Wormholes Review

Uber Space

Wormholes from AEG puts players in drivers seat of passenger ships tasked with getting people across the galaxy. Thankfully, they've also developed wormhole technology to make this even easier. Each player has 3 actions to move on their turn but they also have the options to put down a wormhole, drop off passengers, or pick up more passengers. To drop off, they simply need to be at the planet that matches the card. To pick up, they need to be at the space station to hand pick passengers or draw from the deck. Wormholes are the fun part. When you place a wormhole, you're either creating a new one or closing an existing one. If you close a loop, you can warp to the matching one. You can also use another players to move through at the cost of one point to them. The game ends when all exploration tokens have been taken and whoever has the most points is the winner.

The Good: I'll be the first to admit I don't like pick up and deliver games. They've never done much for me. Wormholes is an exception to that rule. The concept of warping around helps to speed the game up immensely. There's also special spaces on the board that can help you move through the galaxy. It works really well. It's also worth noting that this is a really fast playing game for the genre. If everyone knows what they're doing it can take 45 minutes.

The Okay: Even at two players, the game plays pretty well but it did feel like we just simply split the galaxy in two. One player went right, the other left and we mostly stayed there for most of the game until we needed to start sharing. This is definitely geared to 3-4 players so the interaction is higher and the board is busier.

The Not So Good: Your first few turns may not have much of a payoff. When you have only 3 spaces of movement at a time, connecting wormholes closer than you'd like may not be ideal so you push it a little further. When you've got several interconnected routes around you, a single turn can push you all around but it can be a slower start than you'd like.

Final Thoughts: Wormholes was a big surprise for me. What I expected to be another pedestrian pick up and deliver game wound up being full of strategy and planning. Expanding through the galaxy gave you potential to put a wormhole from one area of the map all the way to the other side. Ultimately, this may be my favorite pick up and deliver game that I've had the pleasure of playing.

Thanks to AEG for providing me with a review copy.