What is the game about?
In Aquanauts, you take on the roles of marine researchers who study the depths of the ocean in pursuit of publishing research articles about their findings. You work from an underwater station, where you set up your own laboratory systems to extract the right samples.
Gameplay
This is a worker placement game with a very cute twist. You always have two workers available to you, and a third worker can be “acquired” from the beginning of the game. The two main workers are submarines, and the third worker is an aquanaut, which requires oxygen to function. Gameplay-wise, this means that you need to spend certain resources to be able to activate and use the aquanaut each round.
Aquanauts encourages scientific collaboration by granting additional resources to players who visit connected spaces. However, this means that you need to plan your moves carefully, as you may also provide additional resources to your opponents.
What is the game about?
In Aquanauts, you take on the roles of marine researchers who study the depths of the ocean in pursuit of publishing research articles about their findings. You work from an underwater station, where you set up your own laboratory systems to extract the right samples.
Gameplay
This is a worker placement game with a very cute twist. You always have two workers available to you, and a third worker can be “acquired” from the beginning of the game. The two main workers are submarines, and the third worker is an aquanaut, which requires oxygen to function. Gameplay-wise, this means that you need to spend certain resources to be able to activate and use the aquanaut each round.
Aquanauts encourages scientific collaboration by granting additional resources to players who visit connected spaces. However, this means that you need to plan your moves carefully, as you may also provide additional resources to your opponents.
Since you are working underwater, there needs to be a way to deliver your research results back to the surface, right? Right - and there is. There are two vessels in the game: one is used to bring construction materials from the surface to the underwater base, and another is used to transport the research samples you collect to the surface. Once the samples reach the surface, you can publish research articles using them to gain victory points. And the construction materials can be used underwater to improve your research base.
Appearance of the game
Aquanauts board looks simple and clean, creating the right research atmosphere. The resources in the game are wooden tokens with unique shapes. The player color palette is great - featuring pink as a default player color option.
Who will like this game?
Aquanauts has very approachable rules from a complexity perspective, making it suitable as an introductory worker-placement game. The game also has a very unique theme, so if you work in a research-related field, you may find it especially interesting.
Things to consider
There are several nuances in the rulebook that are not clear, so you will need to agree among yourselves on how to interpret certain aspects. The game has a fairly simple strategy and a limited selection of goals and research articles, which may reduce its replayability. Overall, if you are not particularly drawn to the theme, the game might feel somewhat plain.
There is limited player interaction in Aquanauts. You may provide additional resources to your opponents, as mentioned above, and you can trigger the research vessel to go to the surface, becoming the first player to select an article to publish. This may result in blocking your opponent from obtaining the article they wanted. Given the available combinations of resources required to acquire article cards, this can lead to quite mean moves (and even blocking an opponent’s victory with a single action).
Zatu Review Summary
