When I got the crew we played it so much over a long weekend I had to buy a second copy and sleeve it to keep in in better shape lol. Just the big cards though. I'll be getting this version now too.
I saw the sleeves too! Our copy of The Crew became gross and sticky when we played it last summer without an A/C. Now they strain my hands when I try to fan the cards out and we have missed a rocket or two…
The missions cards remind me a lot of the way _Sprawlopolis_ handles scoring and tasks. It's such a cool game mechanic, but it must be really tough to balance!
Yeah. It makes me wonder if some of the missions would be nearly impossible, since some of those Sprawlopolis scoring goals are insanely tough! Do you think the scoring cards here make the game a lot tougher than the original?
I have a collection of 150+ Trick-Taking/Climbing games, literally. The Crew games are among the best of the entire collection. I built a geeklist on BGG trying to compile all my thoughts on every one of the games on the list… what an undertaking that has been! 😅😂
This game is my top 5 easily. It's absolutely AMAZING! That mission system is a work of genius!!! And the later timed and pool communication rounds are insane!!
Glad to hear you say you almost need practice for The Crew. I never really played trick-taking games and this game fries my brain. I don't hate it, but I feel like I'm TOTALLY missing something. Sounds like I just need to play it more
Yeah, I remember when I started playing trick taking games, I was so bad and didn't get it at all 😂. After many many many plays I get it now and quite enjoy them.
Here’s how I see it: If I ask you what 4 x 4 equals, your brain automatically skips to the answer because you’ve done it so many times. However, when you first learn your multiplication tables, you need to go through the process of figuring out what it equals. Similarly here. Those with a lot of experience in trick taking games see a card played and jump to what it likely means the person who played it is trying to do, or what else they have in their hand, etc, because they’ve seen this process so many times. Newcomers to the genre still need to process it in their brain to figure it out.
I played the first one tons, loved it. The fact that this new one has variety in the mission cards as well as scales better makes this an instant pickup for me. Thanks for the video!
It really is very good. Scales better than the first and offers more re playability. We played it for 4 hours straight on the first day of receiving it and the time just flew by.
I wish this came as an expansion to the original.. With just the new mission cards... I like the theme of the original The Crew and since everything else in the game is nearly the same thing, it would be nice to just have the mission cards as an expansion. Don't have to bother myself with the rest of the components.
My thoughts exactly. It feels kind of wasteful to have to purchase a whole new box when the part I'm interested in is really just the new mission deck.
@@bernan1 it's not only about the price in my opinion. As Calistake047 mentioned, it's wasteful when you have the same components as the original game. It would be less wasteful if they did an expansion. Lesser cardboard and paper, lesser plastic, lesser everything.
I really, really like the idea of the random mission cards and difficulty scaling. Might have to instabuy this. 😬 Does it have a better two player variant?
@@georgepap8512 That is definitely the case with the first. It's okay with 2, but not great. I imagine it's the same here, but since I mostly play with 2 it would be nice to have a slight improvement on it.
@@aprilw2287 I think they actually just dropped support for 2-players. The mission cards don't have a 2-player difficulty and one of the images on BGG shows the iello box with a 3-5 player count. EDIT: Looks like I'm wrong. Chris Yi commented a little ways down saying that he's seen the rules for the new game and that it has the same 2-player variant as the original. So I'm assuming you just use the 3-player difficulties for that variant?
@@PandaOfElastic Thanks Corey, that is probably the case. The variant isn't awful, I just find that I don't pick this one when it comes to two player games.
I *just* purchased The Quest for Planet Nine. Now I'm wondering if I should wait to get Mission Deep Sea if MDS is SO much better, I wouldn't play TQfPN at all.
No you should def play the first one first. It’s great! I believe if you played the newest one first you wouldn’t want to play Planet 9 after, however if you play Planet 9 first you wont be underwhelmed or anything. Make no mistake, Planet 9 is incredible!
I loved the Crew: Quest for Planet Nine and one looks like it will be just as good. Sadly that's because it seem it's basically the same game with a different log book and art, I was hoping for something a BIT different. That said I do like the change to the mission goals, using challenge rated goal cards instead of the tokens and mini-card deck. It seems like it gives them the chance to make very specific goals which could prove very challenging. Great review Tom.
I don't think you can change anything else without ending up with a completely different game. The most important ingredients of The. Crew are the limited communication, the fact that you have specific missions that are different in every game and the cool communication mechanism (highest, lowest, only). With any of those things you have a different game. It's the same problem with games like Pandemic or Azul. With all that being said The Crew price point is so low that I don't think you can go wrong. This new random way with the missions goals allows for a completely different game every time even if you play the same mission.This pretty much allows for endless crazy requirements for the missions. I can see the next crew becoming more and more like the galaxy trucker expansions where they were only for game experts.
Great game, juat a great deduction cooperative game. It's almost like a cooperative 'battleline' in the card count and deduction aspect... I was kinda hoping the 'Crew Treatment' will be on a non-trick taking game (take a game, play it cooperatively with limited communication, just so that game will reach certain meta-goals)
Will someone please just be straight honest with me? Is this worth getting if I have no choice but to play it 2 player? I know Tom says it scales well but didn't touch on 2 player only.. If you could only play this 2 player, would you enjoy it? Is the gold seal of excellence going to be there in a 2 player game? Thanks in advance to any who've played it this way and answers. :)
I've not yet tried Mission Deep sea with 2 players, but Wendy and I played all 50 missions of the original Crew at 2p during the Pandemic. It was our game of the year last year because of how good it was at 2p. That being said, we plan to play this a bunch at 2p as well.
At 2 players (assuming this is the same as the original version), you use a variant which basically adds a 3rd player, who is controlled by the trick leader. The 3rd player has 7 faceup cards and 7 facedown cards. When they play a faceup card, it flips one of the facedown cards up. So the only real unknowns at 2 are "Which 7 cards started facedown and can't be played?" Playing at higher player counts add a lot more unknowns into the mix.
With that said, I just noticed that the mission cards don't have a 2 player difficulty? So I wonder if they just count the 2 player variant as 3 players or if they dropped support for 2 players? Although, I guess there's nothing stopping you from just using the 2-player variant from the first one with the 3-player difficulty numbers regardless. EDIT: BGG has a picture of the iello box, which lists the player count as 3-5.
@@PandaOfElastic I looked at the rules the other day and it supports the same 2 player variant as before. I assume you play with the 3P levels on the cards and assign cards to the dummy player as well.
I’ve never tried this game at 2 and I don’t really care to try. I just can’t imagine that being interesting enough to play this game over others despite the people here that say they do enjoy it.
I wish it had a stronger theme. I don't usually get into trick-taking games, but I could get into a deep sea game. But this isn't a deep sea game; it's a trick-taking game with deep sea pictures.
The original Crew is OK imo. But my group, myself included, much prefer competitive trick-taking, and this version includes "missions" that look very similar to Indulgence and The Dwarf King, two trick-taking games I'd rather play.
Can you maybe check out the game steampunk rally? I want to see your opinion on the new cards and mechanics. I like it but some people might prefer the older one.
While they do have the different symbols I wish that they listen to the reviews on the first game about color blind people because they could’ve done different colors in the second game that color blind people can distinguish better
@@JBearwa I agree, I'm not colourblind but I had trouble playing it on BGA when my monitor adjusted the colours at night because they were so similar to begin with...
Yes, I get my game Friday this week... Tested it directly as a solo game, with 2 AI from the 2 player rules, "Tonoja and her twin sister"... Now I tested the 2 player game with my wife... Can't wait to test it with more players... It's a blast.
The original Crew was an ok game. I don't really reflect Tom's excitement. IMO there are better co-op games that I would rather play. That being said, it's a fine game, great for a filler.
There should be a Dice Tower distinction higher than "Excellent" called "Tom sleeved the game".
I noticed that too
Haha, that is so true!
When I got the crew we played it so much over a long weekend I had to buy a second copy and sleeve it to keep in in better shape lol. Just the big cards though. I'll be getting this version now too.
I saw the sleeves too! Our copy of The Crew became gross and sticky when we played it last summer without an A/C. Now they strain my hands when I try to fan the cards out and we have missed a rocket or two…
It was the first thing I noticed and immediately knew Tom really really loves this game.
commenting before reaching the conclusion: you know Tom likes a game when the cards are sleeved during the review
Also commenting before the conclusion. My suspicion is this is not his copy of the game.
EDIT
I guess he did in fact sleeve this game. Wow!
The missions cards remind me a lot of the way _Sprawlopolis_ handles scoring and tasks. It's such a cool game mechanic, but it must be really tough to balance!
Yeah. It makes me wonder if some of the missions would be nearly impossible, since some of those Sprawlopolis scoring goals are insanely tough! Do you think the scoring cards here make the game a lot tougher than the original?
I have a collection of 150+ Trick-Taking/Climbing games, literally. The Crew games are among the best of the entire collection. I built a geeklist on BGG trying to compile all my thoughts on every one of the games on the list… what an undertaking that has been! 😅😂
"Will I like this game? *We'll see!*"
**It's sleeved.**
Spoiler alert, I think he likes it.
This game is my top 5 easily. It's absolutely AMAZING! That mission system is a work of genius!!!
And the later timed and pool communication rounds are insane!!
Thanks, Tom. Looking forward to this one. I can’t imagine the math in designing all this difficulties. 😃
Glad to hear you say you almost need practice for The Crew. I never really played trick-taking games and this game fries my brain. I don't hate it, but I feel like I'm TOTALLY missing something. Sounds like I just need to play it more
Yeah, I remember when I started playing trick taking games, I was so bad and didn't get it at all 😂. After many many many plays I get it now and quite enjoy them.
Here’s how I see it:
If I ask you what 4 x 4 equals, your brain automatically skips to the answer because you’ve done it so many times. However, when you first learn your multiplication tables, you need to go through the process of figuring out what it equals.
Similarly here. Those with a lot of experience in trick taking games see a card played and jump to what it likely means the person who played it is trying to do, or what else they have in their hand, etc, because they’ve seen this process so many times. Newcomers to the genre still need to process it in their brain to figure it out.
I played the first one tons, loved it. The fact that this new one has variety in the mission cards as well as scales better makes this an instant pickup for me. Thanks for the video!
What size sleeves do you have for your Crew decks?? I love my copy of the game too and it seems like the sleeves you have fit really nicely.
I’m not sure
Thanks, as always for your passionate review
To me, this is the modern equivalent to bridge. Limited partner communication, then fulfillment.
I’ve seen this recently on two Top Ten lists.
I’ll have to give it a try, assuming I can still find it. 😁
It really is very good. Scales better than the first and offers more re playability. We played it for 4 hours straight on the first day of receiving it and the time just flew by.
I wish this came as an expansion to the original.. With just the new mission cards... I like the theme of the original The Crew and since everything else in the game is nearly the same thing, it would be nice to just have the mission cards as an expansion. Don't have to bother myself with the rest of the components.
My thoughts exactly. It feels kind of wasteful to have to purchase a whole new box when the part I'm interested in is really just the new mission deck.
isn't it only like...$10? How many expansions are that cheap?
@@bernan1 it's not only about the price in my opinion. As Calistake047 mentioned, it's wasteful when you have the same components as the original game. It would be less wasteful if they did an expansion. Lesser cardboard and paper, lesser plastic, lesser everything.
Perfect timing! I was contemplating about getting this game.
Hopefully you can find it.
I really, really like the idea of the random mission cards and difficulty scaling. Might have to instabuy this. 😬 Does it have a better two player variant?
Even if it is better than the previous one this game shines with more players 3-5 are the best choices for both games.
@@georgepap8512 That is definitely the case with the first. It's okay with 2, but not great. I imagine it's the same here, but since I mostly play with 2 it would be nice to have a slight improvement on it.
@@aprilw2287 I think they actually just dropped support for 2-players. The mission cards don't have a 2-player difficulty and one of the images on BGG shows the iello box with a 3-5 player count.
EDIT: Looks like I'm wrong. Chris Yi commented a little ways down saying that he's seen the rules for the new game and that it has the same 2-player variant as the original. So I'm assuming you just use the 3-player difficulties for that variant?
@@PandaOfElastic Thanks Corey, that is probably the case. The variant isn't awful, I just find that I don't pick this one when it comes to two player games.
I *just* purchased The Quest for Planet Nine. Now I'm wondering if I should wait to get Mission Deep Sea if MDS is SO much better, I wouldn't play TQfPN at all.
No you should def play the first one first. It’s great! I believe if you played the newest one first you wouldn’t want to play Planet 9 after, however if you play Planet 9 first you wont be underwhelmed or anything. Make no mistake, Planet 9 is incredible!
i think i'm gonna try to combine both into one box.
The original was fantastic. 2 weeks of playing with my lads to complete all the missions. This new one now on order. thanks for the review
It's such a great game for such a low price.
Truth!
I loved the Crew: Quest for Planet Nine and one looks like it will be just as good. Sadly that's because it seem it's basically the same game with a different log book and art, I was hoping for something a BIT different. That said I do like the change to the mission goals, using challenge rated goal cards instead of the tokens and mini-card deck. It seems like it gives them the chance to make very specific goals which could prove very challenging. Great review Tom.
I don't think you can change anything else without ending up with a completely different game. The most important ingredients of The. Crew are the limited communication, the fact that you have specific missions that are different in every game and the cool communication mechanism (highest, lowest, only). With any of those things you have a different game. It's the same problem with games like Pandemic or Azul. With all that being said The Crew price point is so low that I don't think you can go wrong. This new random way with the missions goals allows for a completely different game every time even if you play the same mission.This pretty much allows for endless crazy requirements for the missions. I can see the next crew becoming more and more like the galaxy trucker expansions where they were only for game experts.
Does the 2-player work the same as in the original game with Jarvis?
I completely agree. This makes the original Crew even better.
This game is going to sell out everywhere after this, SUSD and NPI reviews
Wait... hold on Tom sleeved cards!!! What trickery is this?
It's that good. I knew his review as soon as I saw the sleeves
How about the 2p implementation? Worth it?
So the only diffrence is the arrow and number tokens are cards?
Quick question. what sleeve did you use, make and size.. thanks
Does anyone know what the name of the game is on the middle shelf behind him?? Actually, I mean on the wall behind him. The game right next to Loop.
Dunaïa
@@francoisdg4495
Thanks!!
Great game, juat a great deduction cooperative game. It's almost like a cooperative 'battleline' in the card count and deduction aspect...
I was kinda hoping the 'Crew Treatment' will be on a non-trick taking game (take a game, play it cooperatively with limited communication, just so that game will reach certain meta-goals)
Is there a PC version of this game?
Sleeeeeeeeeves!
You know Tom likes a game when it's sleeved!
A GEM!!!! Already preordered it! Amazing job KOSMOS games
I'm shocked. SHOCKED.
Will someone please just be straight honest with me? Is this worth getting if I have no choice but to play it 2 player?
I know Tom says it scales well but didn't touch on 2 player only..
If you could only play this 2 player, would you enjoy it? Is the gold seal of excellence going to be there in a 2 player game?
Thanks in advance to any who've played it this way and answers. :)
I've not yet tried Mission Deep sea with 2 players, but Wendy and I played all 50 missions of the original Crew at 2p during the Pandemic. It was our game of the year last year because of how good it was at 2p. That being said, we plan to play this a bunch at 2p as well.
At 2 players (assuming this is the same as the original version), you use a variant which basically adds a 3rd player, who is controlled by the trick leader. The 3rd player has 7 faceup cards and 7 facedown cards. When they play a faceup card, it flips one of the facedown cards up. So the only real unknowns at 2 are "Which 7 cards started facedown and can't be played?" Playing at higher player counts add a lot more unknowns into the mix.
With that said, I just noticed that the mission cards don't have a 2 player difficulty? So I wonder if they just count the 2 player variant as 3 players or if they dropped support for 2 players? Although, I guess there's nothing stopping you from just using the 2-player variant from the first one with the 3-player difficulty numbers regardless.
EDIT: BGG has a picture of the iello box, which lists the player count as 3-5.
@@PandaOfElastic I looked at the rules the other day and it supports the same 2 player variant as before. I assume you play with the 3P levels on the cards and assign cards to the dummy player as well.
I’ve never tried this game at 2 and I don’t really care to try. I just can’t imagine that being interesting enough to play this game over others despite the people here that say they do enjoy it.
I wish it had a stronger theme. I don't usually get into trick-taking games, but I could get into a deep sea game. But this isn't a deep sea game; it's a trick-taking game with deep sea pictures.
Brilliant game. Love the story too.
The original Crew is OK imo. But my group, myself included, much prefer competitive trick-taking, and this version includes "missions" that look very similar to Indulgence and The Dwarf King, two trick-taking games I'd rather play.
Me, who just got The Crew a few months ago without finishing it: NOOOOOOOOOO!
Can you maybe check out the game steampunk rally? I want to see your opinion on the new cards and mechanics. I like it but some people might prefer the older one.
for my color blindness, the yellow and green cards took effort to distinguish. its too bad (for me) that the same colors are used. fun game otherwise
The different colours have different symbols...
@@gomezthechimp1116 yeah i still look at the colors first. just takes getting used to i guess to retrain what to look at
While they do have the different symbols I wish that they listen to the reviews on the first game about color blind people because they could’ve done different colors in the second game that color blind people can distinguish better
@@JBearwa I agree, I'm not colourblind but I had trouble playing it on BGA when my monitor adjusted the colours at night because they were so similar to begin with...
Tell us how you really feel, Tom!
Yes, I get my game Friday this week...
Tested it directly as a solo game, with 2 AI from the 2 player rules, "Tonoja and her twin sister"...
Now I tested the 2 player game with my wife...
Can't wait to test it with more players...
It's a blast.
Is the 2 player game similar to how it works in the first Crew game?
Agree
Tom’s smile nearing bursting at the seams when he says “I’ll tell you how I feel about the game after this overview”
Yes!!!
I have to play this game at some point. I've heard nothing but great things, but it looks so bland and boring, I gotta be missing something.
Only The Crew 2 could ever kill The Crew.
Best Game!
This game is also inexpensive...Which means it's an easy try for many. If you don't like it, you wasted only a few bucks.
The original Crew was an ok game. I don't really reflect Tom's excitement. IMO there are better co-op games that I would rather play. That being said, it's a fine game, great for a filler.