Noobs in Space – Space Madness review

Infinite Universe: Noobs in Space? What is this, I thought when I first pulled it out and had no idea what to expect.. We are in the middle of a parlor game by Johannes Krener, Markus Slowicek, published by Kosmos.

We are in 2928 Zordonian as instructed and of course I’m thinking Star Trek. But far from it, noobs in space sends us after a final test (the tutorial) on a mission limited to eight levels. We fly into space and play under time pressure – without initially having a clue what to actually do.

Are Noobs in Space an Escape Scenario?

An escape game style adventure awaits now and it’s hard not to get spoiled. Because I don’t want to provide any solutions here. Important: A countdown timer must be included. So get your cell phone! And just so you know: nothing gets destroyed!

The gameplay of noobs in space

The entry level (tutorial) doesn’t really do anything, except that it explains the gameplay and also indicates the timer. This is quickly understood and allows you to continue with Level 1.

Then follows something that reminds me a lot of escape games: we are asked to look for levers, solve tasks and fulfill certain orders. At the end of the level, exactly the required number of cards must be on the table in a specific order.

This means that we do not have to play all the cards that are dealt to us at the beginning of the level. The number of cards in each level of the game can be found at the back of the instructions. Sometimes there is an “aha” at the beginning when there are fewer cards that we have chosen from the deck.

Cards are then dealt four to five tasks, which must be performed under time pressure. Once you do that, stop timing and look at the result. Each incorrect task increases the time played by 3 minutes. After a good two hours, Noobs in Space finished and we finished the full missions.

Conclusion: Are Noobs Having Fun in Space?

Noobs in Space is a close escape zone cooperative and communicative puzzle game. But you don’t destroy anything here, so you can easily pass the game after it has been played. Because it’s not worth playing multiple times in this series either. The puzzles are so loose and easy to remember that it would take a long pause to forget the solutions. Therefore, the replay call is not so high for an individual that the second time you can only work as a card dealer.

In our group of frequent players, we solved all but two of the levels in the fastest time. This goes to show that noobs in space aren’t that difficult. Communication is the icing on the cake here and we all really enjoyed our two hours. No one had the feeling they wanted out, and that’s convincing.

And a complex study of the rules is not needed here, because we got to know the game very well. So I’m also going to play the next noobs adventure, which probably involves a pirate ship. Maybe it will take a little longer then?