Curiosity
- Board's Eye View
- Jun 9
- 2 min read
No, this isn't yet another feline-themed game and no cats are killed in the course of play. Curiosity was the name given to the car-sized rover launched by NASA in November 2011 and which has been collecting data from the surface of Mars for more than 12 years. In this game designed by Eloi Pujadas and Eugeni Castano, and published by GDM, the 2-4 players are hackers working for rival space agencies seizing control of NASA's Curiosity rover so you can discover mineral deposits on Mars to be claimed by your nefarious clients.
The premise is that the rival space agencies have launched previous failed missions, so while searching out mineral deposits you're also trying to avoid revealing the space junk debris from your client's failed missions. Players will be placing out their tokens face down so other players don't know which of their opponent's tokens are positive and which are negative.
Players in turn either place out a token on any unoccupied square or they play a card. The cards determine the number of spaces Curiosity moves in each direction, so you're collectively programming the rover in each of the game's three rounds. However, the pile for each direction closes when the fourth card is played (third card if you're playing Curiosity as a two-player game) and it's only the top card on the pile that counts, so don't expect to be exercising too much control, especially in a four-player game. Once all the cards are played, the Curiosity rover is moved and all the tokens it passes over are revealed and count towards players' scores. Positive tokens not encountered are discarded but otherwise unrevealed negative tokens are also scored. If a player's '404' token is encountered by the rover, that player is excluded from winning no matter how high their score. The '404' tokens are only used in the final round so this functions as a potential catch-up mechanic rather than player elimination: it means even a player whose points score is way behind in rounds 2 and 3 is still in with a chance of stealing victory in the final round.
There's an element of bluff and push-your-luck in Curiosity, both over the placement of tokens and, even moreso, over where and when to play your direction/movement cards, but this is mostly a game of luck that will appeal to children or for playing as a family game. It's a pity that the cards don't more clearly show the direction to which they correspond: the yellow cards, for example, generate movement towards the South Pole but you'll probably feel the need to confirm that in the rules sheet because it's not entirely obvious from the design on the card. We would've preferred it if the board and the cards showed cardinal North/South/East/West compass directions.
