10 points in a single final turn to seal the deal. So although you may have a lead on everyone else on the score track, they can catch up by weakening your single turn scoring potential. It’s a bit reminiscent of Inis’s pretender token, but notably much more mild in its king making / bash-the-leader potential.
• As the leading player races up the score track, they will unlock or transform the scoring objective cards for everyone. At 6 points, the third scoring card is revealed. At 13 points, the first scoring card is swapped out for a new one. At 20 points, the second scoring card is swapped out for a new one. Until they are revealed, nobody knows what objective cards will come out next, so it helps to put yourself in a flexible position during these transitions.
• The main way you trigger scoring is by playing your Senator card, and each time you play it you’ll have to cycle through your entire deck to reach it again. So players who can manage to accelerate their deck cycling while adapting to the scoring cards will have the best chance of crossing the finish line.

https://preview.redd.it/8d8cljfjzwoa1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9596dc095dbf783e65d794d1daa0132cd3cff9c8
Your turns start out quite simple:

1. Play a card and perform one of its actions
2. Resolve any disorder
3. Discard your played card to the bottom of your draw pile (plus one more from your hand, if you wish)
4. Draw back up to your hand limit

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That said, early decisions can have a huge impact on your strategy. The game actually starts with an interesting draft where you lay out a bunch of unique home worlds, powerful specialist cards, and starting emissary quantities. Players take turns claiming an option until they possess one of each category. If my two opponents lunge for home worlds before me (thanks to some tempting planet abilities), I can now ignore that category until the end because the remaining two options are exclusively for me to choose from. If I can manage to select a specialist card that combos well with one of those planets (or strengthens my ability to milk a score card on display), then that’ll be my first choice. This starting phase certainly favors more experienced players who understand the hidden nuances, but it absolutely doesn’t determine the winner.
Play begins with your most basic single-action turns: recruit more emissaries from your supply, explore a new planet, spread your emissaries around, claim planet ability tokens by having majority pieces there, build an institute, gain another specialist card into your deck… those kinds of things. Emissaries and institutes give you vital presence throughout the galaxy, which is what you’ll need to earn points from the objective cards. While emissaries are mobile and flexible, institutes are stationary buildings which increase your hand size and allow you to recruit directly to more planets than your home world. Gaining allies (claiming planet ability tiles) will open up your options (assuming you have a card to play that lets you activate a planet ability). And awakening specialists is like injecting alien steroids into your deck. To be honest, all of these actions feel satisfyingly powerful — that of gaining specialists, increasing your hand size, and growing your planet tableau.
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Those who enjoy a meaty engine builder or snowballing combotastic turns will find much to love here. Where early turns often see players throwing down one card for a single action and an occasional handful of pitiful points, late turns will see them executing a half dozen actions across multiple cards and planet tiles as they rocket up the score track. That’s because some actions, if chosen, will grant you the ability to take another action (I.e. play another card). These are mainly found across the specialist cards and planet tokens, which players gain more of over time. You’ll get a taste of the vastness of outer space as growing planet tiles consume your table and single turn combos stretch on into eternity.
Inevitably, downtime noticeably increases as the game nears its completion or when more players are at the table. Where two experienced players can certainly knock a game out in roughly 90 minutes, at three and four players it seems more likely that you’ll cross two hours and even approach three. Where many games can buckle under the weight of slow downtimes or long play sessions, Galactic Renaissance handles it fairly well. I believe I prefer it most at 3 players, which strikes a nice balance between player competition and game length, but I certainly enjoyed it at 2 and 4 as well. Those who want to bask in maximum conflict will surely find it in the epic 4 player game.
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Conflict itself is another standout feature of the Galactic Renaissance experience. Each planet displays a stability threshold represented by a number of spaces. These spaces do not limit how many emissaries, institutes, and foundations are allowed on a planet; rather, they simply indicate the planet’s tolerance for interstellar interlopers. If you ever end your turn with a planet’s stability threshold exceeded, then a disorder phase is triggered. Starting with the active player, every player must take a disorder action (even if the planet becomes stable again during the disorder phase). That means that somebody (usually multiple somebodies) is getting kicked off the planet, unless you happen to have a disorder card in your hand to play and avoid your mandatory evacuation. Usually, you’ll either have to remove an emissary, remove an institute, or retreat to an allied planet. If a player only has one piece on a planet, you can do a lot of damage by getting them kicked off (often costing them the chance to score 1-3 points from that planet). What’s even crazier is that you can retreat to an allied planet with too many emissaries and cause that planet to become unstable. It’s possible to trigger a cascade of disorder if you are so inclined for such chaos.
Notably, disorder is not only more common with more players, but it is also more worthwhile. Where many of the scoring objective cards require you to be on a shared planet (meaning more than one player has pieces on it), it often feels like a waste to crowd out an opponent if their departure means the planet is no longer shared. The only reason to do something like that is if this rival could potentially win the game on their next turn and you are forced to sacrifice your own scoring potential to keep your hope of a comeback alive. In a 3 or 4 player game, you are more frequently incentivized to sow chaos across the galaxy because planets often possess 3 or more player colors, and nobody cares if that 3rd or 4th player gets booted (except for them, of course ;).
Even after spending many hours with the game across several plays, I’m still finding myself learning and improving. There are plenty of strategies and tactics to dig up in this galactic sandbox. You’ll discover and gleefully spam tricks that allow you to cycle through your deck faster to get back to that Senator card ASAP. You’ll meddle in the business of others and spread disorder across planets where opponents are weakly clinging on in desperation. You’ll seek to undermine their scoring potential while carefully planting seeds for your next scoring harvest. It’s not as blatant or brutal as Inis, but the interaction here can still be very effective.
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While Galactic Renaissance preserves much of the political and positional spirit of Inis, it manages to carve out its own legacy. If Inis is a knife fight in a Celtic phone booth between prospective kings atop a hill, Galactic Renaissance is a space race between growing snowballs as they roll down that hill. Both games serve as loud and clear evidence that Christian Martinez is a designer to keep an eye on and that Matagot knows how to make an epic board game. I, for one, am excited to see and experience this game further, especially in its final form.
Galactic Renaissance launches on Kickstarter on March 21st. Check it out here.
Article written by Nick of Bitewing Games. Outside of practicing dentistry part-time, Nick has devoted his remaining work-time to collaborating with the world’s best designers, illustrators, and creators in producing excellent board games, including the upcoming Zoo Vadis by Reiner Knizia. He hopes you’ll follow Bitewing Games in their quest to create and share classy board games that bite.