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Cosmic Encounter Online Launches

Posted by simoniker on from the played-the-board-game-and-enjoyed-it dept.

InfinityWpi writes "It took me by surprise, but Cosmic Encounter Online is up and running, and may just be the best use of Flash I've ever seen. Okay, so it's the 'new' 4-play, 4-planets version... but there's something cool about the promise of alien powers that you could only pull off with a computer. The greatest board game ever continues to live on..." Here's a brief review of the non-online Cosmic Encounter for those who haven't played it and want to know a little more.

11 comments

  1. The greatest board game ever, until . . . by Bootsy+Collins · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I played this game a ton when it first came out, something like 23 years ago, when it was Eon Productions that made it. It was fantastic. The variety of alien powers and ways in which they could interact made every match different and interesting.

    Then, Eon Productions released an expansion set with more alien powers. That was OK, although some of the new powers seemed poorly thought out -- too weak, or (worse) way too strong. Then a second expansion set came out, and it was more of the same. Then a third set came out, containing the "flare cards," whose introduction of random powers at random times into the game destroyed any ability to develop and pursue a strategy. You could think up some clever way to maximize the usefulness of your power against the other players' in this particular game; but the flare cards meant that any power could come up at any time.

    So don't play with the expansion sets? Hard, if you wanted to play with other people. And when Mayfair Games bought the rights to distribute CE, they folded all that stuff into the game itself -- so people who came to the game at that point had those new unbalancing powers and the flare cards as part of the base game; convincing people you might want to play with that "we'd be better off ignoring those" didn't work so well. And so the game was still mildly entertaining, but nothing like it was when it first came out.

    1. Re:The greatest board game ever, until . . . by Ondo · · Score: 1

      After Mayfair, it was put out by Hasbro. I believe their goal was to put out something close to the original game without the expansions - I know it didn't have that many powers, but I haven't played it so I don't know what other stuff they included.

    2. Re:The greatest board game ever, until . . . by waytoomuchcoffee · · Score: 2, Interesting

      The expansions set are what MADE it the greatest board game ever. Well, not all of them, but you don't like flares? Come on now - the Eon flares were great, not those neutered versions in the Mayfair set you could only use once. The extent of variety is why so many of the ideas were stolen and later put into Magic the card game. (If you want a real history lesson, go find a copy of Kings and Things by Tom Wham and see where the rest of Magic was stolen from).

      I also heavily disagree with the assumption that flares nuked strategy. In a good table, an overpowering flare card would be out of the game pretty fast. The nice thing about CE is that there were TONS of counters to various actions/powers/cards. In our games, to get that last base you often had to have 2, 3, or even 4 counters ready (which you had been collecting for a few turns). You got zapped? Well here's an unzap. Etc. Didn't have your last turn strategy mapped out? You lost.

      It is really seldom you see a game that so much strategy is needed in a good table to win, and how you need to set it up from the first turn (and sometimes before, by picking your powers if that's how you play). It's a cliche to compare games to chess or go, but CE is one of those games that the comparison is apt.

      Granted, some of the expansion sets are weak (to me), like the moons and the whole lucre thing. However, putting more variety in means something for everyone. Lots of my friends loved the moon set (well, at least until they got "moon tune" a few times, and they had a sing a little song about their powers).

      The sad part about Mayfair is that they had a SECOND expansion after More Cosmic Encounter ready to go -- everything was ready to print. Too bad it never made it before the big meltdown.

      I still have my Eon set with all nine (count em!) expansion sets, and it still has a prominent place in my top game shelf. Too bad they never have a Eon tourney at any of the cons.

    3. Re:The greatest board game ever, until . . . by misuba · · Score: 1

      The "Avalon Hill"/Hasbro version, published in 1999 or so, has 20 alien powers, nothing resembling Flare cards, and truly gorgeous components. Oddly, you'll find it discounted at lots of game stores.

      --

      If you don't pretend to be anyone, are you?

    4. Re:The greatest board game ever, until . . . by wcbarksdale · · Score: 1

      I don't know, CE seems like it's always been a beer and pretzels type game rather than a serious strategy game. It's intentionally unfair -- some powers just lose to other powers.

  2. Is IS on topic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you know anything about Slashdot, you know about the "slashdot effect".

    Then, if you know anything about "Cosmic Encounter", then you know about the game mods called "flares".

    It might be unfunny, but it is very well on topic.

  3. Hm, it's okay by Shanoyu · · Score: 1

    My only qualm with it is how slow it runs compared to how slow it has to run. Then again i'm use to lightning chess for fast board games. I don't know that i'd pay a fee for it, but its definately inspired me to find the original game.