The Crew: The Quest For Planet Nine

Ever since the success of 2013 Spiel des Jahres winner, Hanabi, there has been a growing popularity among communication-limited cooperative games. Just a few years later, we saw The Game and The Mind both nominated for the Spiel des Jahres in 2015 and 2018 respectively. And here we are with the 2020 Kennerspiel des Jahres winner in The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine. Does it live up to the hype? Or is it the beginning of genre fatigue?

The Crew brings theme to a genre often lacking character. Although the cards are essentially reminiscent of a deck of playing cards, the art is inspired. It would have been easy to make all cards have the same art, like its contemporaries The Mind and The Game. Instead, players are treated to unique designs on each numbered card; a thoughtful touch. The tokens and stand add dimension to a genre that is often just a deck of cards. Big props to the team for adding symbols to keep the game colour-blind friendly!

At its core, The Crew is a trick-taking game. Trick-taking is when players must play cards matching a suit or colour, and the highest value wins the ‘trick’ (the cards played). Trick-taking games are almost exclusively competitive, but The Crew flips it into a cooperative experience. Throughout the game, no communication is permitted among players. Players begin the game by selecting (or being assigned) tasks which correspond to specific cards. In order for players to win, they have to ensure that the correct players receive their tasked cards.

It seems simple enough, but The Crew adds twists along the way. In addition to the instruction manual, the game comes with a mission log. Each mission adds new twists to add difficulty. Tasks are sometimes assigned with numbers to indicate the order that they must be completed. Players have communication tokens which allow them to give information about a particular card in their hand. It can inform players that the card is: their highest card of that colour, their lowest card of that colour, or the only card of that colour. The mission log has scoring parameters to measure how players performed in each mission.

Experienced gamers will quickly pick up on the flow of the game in the early missions (intended to act as tutorials). But as players move through the mission log, the game quickly begins to show just how merciless it can be. With 50 missions to play, there is a ton of content for players to challenge themselves. It will likely take several attempts towards the end but when it clicks, it really clicks. The Crew succeeds at building a multi-dimensional game around the limited-communication genre.

Thanks to The Crew’s mission log, the game is immediately accessible for gamers of any skill level. Because of the difficulty ramp, there are challenges appropriate for everyone. It also introduces mechanics one at a time, so even novice gamers can eventually pick up on trickier challenges. The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine proves that there is still room for growth in its genre, and there is still a lot of fun to have for gamers of all types.