Emergence Event

I picked up this game because I was looking for a space 4x game, that can be played in under 2 hours, and that could be played solo (the game rules are meant for 2+ but since you are never bluffing an opponent solo play is doable).When I opened the game I was very very pleased with the art work. The art was very well done and of high quality. The sci-fi theme had that modern detailed look. The cards and the board look very vibrant and edgy. My only gripe was the hero/pilot boards. The artwork on those boards for some reason looked more like sketches. I THINK one of the heroes is human, but I couldnt tell. The games theme and story is based around the future, but still relied on ancient mysterious relics and the unknown. I drool over this kind of space theme, and enjoy playing the Endless Space PC game because of it. The lore for each pilot and for the universe in general is very detailed, and you can tell the developers could write a whole book on it, if given the chance.Speaking of the pilots, the game gives you 4 unique pilots. Each one has their own unique stats, unique powers, and unique deck of cards. Didnt play enough or crunch enough stat numbers to see if it was balanced though. But it was cool that each pilot played a bit differently. Unfortunately the upgrade tech tree is the same for all the pilots.The components were of high quality. The cards felt good. The ships looked awesome. The board felt good. You get individual colored shaped resources to collect, as opposed to just blocks. Artifacts tokens have drawings on them. And as I said earlier the artwork is amazing (for the most part).The hero boards though were a big issue. The sheet is a durable thin board that is folded in half. One side you have the Stats and cargo hold, the other you have the tech upgrade section. The problem with these sheets is that as you are playing the game you will receive upgrades +2 tokens here +1 tokens all over the board, and will have to place even more tokens on what technologies you unlocked. This was a major nuance to me. But judging by pics of other acclaimed space games like; Eclipse, TI3, Xia, etc. I think this might be a common record keeping method in space games. But I did not care for it.This game plays more like an "adventure" game as opposed to a conquer the universe game. You get only one ship and you have to explore, complete quests, challenges, conquer locations, and get upgrades and basically achieve a higher score than your opponent at the end of the game. You use cards from you hand to travel and and add to your stats so as to complete certain challenges. If you wish to conquer a location (asteroid, starbase, planet) you have to meet a certain stat (diplomacy, science, security, etc) number to complete that challenge, but these requirements are told in advance. So you know if you have enough points to conquer it or not before hand. Ending your ship in empty space though means you draw a random event, with unknown requirements. That part is what makes the game fun. unfortunately you can for the most part avoid landing in space thus avoiding any surprises, thus players could choose to stick to a safe predicted route and still manager to win. That was boring. While I dont enjoy relying on dice rolls AT ALL. I am not sure I like the card management either in this game, since a success is pretty predicatable.I think this is a decent adventure space opera type of game. But since I already own Runebound 3ed, and love it, I dont think there is any room for another adventure game in my closet. Runebound managed to nail a few things better than Emergence. If Emergence ever releases and expansion (there are talks from the devs about a KS), I will look back into it.Pros:ArtworkTheme/FluffComponentsGood PriceNo diceNo cubesQuests2 hoursCons:Cluttered hero sheetsPredictable challengesSlow movement first half of the gamePlayer interaction is minimal