Game of the year 2025?

We wrote extensively about 🚀 Galactic Cruise back when its Kickstarter was running, and it was all very positive - for a good reason! 🙃 I do think this is much more than cult-of-the-new and shiny Ian O’Toole illustrations, so here we are again 😁. This is an excellently crafted eurogame with a fun theme: running your own travel agency specializing in space cruises. 🥰 It feels great to hold the final copy in our hands, blinged out with premium components!

The core of the game is seemingly simple worker placement, but there are layers elevating it. 👉 When you send out a worker to a location, you get to perform 2 actions either there or from adjacent locations if they are connected by a development token ⚙️. This adds a bit of a network building element. There are only 6 worker spots holding the 12 actions of the game, so it gets tight fast - this is where worker bumping comes into play. 🧐 If a worker is bumped, its owner activates an income ability, which is an important source of additional resources. 💰 The 12 actions are randomly distributed across on the main board at setup, changing things up in an interesting way. 

The theme itself isn’t just an afterthought either! 🥳 Throughout the game, you’ll build up your fleet of spaceships, equip them with cool segments, plan and advertise cruises, and ensure you have enough fuel, oxygen, and food to sustain them. It’s mechanically interesting too, as your workers become pilots during cruises, so you lose access to them for a few turns, but in exchange get to trigger fun bonuses as the cruise progresses, depending on the ship and the guests on board. 👍

A big strength of Galactic Cruise is its engine building aspect. As your network grows, it gets easier to mix-and-match actions, and you also gain access to 4 randomly chosen techs. Removing development tokens also improves your storage capacity at the same time! With each launched cruise you also unlock upgrades from your player board that have a huge impact on your strategy. These things guarantee an amazing replayability for the game.

So believe me when I say the game is good. If you have a chance to try the game, I implore you to do so! ☺️