Beyond the Sun Review - Tech Tree Perfection

ever since humanity could look up at the sky they've been saying ah why does it burn my eyes thankfully in beyond the sun you'll play as competing corporations who develop space flight to take humanity beyond the sun where the sun can't hurt their eyes anymore that's science that's science brought to you by first time designer dennis k chan and by no means first time publisher rio grande games this 2-4 player game will see you building spaceships and scientists to colonize planets and technology for the good of humanity let me roll up my sleeve and drop all of my aces straight onto the table beyond the sun was some of the most fun i've had with the board game last year and it was just a few spots shy of game of the year rest assured for the rest of this video i'll be gushing about systems and mechanisms i think are great but first let's address one or two elephants in the room first i love space i love space so much i watch pbs space time every week even though i don't understand like seventy percent of the things matt o'dowd says i love space so much i think interstellar and prometheus are good movies so with that in mind let's explore how the artwork in beyond the sun depicts the majesty of space that's right this is perhaps the best artistic depiction of space in any board game because just like the sun it burns your eyes that's science that might seem rude but i only said it to establish and then subvert expectations later that's writing okay so merely from a visual perspective beyond the sun isn't exactly what i would call pleasant and with so many space-themed board games released every year i know what you're going to ask me evga where'd you get all your fancy shirts i appreciate the compliment now is not the time what you should be asking me instead is with a theme so uninspired and artworks so blatantly turgid why does beyond the sun deserve a spot in my collection and the answer to that is trees or more specifically tech trees let's start the platitudes shall we beyond the sun is perhaps my favorite implementation of the tech tree mechanism a mechanism so old that it was popularized by video games when in fact predates them and in a circular fashion was invented in board games but before we get lost in the woods of trees why don't i tell you what you actually do in this game and it starts with these player boards in beyond the sun you'll take on the role of one of the game's four corporations your goal is to colonize space best instigating or sharing technological advancements and setting up colonies on planets outside of our solar system to do that you'll need resources such as ore or human flesh which in this game is transformed into science and spaceships don't ask but how do you get those resources you might ask i'm glad you asked on your turn you will move a dinky little cylinder and place it on one of the available action spaces scattered throughout this board and do the action depicted on it but that's not the interesting part each of your player boards has areas for supply which are resources you can turn into other resources your inventory which is where you store resources that have been turned into other resources and finally the area for production at the end of your turn you will always get to produce and here you have three options population growth or production and the third one that's too convoluted and unnecessary to explain in this video if you need to produce human flesh you simply choose population growth and see how many disks you have uncovered if you have supply cubes above uncovered spaces that produce human flesh you get to take one supply cube from each and turn it over to the flesh side in your inventory wait a minute these are not dice they're cubes that's right i did say that this is the best depiction of space in board games and what does space not have gravity can't roll dice without gravity so dice just become cubes that's science let's summarize to win the game you need to invent tech and colonize planets to invent tech and colonize planets you need resources to get resources you need to increase your production so how do you increase your production by inventing tech and colonizing planets which is where we come back to this tech tree except dear viewers there is something wrong with it because it's filled up entirely with technology and that's just not how beyond the sun rolls unlike in any tech tree game that i've played you start with a blank slate and build the tech tree as you play i thought it would be cool to lift the board and let like all the cards fall down but i now have to rebuild this entire thing for the next scene i don't need to tell you how tech trees work unless of course i do in which case let me tell you how tech trees work in a historical themed game that i totally did not make up for this example you invent the technology of farming that opens up access to two new technologies food and alcohol you can have invented food or alcohol without having invented farming first of course you could invent something entirely different like pets nothing stops you from going back later and then inventing farming and food which would combine with pets give you a lot of bonuses the trick being that all these pathways have been pre-written by the game's designers and your choices revolve around navigating them beyond the sun says that's fine but all these trees are dead and i don't know if you've seen trees but the whole point of them is that they are alive so at the start of the game you will always start with the same technology basic space fairing that's level zero and at level one you will always have the same four level one text although you haven't invented them yet and they are in a randomized order but all these level two three and four spaces are empty these are not technologies these are just events that happen when you invent the technology however the technology will be chosen at the moment when you invent it each time you do invent a new tech you look at the color of the tech before it and draw technology cards until you draw two of the matching color out of those you choose either one you like invent it and immediately get the benefits some technologies provide you with an immediate bonus some provide you with a new action space and some do both let's say you invent advanced genetics you don't draw a new card because advanced genetics is already on the table you just put some human flesh on it and the technology is yours in later rounds you might invent psionic research and then an android armada and then a new golden age congratulations you have just created the star wars prequels the glue that holds this all together is that just because you invented something doesn't mean other players can't park their flesh on it which makes the moment of choosing a technology particularly exciting because you're not just making a choice for yourself you're making it for the entire table and because getting new tech still requires you to have prerequisites you could be equally very kind or very mean to someone else by cutting off their path with a technology that's rubbish for them i'm sorry what was that steven you have no use for hive mind computing well if you want to continue down this path you will kiss at borg and you'll like it the evolving technology board is the main event and it dominates the proceedings it determines what's possible and how the game flows but there is a delightful side dish that goes along with it in space you will have spaces for spaceships by choosing actions on the technology board you can create and move spaceships if at the end of movement you have more ships than anyone else on a given planet you can take control of it that lets you place an appropriate disk from your player board on that planet as long as you control it which increases your capability to produce ore or flash finally if you have enough spaceships you can even colonize the planet you get to place yet another disc and now no one can take these away from you because the planet card moves off of the board and goes to your personal area if that wasn't enough when you colonize a planet and get the card you also get to activate the ability that's on that card and just like technologies it could be something instantaneous or a permanent effect for example if you colonize ross you can now move on to action spaces occupied by other players on the surface the space board feels like ancillary area control tug-of-war in a fairly by-the-book point salary experience but in play blossoms into something more integral an unholy union like discovering that the carlton dance sinks up perfectly to the replacements can't hardly wait it shouldn't but it just works [Music] if you colonize tz arietis you will score a point for each level 2 and 3 tech that you've invented and now your game pivots towards the center of the technology board whereas if you colonize kruger 60 you'll score points for colonizing certain other planets and that's an entirely different game you're playing the relationship between these two boards is thus symbiotic cyclically feeding into each other and appropriately for a game where you build a tech tree the strategies also emerge as you play some technologies and planets might never appear but more importantly the ones that do they might not be there for you a crucial technology for your strategy might leap out in a branch you have no access to so then what do you do do you pivot or do you keep plowing in the same direction in hopes of finding something else that's good the tenor of the game is determined by chance but also by everyone who's playing it so i'm in front of the artwork in this game and let me say this i still think it's incredibly dorky but there's so much to love in beyond the sun that ridiculously i'm starting to warm towards it on the one hand you could say that this is just different shades of grey embarrassingly glued together with a lazy gradient but on the other hand you could say that those same shades of grey hark into classic sci-fi like the corporate lodgings and aliens or the aesthetics of thx-1138 and i'm leaning a lot more towards the second interpretation because there's a wonderfully emergent story that comes out of the mechanisms sorry did i say wonderful what i meant was really dark a benign example of this would be you training up an army to go and colonize a planet as soon as you take it over all the ships that were once people immediately turned back into supply that's because those ships became colonists and started immediately working for you by training the planet of resources so that's nice but then there's cards like human experiments that sounds bad but not quite as bad as realizing that human experiments actually falls down the robotics and military branches of tech meaning you just created an army of robocops great taken at face value beyond the sun would be as dry as raisins but it clearly doesn't take itself very seriously instead it feels bubbly vibrant satirical and most importantly doesn't outstates welcome game end is determined when a certain number of achievements are completed but because between all players you only need to complete three or four of them no one's dawdling or wasting time there's an underlying sense of urgency that permeates everything you do you want this cool new tech you want to dunk some spaceships so you can overtake a shipyard you want to colonize planets and obviously you can't do everything but also these actions that let you do things they are not perfect so you're constantly rifling through your options trying to suss out the most efficient set of moves there's enough depth and variety for beyond the sun to never feel samey as long as you buy into the emergent puzzle and if it does start feeling samey hooray there's a whole set of extra corporation boards that sprinkle the saffron of board games asymmetry and thus we arrive at the critique part of this review if you want a verdict just for the base game alone beyond the sun gets two thumbs up 12 out of 10 mpi seal of excellence recommended go buy it now but some of this other stuff in this box is asymmetrical factions sound cool right i know board gamers it's gonna take actual work to convince them they're not exactly amazing so let's delve a smidge deeper each of these lets you specialize be better at a particular strategy from the get-go but by being good at one thing you're also being worse at a lot of other things and beyond the sun isn't the sort of game that lets you just say you know what today i'm just gonna push tech all the way to level four beyond the sun wants you to be reactive hey a planet just appeared that measures well with my strategy i'll pivot and colonize that someone just invented a great tech for me i better work my way towards it these are all tactical decisions in a melange of both tactics and strategy with the former one being very much dominant and asking you to commit to a strategy before the game even started frankly sounds like a bum deal i think people who approach games experientially and obsess less about coming out on top will probably still get a good kick out of these but to me these feel like playing with your hand tied behind your back except some people's knots are looser i was also not a fan of the expert mode which replaces the system for selecting technology with a less fun system so that's an upgrade don't like asymmetry don't play with it that's fine but here i have another criticism that pierces slightly deeper i mentioned that beyond the sun is a more tactical game than it is strategic and normally i'd embrace that but here it somehow feels wrong when i sit down to play a grand space strategy game i guess i have some expectations and i think dennis key chan did a marvelous job at tying two design elements together there's enough weeds in both of these to get completely tangled up but at the end of the day it's a game that gives you bread and butter and says what ratio would you like these ad and all i can think to reply is can i maybe have some tomato good news publisher rio grande games have already started talk of an expansion that's a in the works and b will add not just more cards and options but an extra major mechanism and i am here for it bad news well if everything you just heard makes you think great where can i buy this i'm sad to say that the first printing has come and gone gone back to good news the second printing is probably only a few months away although you know it's covet times so who knows really judging by demand and also the fact that shut up and sit down who regularly sell out games have said that they're excited to review this as soon as it hits the shelves again we felt like we had no other option but to time our review in a way where you could get in on those pre-orders that's science and you know what don't let my last few lines of criticism deceive you beyond the sun is as excellent as they make them full of tension crunchy decisions and emergent storytelling and the fact that there's an expansion already on the way i can't hardly wait this video is sponsored by skillshare the online learning community that offers thousands of classes on various subjects from interior design to photography to even board game design skillshare is the destination for a curious mind that wants to learn more and discover more we've been sponsored by skillshare for a while and i always think i'm going to run out of ideas for classes to recommend but the variety is just astounding i've explored everything from sunset photography to just making a grilled cheese sandwich some classes are very technical and some are very inspirational learn indie filmmaking by making a short film by olaf the floor is a class that asks you to do exactly that grab a camera any camera and make a short film it walks you through everything you need but it mostly just asks you to go ahead and do it which is the sort of spirit i can get behind you can find olafs and many more classes for less than ten dollars a month with an annual subscription and if you click the link in the description the first 1 000 of you can get a free trial of skillshare premium so you can explore your creativity and go make a short film you'll have something to be proud of

Channel: No Pun Included

Views: 44,049

Rating: 4.92693 out of 5

Keywords: no pun included, board game, review, npi, boardgames, boardgamegeeks, brettspiel, brettspiele, jeuxdesociete, tabletop, games, juego de mesa, gamenight, 2021, beyond the sun, rio grande games

Id: V9fCxQzLe0A

Length: 17min 46sec (1066 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 27 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/grandsuperior]

This was a bit of an impulse buy for me. I was enthralled by the promise of a great tech tree game and it absolutely delivered. I agree that the graphic design is pretty blah but it's also barebones and functional (in the same way that people like the graphic design in 18xx games). Very happy with the game.

I'm disheartened that they're already talking about the SUSD effect in the review, though. Efka's right - SUSD is very hot on this game (based on how they talked about it on their podcast) and once they release their video review you can expect this game to be hard to get again. If you're interested in the Beyond the Sun, get in on the second printing as soon as possible.

[u/GorillaSnapper]

Got the mad hype over this, a mate said his first play was good with another friend who got an early copy.

Scoured my state (and country for that matter) and jagged one of the last print run thats sold out everywhere.

Glad I did. Its amazing.

[u/GunPoison]

I'm just here to confirm that Interstellar is good. It's not just you Efka.

[u/ThyFemaleDothDeclare]

First impression: It's fine. I think this is a pretty good review still, even if I don't agree with the end judgement.

It didn't feel like it had enough going on for me. Every tech felt incredibly similar and repetitive. I think NPI did a good job pointing it out, but for me it was a much larger turn off than them; it really is bread or butter. So then every tech is just add bread, or add butter.

Another thing I agreed with, is I tried it with advanced boards and advanced tech rules because we tend to prefer expert rules. These were a swing and miss for us; if we play again it would certainly be base rules.

Also the events are random as hell; I don't like random events. Also for me the most interesting part of the game are level 4 techs for end game points, and they have a big requirement and then the game probably just ends when 1 person gets 1. I think NPI likes the game length but I wish it was longer if it meant getting more level 4 techs. Or maybe make them easier to get.

I would prefer Haspelknecht for a tech tree experience.

[u/lunatic4ever]

ah great! Just in time to realize it is sold out absolutely everywhere

[u/nowyouknowchris]

I tried to get a copy a few weeks ago and juuuuuuust missed out on the last copy in town. Now I have to wait until June for the reprint.

I have to say though- is this game overpriced? Msrp is $75 in the US.

[u/Sparticuse]

This is the game I'm looking forward to playing most at game nights after covid. It's good at 2 but it feels like it'll be excellent at 4. On top of that my friends are really into efficiency games and more so games with tech trees.

[u/FeedMeMaybe]

This is my favorite game right now, easy game of the year 2020. Everybody in my play group just wants to play this.

[u/Hdejiks]

Got this game for christmas and had never heard of it before then. It is by far one of my favorite games now.