Verdict

SETI’s space-themed strategy gameplay is as sharp as it is shiny. Its strong pacing, engaging decision-making, and huge replayability are only heightened by the more recent Space Agencies expansion. While not rich in narrative, I’ll forgive SETI, because it’s the most addicted to a eurogame I’ve been in a long time.

Pros

Gorgeous production value
Enthralling yet approachable strategy
Well paced
Huge amount of variety

Cons

Rulebook can be unclear
Theme lacks depth

Me and euro board games have always been fickle friends. I've enjoyed many hours of strategy and points salads, but few eurogames have ever found a permanent place in my collection. I play them once or twice and, thoroughly satisfied, never touch them again.

SETI: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence breaks the mold. One playthrough had me hooked, and after repeat plays with a review copy, I consider it one of the best board games in the genre. It's my personal favorite, and the 2025 Space Agencies expansion only solidifies my certainty.

In SETI, up to four players control space agencies eager to explore the stars. The Space Agencies expansion introduces specific companies you represent. These offer asymmetric setup and powers, but they also double down on the idea that the quest for knowledge - especially in science and tech - is a commodified, capitalist pursuit. But, hey, what eurogame doesn't reinforce some aspect of our current systemic status quo?

Your primary goal is to discover proof of alien life. Agencies must work together to gather life traces, though naturally, the player that does the most work scores the most points. You can uncover these traces by landing probes on planets, scanning nearby star systems, or by researching discovered data.

All this takes place on a charming solar system board, complete with moving chunks that rotate around a tiny plastic sun. It really makes SETI pop, and it gives the game a delightful, toy-like feel, but it has another purpose.

Getting your probe from Earth to other planets requires hopping through several spaces, and your position might suddenly change if an opponent takes an action that rotates the system. It's a subtle bit of player interaction that encourages you to keep an eye on what your rivals are up to - something the eurogame genre often struggles with.

When three different trace types are discovered, a new life form is revealed. SETI (combined with Space Agencies) offers eight possible aliens, with two revealed in each game. Every alien introduces new ways to score, extra mechanics, and additional cards - which adds a tremendous amount of replayability.

The aliens sure are an entertaining twist on an already robust gameplay loop, and they're your main points earner. They're not the only source for scoring, though.

There are end-of-game goals you can assign yourself to, with the earliest arrivals earning the most points. These might reward you for collecting personal player board upgrades (which, in true strategy game style, make your future actions more efficient turn-to-turn). Or perhaps they grant points for objectives completed on your cards.

Cards are one crucial part of SETI I haven't covered yet, and explaining them requires a deeper dive into turn structure. Each turn, you can perform a single action (scan a star system, land on or orbit a planet, upgrade your board, research a life trace, and so on). However, you can also perform as many free actions as you like.

Free actions, like main actions, typically cost a resource. Moving your probes, for example, can be done as a free action if you pay an energy token per space you move. Cards, similarly, can be discarded to generate a resource shown in their corner. If you want to gain the benefits in the middle of the card, that's a regular action.

Some cards stick around after you've played them, as they have extra objectives printed on them. Some offer immediate resource rewards, while others offer extra points at the game's end.

SETI, then, offers a classic efficiency puzzle. You have finite resources to spend on points-scoring actions, which you must also juggle with actions that improve your capabilities (board upgrades or expanding your start-of-round income). Once you've run out of options, you'll need to pass your turn and wait for the next round.

All the while, the worlds keep turning. Your rivals move while you rest, snatching key resources and early victory points you might otherwise have gunned for. SETI's strategy is approachable and easy to pick up, but it can be brutal, too. I once watched 24 points slip from my hands in a single turn thanks to my own misplay. It was soul-destroying (in the best way). Every choice is a crucial one, and careless players might find themselves falling behind.

Thankfully for those players, SETI never outstays its welcome, despite its length. The base game lasts five rounds, with an estimated 40 minutes per player.

Space Agencies streamlines things more by axing the first round of play entirely. The asymmetrical setup does the hard work of grabbing your initial resources for you. This has the added balance bonus of placing more emphasis on certain actions, like scanning, which were more typically ignored during play.

I was already enthralled by SETI, but Space Agencies perfects its already strong pacing. It's a thrilling race to the stars that starts with careful construction of an engine, then, by the last round, all bets are off, and it's time to see how well your spaceship can really fly.

This pacing remains whatever the player count. A few tiny changes to the board ensure that each of SETI's key events kicks off at the right time regardless. The aliens are always discovered with enough time for you to pivot to the new strategies they offer. Even the solo mode does an excellent job of faithfully recreating the tension of a two-player game.

SETI basically has it all - and then some thanks to Space Agencies. It's not doing anything interesting in the narrative department, and the rulebook wording is occasionally flawed. But I'll forgive these, because this is one of the few eurogames I want to play over and over again.

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