First Contact: 2035 - Rain of Terror
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Our 175-player game of global politics and alien invasion is returning for one run in 2024 - and it has evolved. So on the 9th March next year, First Contact: 2035 is being revamped with new rules, new objectives, new theatres, new mechanics - and new aliens. Get ready for Rain of Terror.
Here’s what we can say without spoiling it all…
Solid foundations
This will be the third run of FC:2035, and we’ve learned a lot from our first two games - not least how to actually make a game fun for hundreds of people at the same time, but also how to balance an economy (more or less), get the UN to operate as a successful global authority (more or less) and avert nuclear war (more or less).
It’s very much still the same game: the mechanics, the economic and military models, and the broad scope of the roles aren’t changing. It’s still a satisfyingly complex game of diplomacy, soft power, sabre-rattling and bare-faced lying, but we realised we needed to shake other things up for game three.
The United Kingdom representative at the UN Security Council, making friends and influencing foreign policy
Now we’ve had two runs with 400+ different participants including facilitators, it’s safe to say that the surprise of the identity and origin of the aliens is diminished, and that some nations’ secret objectives aren’t quite so secret. The game will get stale if it uses the same scenario every time - so we’re changing the plot. Substantially.
The new plot, in detail
We’re obviously not going to give that away - but the aliens are all new and very mysterious. Will you still be able to intercept them? Yes. Will they still drop loot like an interstellar donkey made of exotic papier mache? Yes. Will they be parasitic squid? No.
There’s a whole new theme with loads of twists and turns to discover, and that means a revamped science game - which will be even more integral to how the game plays. Will the game designers still end the game absolutely baffled and bemused by the rule-shattering scientific breakthroughs the players have dredged from the pitch black of their horribly wide imaginations? Yes. We welcome it, you perverts.
Nothing to see here!
The Solar System
And while the rules are staying mostly the same, one thing we’re opening up is the Solar System (with the help of the new science game; synergy innit?). For a game about space, aliens and weird science, First Contact has often felt quite terrestrial. That changes in Rain of Terror, as we gradually open up new theatres on the Moon, Mars, the Asteroid Belt and beyond. You can claim them, mine them, build bases on them and (inevitably) use your Advanced Armies to fight over them. There are more than a few surprises up out beyond the rings of Saturn, so it’s time to fire up those Space Launch Facility cards you didn’t really know what to do with last run…
Tickets on sale 25th November
Basically, it’s a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. We’re pleased with how First Contact: 2035 runs in general, and we’re only really making minor tweaks to the rest of the game. With fresh objectives (for the scientists, corporations AND countries), all-new aliens and a final frontier to explore, it’s going to be a completely different game.
Tickets go on sale on the 25th November, just in time for Christmas - so if you’re wondering what to get the gamer in your life, why not get them the gift of a full day merrily shouting at strangers because you think they sneak-attacked your moonbase but you can’t quite prove it? And as always, there’s a 10% group discount if you book as a team of four.