Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/9250393/solus-lost-second-edition

Designer: Chance Harris
Publisher: Wolf-Boy Entertainment Group LLC
Artists: Greg Bahlmann, Ezequiel Di Savino

Solus: Lost is a card-based solo only game about surviving space even though your character and ship continually get damaged, and space itself seems to be working furiously against you. It is 100% one of those games where you can have a “NOOOOOO!” moment, and I can get easily annoyed by those, but this one was actually really fun! I distinctly remember that on my first playthrough, I was exceptionally close to winning, and then I got a card that put me so far back, and I just laughed. 😂 It’s all I could do to not cry. Not really, but it was a really enjoyable and memorable experience. Each play after that wasn’t quite as intense, especially since the more you play the more you learn and understand the cards and their combinations.

Each turn, the player has two facedown cards to choose from. They can either pick one and follow its instructions, or they can put it back and select the other card and do the same, but there’s no going back once that second card is revealed – it must be resolved. These cards can contain crew, enemies, events that can be beneficial or detrimental, items, bosses, etc. The goal of the game is to acquire four homelinks (which are scattered throughout the deck) and defeat all four overlords (also randomly spread throughout the deck) to acquire their associated artefacts; then you escape the galaxy safely.

While the space theme may be a little overdone, this game is decently thematic and atmospheric. Mechanically, there is some fun decision making alongside push your luck. Both tactical and strategic choices have to be made in terms of the cards you select, which items and crew you keep, if you want to flee a battle, if your character or your ship takes damage, etc. There is also an interesting design element where there are two separate discard type piles – one that has cards that are removed from the game, and the other has cards that can come back into play later in the game which is interesting and quite unique. It works really well for this game and helps create those “you’ve got to be kidding!” moments.

Luck can definitely play a factor in this game. The timing and order of the cards in the deck is probably the most significant as that really impacts game length and possible success, but the enemy battles also rely on dice rolling. Thankfully, though, there is quite a bit of mitigation possible which can help with this. I do also wish there were some asymmetric characters, ships, or something to add a little more variety.

While the game is pretty quick overall, it is possible to have a long game if you end up cycling through cards/decks multiple times, which can happen. Regardless, the game is very easy to set up and take down, and the box is a great size and fits everything nicely.

This one was a bit of a surprise for me! I honestly didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but I’m glad I have it in the collection. It has a good mix of strategy, tactics, and luck, has smooth gameplay, great art, a nice overarching story, and much more for a great price point.