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Solar Sphere solo mode is a slight variation on the standard multiplayer mode. In it, the game utilises cards to play out the turn for a single AI opponent that you will challenge to score the most victory points. The core game-play from the multiplayer mode is un-altered. You will collect resources, hire crew, build and re-commission your arsenal of drone workers, deal with attacks on the solar sphere project and most importantly contribute towards the construction of the solar sphere itself. For me the solo mode loses none of the things that make the core game strategic and interesting. It simply adds a new layer to the game in the form of a random and unpredictable enemy, much like having another player at the table.
Components
Beyond the standard components the only additional item you will utilise is a handy deck of cards. These cards are nice quality as per the ones in the standard game. The cards themselves control what your AI opponent is up to and dictate what moves it will make during its three actions. The mode will utilise a bunch of components normally used by other players, instead of adding yet more items to the box, which is a very smart decision.
Game-Play
As I said previously the core game of Solar Sphere and objectives remain unchanged. You will still need to focus your efforts on a myriad of ways to collect victory points. Be it hiring crew to gain favour with the various factions, contributing towards the construction of the solar sphere, helping repel the enemy ships that harass the ongoing production of the sphere and more. All the while the AI will be taking its own turns doing the same thing in an effort to beat you by scoring more points. On your turn you will have three actions the same as the AI and will alternate turns based on priority order. The enemies turn will be dictated by the cards.
First off, the top card of the discard pile will show a bar at the bottom, displayed will be boxes representing the three coloured dice the AI will use. The order of the colours on each card will be different and what these bars dictate is the order in which the respective actions are taken as well as the colour of the action. You will start by placing these dice in the order accordingly after rolling them.
When the turn passes to the AI you will draw the top card of the deck, compare the line corresponding to the coloured dice and refer to the icon to the right, this determines the action the AI will take. In general most of the actions will make the AI points which will really challenge you to make the absolute most of your turns to keep up. There is a great variety in the actions it can take but almost all help gather points towards the end score. Only a couple actually mean the AI will do nothing on its turn, so you tend to find its quite an active opponent.
As the game play is unchanged at its core, a lot of strategy is required to outwit the automated AI and beat them to the best spots, destroying the best ships, claiming the best crew and building the most vital points of the sphere itself. All this sounds simple but its exceptionally difficult to actually claim the lead.
My Opinion
To start I found the solo mode a little tricky to understand at first, after a session it started to make a lot of sense. Don't expect to pick it up straight away especially if you haven't played the multiplayer mode prior. It's not complex you just need to understand the flow of the game. In preparation for this review I played five games in a row as well as additional session a month prior. So I have a fair bit of play time now with six plays total under my belt. What I can say is I enjoy the structure of the game itself. It gives me the ability to play the core game solo. It runs smoothly and provides a good challenge that really pushes me to think out my turns, plan strategies and react to an unpredictable AI.
The AI itself is quite brutal I will be honest. I find that throughout my sessions it's pretty much always gaining points quite rapidly, perhaps too well in my opinion. I have lost every single game to date, I consider myself quite a strategist and I really enjoy challenging games but I think in this instance it's just too difficult. From the offset I feel like you're in a losing battle, the AI races ahead scoring points for pretty much every activity it takes. In the meantime it leaves the player in the dust trying to scavenge the resources needed to build the solar sphere, hire crew and react to incoming ships. This means that some of your turns you achieve literally nothing but gathering resources.
In the meantime the AI is already on to the next activity giving it points without any prep time. Once more the AI has some considerably unfair advantages such as, you the player can only have 3 crew. The crew have faction affiliation icons that score points at the games end if you have sets of them. With three crew you might be lucky to have a couple of sets. The AI has no restrictions in how many crew cards it may acquire and keep throughout the course of the game. This means you might finish in a good game like my case with 1 crew, the AI meanwhile in one such session I had, ended with 15. It's quite a ridiculous imbalance.
Now the issue is not isolated to just the aspect of getting crew. The imbalance effects other areas. The enemy can build without collecting resources. Where as, you will have to sacrifice actions to gather them. The AI can deal with incoming ships easily, you will have to gather resources before you can even send drones to deal with them. It feels as though you are constantly on the back foot.
What the AI actually does each game is randomly determined by how the deck plays out, one session the AI might hire more staff, the next build more, the other maybe a bit of everything. In all of my sessions regardless of which actions it took the AI dominated with collecting victory points. Scoring almost double my score by the end of every game. I don't mind to lose in a game, it makes you learn and makes you adapt and try new strategic approaches. Six games on the trot without even coming close to a win however, is just not any fun for me after all this is a game not a test.
It really let me down because I really enjoy the game play. With these current rules of Solar Sphere though I can't see me even coming close to a win. If this were to be your first solo experience I feel it could damage the willingness to try more just because of how punishing it is. Which is sad as there are some fantastic solo titles. I can't say it's a mode I'd plan to go back to sadly, not without some serious house rules. Do I recommend it? No. Unless, with the caveat you're someone who enjoys a very steep punishing challenge. For me by the end of six plays I can safely say I'd rather solo play another title. However, I still recommend this game for the multiplayer mode. I really like the core mechanics and setting. The solo mode does feel like an afterthought though, a good one, well implemented but not well balanced.