Star Realms: Rise of Empire Review: In Space, No One Can Hear You Sticker

[@dmitryche884]

Thanks for the review❤ a bit disappointing, but Star Realms will always have place on my shelf as the simple and clean example of pure deckbuilding game 🙌🏻

[@cursivecurses]

We played this through today from start to finish in 6 hours. Agree wholeheartedly with the review, except for the comment about faction balance: don't forget you can just buy the other person's cards in the next game. I was Trade Federation (the name you were looking for...) and upgraded all my stuff lightning fast, then my Star Empire opponent won 3 games in a row by just buying my super cool Trade Fed cards before I could.

[@pluvia33]

I just finished the campaign with my wife after previously getting and loving all Star Realms and Hero Realms before we had meet. I found it to be a great way to introduce her to this style of deck building game. Most of this review is perfectly fine; I can understand feeling like most of the campaign after finishing your stickers to be a little bland if you were looking for a more involved legacy/campaign experience and the final scenario rubbing you the wrong way if you had no interest in playing Star Realms cooperatively. However, I do feel the need to push back on the mention of the game content only using about a sixth of the box. For one, that's basically just counting the main cards and completely ignores the 12+ campaign envelopes for the game which take up about 1/4 of the box just on their own. And personally, I much rather have a bit of extra space in the box so sleeved cards can comfortably fit, along with potentially adding cards from expansions if this were my starting set (which it's not for me, but I feel this is a perfectly viable starting point for people who the legacy aspect appeals to). I happen to also recently get the Kickstarter version of the new Shards of Infinity Saga Collection and was extremely frustrated when I finished sleeving the cards (with the sleeves that they sold as part of the KS campaign) and the cards had to be squeezed EXTREMELY tight into the insert, to the point that taking the cards out and putting them back in will be their own dexterity game. The box could have easily been an inch or more wider in both directions to give the cards more room to fit sleeved and still be within the "standard" board game box size. It's just nuts that they didn't catch this issue during the production process and very annoying that I'm now hoping the Folded Space or Laserox make a better insert for the game eventually.

[@benjaminspears8488]

Just noticed that you have two different copies of the same game- Bites- behind you on the shelf along with its expansion. Might want to sub in a different All Play game in place of the older version.

[@WiseWizardGames]

Hi guys, thanks for doing the review. I'm glad you had a great time with the first four games, and sorry you didn't enjoy the rest of it more. We have gotten a lot of great feedback from players who LOVED Rise of Empire (for example Jamey Stegmaier listed it in his top 10 games of 2024). Several things I'd like to point out: The new factions are VERY different from the original cards in that they all have "When Acquired" abilities. For example, when you buy a Kingdom card, you get combat right away. These new factions really change the way the games plays. Many players like multiplayer Star Realms games, and for those who do, this set can be really fun to play. The upgraded cards are fair for their cost vs non-upgraded cards as upgrade cards lose their "when acquired abilities" in exchange for the abilities they gain. So your customized final trade deck will be unique, but fair. You should try that game mode out. In games 5-11 while you aren't adding additional sticker sheets, you are adding in events and gambits. In game 12, the Blob do randomly consume cards, which will mess with the number of upgrade cards by player per faction and the end of campaign victory points, BUT you can rescue cards, so you can make decisions and have some control to get your cards back. We think the sides are balanced, but there are nuances in how you best play each side. Keep in mind that you can buy your opponent's upgraded cards from the trade row.

[@gaucholaw1]

My copy just arrived yesterday. Have not played it yet but the production looks amazing.

[@theshogunstein6475]

My son and I play Star Realms all the time and one of the great things about the game is how much value you get for a $20 deck, I have invested in two other expansion decks so for about $60 we have had years of great games, I am skeptical about bigger star realms productions because it seems to go against why we enjoy the game so much.

[@Br0kenM0nkey]

I only completed 3 scenarios, but good to know there's 1 good one left to play. LOL. I was wondering if it would be worth trying to add the final "deck" to the existing Star Realms content. Since all the upgrades center around only 2 of the 4 original factions, doesn't seem like its worth bothering with after you're done with the campaign.

[@Voreten]

Man if I'm playing Star Realms I'm playing the app. I was hoping this would be a reason to play it on tabletop but nope.

[@masacuna]

this game is literally the fastest and easiest to set up and play.

[@lungeranon7645]

@@masacuna The app is still way faster.

[@EpicFamilyAdventures]

I agree, once you play the app, the regular game takes way too long by comparison. You can play 20 games on the app in the time it takes to set up and play one game in person

[@pluvia33]

Honestly, the apps for Star/Hero Realms feel TOO fast at time, to the point where it comes off as a bit of a soulless experience for me. It's nice to just chill, shuffle up and flip out the cards manually. But to each their own.

[@jameskirk4692]

Thanks for this video review. I love regular Star Realms.

[@eduardoserpa1682]

For this price point I thought the cards from the Infinite Replay Kit were included so you at least could lend and resell easily. Otherwise, I really don't see it.

[@JLH111176]

have to make the box bigger to make you think you getting more than what you pay for like potato chips. Also, they might have already had tooling made to make boxes that size and make more boxes with new art is cheaper

[@WiseWizardGames]

The box is sized to fit the game board, scoredials, a stack of campaign envelopes, the trade deck, and six starting decks. There is some extra space for people that want to sleeve their cards, and there is an insert to hold the components, which takes up some space.

[@JLH111176]

@@WiseWizardGames that is good you made box big enough to hold sleeved cards, in the review that is not how they made that sound to me at least

[@hanslamal5632]

This game didn't need new factions... Just build out the story of the four existing ones... I love Star Realms, but legacy and stickers, not for me... The app is wonderful though, I'm curious how they will add the new factions to the existing game.

[@cteng1984]

Don't trust Wise Wizards with any of their Kickstarters, you'll be in for a world of disappointment with their constant delays and their overall mismanagement with their projects, I don't know how anyone gives them money to make things.

[@joeferreti9442]

You lost me at "sticker". I hate stickers in board games.

[@amunt3r]

Maybe they want to reduce the resale market?

[@WiseWizardGames]

you don't have to sticker your cards if you get the Infinite Replay Kit. The Infinite Replay Kit includes every version of upgraded cards and you can swap them in. This way you don't need to use stickers and the campaign can be reset and replayed.

[@avaraportti1873]

ok

[@MH-dn3jz]

I mean that's fine you do you. Arbitrary stickers are annoying but Legacy games are a GREAT experiment in the medium.

[@pierrewhite2062]

They hate you too

[@jacobjslee]

This project took over two years to produce. Everything was designed before the project launched so they were basically just printing cards. Cards that took over two years to print. In that time, I lost interest in Star Realms. When it finally arrived, I was still annoyed so I didn't play it for a while. I promise to never back them again.

[@saintsalieri]

I hope I can pick this up for $20 someday and play it with my nephew. But I can get an infinitely replayable deck of Star Realms for $10 and this is $50 even though it's disposable.

[@John-lf3iu]

WWG have really dropped the ball recently. I really used to rate what they produced…. 😢

[@alexstrang9823]

Love Star Realms. Have no interest in this, when just MORE expansions to the base game seem more fun. (this feels like a lazy afterthought to me)

[@Diceonahill]

That matt is sooo busy! It's uncomfortable to look at.

[@joeferreti9442]

The millionth Star Realms product ... :/

[@Noobwater]

okay

[@cursivecurses]

That's not really the issue, people who love Star Realms are not going to be sad to have more product? Weird complaint

[@minimoose7890]

Oof, what a swing and a miss

[@Dalmatinac3]

Unnecessary version of the game

[@CK-mi3sd]

Star Realm is itself an easy entry level game that is worse than Dominion. No interest in its legacy game.