PLAYED
GALACTIC RENAISSANCE
How many diplomats does it take to change a galaxy?
Designer: Matagot | Publisher: Christian Martinez
Galactic Renaissance has big shoes to fill. Publisher Matagot has a fantastic track record when it comes to area-control games and Galactic Renaissance’s designer Christian Martinez was responsible for their best title, Inis. Marketed as a direct follow up, Galactic Renaissance feels familiar but is a much less confrontational spin on a traditionally conflict heavy genre.
In the wake of an old empire’s collapse, players are trying to ‘diplomatically’ establish the New Galactic Senate. Of course, there can only be one Senate president and that title goes to the first player to score 30 victory points. For all the sci-fi set dressing, from the ‘Cosmic Rabbit’ to the hard to pronounce planet names, this game is more interested in its systems than in evoking the narrative laid out in the opening paragraph of the rulebook.