If you wanted to introduce the concept of a deck building game to a sentient ball of ooze, you would struggle to find something more simple and laser targeted than Star Realms.

The whole game fits in a box no bigger than about two normal decks of playing cards, the rules come on a small pamphlet, every card is super easy to read and understand, and you can teach this two player game in less time than it takes to run an internet speed test.

Players start with a basic deck consisting of the typical currency and damage dealing type cards you find in deck builders. Currency allows you to buy cards from a shop row, damage lets you start grinding away at your opponent’s 50 authority (health points). There’s 3 types of cards you can buy: ships, space stations, and outposts. These are divided into 4 factions.

Ship cards may have higher damage or cash generating amounts than your starter ships, sometimes with a faction bonus if you play another card of the same faction on this turn. Some with a bonus if you trash the card.

Stations and outposts stay on the table between turns, meaning you are immediately generating bonuses each round, without having to glut your hand. However, if you have an outpost down, opponents must attack this before they can damage you directly.

Clock stop!

159Mb/s down and 19Mb/s up. Not bad, but streaming is occasionally unstable.

Star Realms is very simple, but that doesn’t stop it having some depth. How you build your deck is quite important. Do you go for whatever card comes up that looks strong? Do you try to stick to only one or two factions? Do you invest heavily in outposts and build a wall in front of you? Do you try to trash all your starter cards? There’s a decent amount to think about, but either way, this game will be over in 20-30 minutes. So if it doesn’t work out, you can always go again.

The art isn’t amazing, but it’s decent enough and consistent across all the cards. The faction cards go well together but still look like they belong in the same universe as other factions, and card symbols are clear and easy to understand.

If all this sounds fun, but you’d rather play with up to 4 player, try Star Realms Frontiers which is the same game with more cards.

But wait, there’s more. If you get reeeeeally into this and never want to leave, this box of simplicity can be complicated. You can throw about 13 expansions plus numerous commander decks (specific starting conditions for that commander including a unique starter deck, rules for your starting hand size and amount of authority (health)) in to beef up the experience. You can, but personally I’d use SR as an entry point and then head to deeper… space (I was going to say water and then I spiralled into a whole thing about fluid space, and then it all got very Treky and otherwise nerdy. Luckily I managed to stay on target).

Pros:

• Cheap.
• Quick Teach.
• Great starter game.

Cons:

• Not hugely replayable.
• Not very deep.
• I can’t count backwards with the provided lifepoint cards.

Final Score: 7.5/10