Anyone who has read my reviews or such titles as Magic or Yu Gi Oh knows that I am a big fan of collectible card games, and have been for a while. In addition, I also enjoy playing board games (my son and I have recently declared weekend wars on each other with Risk) when I’m not parked in front of the PC or consoles playing video games. The most recent PC title that I have had the opportunity to play and review is Star Chamber, and I have to say that this is not only one of the more creative titles that I’ve played in a while due to a slick combination of board game and card game styles mixed into one, it’s also a heck of a lot of fun.

The object in Star Chamber is to bring citizens to planets of a solar system and beat your opponent in one of three different ways. You can obtain a military victory which occurs by taking over your rival’s homeworld, a cultural victory by obtaining more destiny points than your opponent (I’ll explain that in a minute), or a political victory by getting three “power play” votes in the Star Chamber itself (it’s not only the name of the game … it also is the center planet where voting occurs which can turn the tides for or against you by adding more destiny points or allowing for more ships).

Each turn, players are given tech points which are similar to mana in the Magic: The Gathering card game in the fact that it allows you to bring out and play various cards. In addition, it also replenishes at the beginning of each turn so using all of it up is no big deal and actually is encouraged in the tutorial. Each player also receives a certain number of build points as well, which is also vital since you need these to build more citizens and ships to transport them to various planets, barricade an owned planet, and to help earn destiny points or increase your tech numbers.

The best way to explain the game board is to refer to a star map kind of setup. Each planet has a path that leads to it, and while some will be in easy grasp of your ships, others are farther away and will take longer to get to. This kind of balance also can play into some good strategy as well, since planets that are easy to access usually are also easy for your opponent as well, so a decision needs to be made on whether or not you want to risk hanging out there or take the time to travel farther away which can help to give you more separation from your opponent. The ships that you create using your build points are used to travel to these planets, and the more citizens you shuttle to these planets determine your influence and ownership over the planet. Some of them will be barren worlds that don’t do much until cards are played to build labs or create destiny points for you, and others are “artifact worlds” which give destiny points and allow you to choose between the various techs which can help to bring out different card styles.

The best way to explain the combat system is to look at games like Magic when two monsters get into a duel, so it’s pretty straightforward and easy to figure out. Each ship has an attack and a defense number (which can be modified using the cards), so if the attack number is higher than the defense number of the ships it is attacking, the defending ship is gone as are all of the citizens or crew on board. The defending ship can and will fire back though, so it becomes important to pick and choose your battles wisely or know when to run away. While you may have an attack advantage over their defense, they may have one over you as well which can cause you a loss. Once again, it all plays into that fun risk taking style that a good card game is known for.

Let’s talk about the cards  … since this is the other 50% of what determines whether or not you are victorious. Just like any good collectable card game, there are a number of them to choose from giving higher destiny, defensive or offensive style bonuses to the player and are played during your turn provided you have the tech points to bring them out. For example, playing Aegis Shields on one of your ships to raise defense costs one white “Order Tech”, so you have to have order tech to bring the card out either through your normal turn accumulation or by taking over an artifact planet and selecting it as the type you want to produce. There are a ton of different cards that you can choose from and build your deck with, and everything was covered from higher attacks to higher defense to landing parties and higher influence gains while conquering a planet. Also like any good card game, there are a bunch of play abilities in here that allow for some good strategy building to occur.

Overall, these elements blend together very well to provide one heck of a fun game. While there is a learning curve to really getting the hang of it which may take a couple of tries (as it is with any strategic card or board game), once you’ve got the concepts and ideas down pat you will have a blast if you like these kinds of games. It’s a free download from www.starchamber.net, and buying cards to put decks together is worth the money (and you will need to do this if you want to play something more than a sample game). You can purchase 14 packs for $19.99, 21 packs for $29.99 (which also includes three tickets to get you into tournaments) or 36 packs and 6 tickets for $49.99. If you enjoy collectable card games and board games, Star Chamber provides a good blend of both worlds and I would highly recommend heading over and checking it out.   

Gameplay: 9.4
While it seems somewhat simple up front, quickly getting smashed by an opponent shows that there is a good amount of strategy and board placement to learn. The balance between the board game / influence style of play and using cards to turn the tables on an opponent works out extremely well, and the amount of cards that you can get and combinations to add into your decks is impressive.

Graphics: 6.2
The graphics aren’t bad, there’s just not much to them. The artwork for the cards and races that you can choose from is good, and most of the game is spent looking at the star map. Battles are played out by showing a small picture of the ships that are at war with simple red or green lines zipping across to represent weapon fire.

Sound: 6.0
As with the graphics, there’s just not a lot to it. Combat alerts sound as beeping sirens, and cards played make a whooshing kind of sound. During combat, lasers, missiles, and beams were represented well with zipping and cracking noises.

Difficulty: Medium
The game can be harder or easier to grasp depending on your ability to figure out and get into collectable card games. Either way there will probably be a learning curve that will take a couple of tries to get the full hang of it, but it’s not frustrating and once you’ve got it … you’ve got it.

Concept: 9.1
While collectable card games are nothing new, and board games certainly aren’t either, Star Chamber is a great blending of both styles that just comes together and works out very well. There are multiple areas to help achieve victory, and enough cards to help turn a loss into a win and vice versa if played strategically.

Multiplayer: 9.0
When you log on, you can in fact play against the AI which is where I spent most of my time while getting the hang of the game mechanics. Once you’re ready, head on over to one of the four lobbies and challenge someone. The AI is good, but the fun is all in the multiplayer as it is with most cards style games.

Overall: 9.0
While the two elements which influenced Star Chamber are nothing new, it’s tough to come up with some unique new combination of the two that not only balances, but is a lot of fun to play as well. If you enjoy board games or collectible card games, go and download it and try it out. It’s worth your time, and it’s worth buying new card packs and tickets once you get the hang of it.