Category: IGN

God of War’s duology of Norse-set masterpieces has cemented it as one of PlayStation’s most iconic franchises. Born during the PS2 era, God of War made a name for itself with excellent action gameplay, an intriguing tale of divine revenge, and a memorable lead in the Spartan demigod Kratos. 18 years later, God of War has grown into gaming’s seminal action-adventure series, blending that increasingly fine-tuned action with deeper lore and a stronger narrative hook, anchored by an older, more empathic Kratos.

With God of War Ragnarok having earned its place in the pantheon of all-time greats, we’ve created this chronology of the series for those interested in playing (or replaying) it from the start.

Jump to:

• How to play chronologically
• How to play by release date

How Many God of War Games Are There?

Sony has released 10 God of War games — six on home consoles, two on portable consoles, one on mobile, and one text-adventure on Facebook Messenger.

We’re excluding its second mobile release, God of War: Mimir’s Vision, as this AR game doesn’t add to the ongoing narrative but instead provides players with background lore from the world of God of War. We’re also excluding PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale in this chronology, despite its comical inclusion in the God of War canon.

There are several God of War stories told through novels and comics as well, though this list only includes games.

God of War Games in Chronological Order

These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.

1. God of War: Ascension (2013)

Ascension, the seventh God of War game by release date but the first chronologically, is a revenge tale that explores the early days of Kratos’s transformation from a Spartan demigod into the God of War.

Ascension takes place months after Kratos was manipulated into killing his wife and daughter by the Greek God of War Ares (more on this under the original God of War section below). Kratos, traumatized by the killings, refuses to honor the oath he swore to Ares, setting into motion the story of Ascension. Ares seeks revenge through the game’s antagonistic Furies, three beings tasked with punishing betrayal, whom Kratos must kill in order to free himself from his oath. The story ends with Kratos leaving his Spartan home behind, still tormented by his grief.

2. God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008)

Kratos’s next adventure is told in the PSP game aptly named God of War: Chains of Olympus. Olympus takes place halfway through Kratos’s ten-year servitude to the gods (five years before God of War) — a servitude that, once completed, will free him from the torturous visions of his past.

The main plot tasks Kratos with rescuing Helios, the Titan God of the Sun, from the underworld at the behest of Athena. There, he encounters the game’s primary antagonist Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. Persephone presents Kratos with an opportunity to reunite with his daughter, and Kratos wrestles with the apocalyptic repercussions of that reunion and his promise to return Helios to the gods.

3. God of War (2005)

Set roughly 10 years after Ascension, the first God of War game begins with Kratos succumbing to his grief and jumping off a cliff into the Aegean Sea. Before he hits the water, we flash back three weeks to discover what led the Spartan off the brink.

Kratos, nearing the end of his servitude to the gods, is given one final task by Athena: defeat Ares and save the city of Athens from his siege. With the promise of forgiveness for his past atrocites as his reward, Kratos sets out to obtain Pandora’s Box and kill Ares. The task takes him to hell and back, with Kratos ultimately facing off against the God of War. Victorious yet no less troubled by his past, Kratos jump off the bluff as we saw in the game’s opening. Athena pulls him from the water and offers him a throne on Olympus, completing his 10-year ascension to becoming the God of War.

Throughout the game, a narrator provides crucial backstory about Kratos’s life through cut scenes. Kratos once served as a revered captain in the Spartan army. On the verge of death and defeat against a massive force of barbarians, he offered himself to Ares in exchange for victory. Ares answered the call, defeated the barbarians, and claimed Kratos as his servant, fusing his arms with the Blades of Chaos.

4. God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010)

Ghost of Sparta, the series’ second PSP game, takes place between God of War and God of War 2. The subtitle references the nickname given to Kratos due to his pale-white appearance, the result of an oracle’s curse that fastened the ashes of his wife and child to his skin.

Ghost of Sparta provides closure to two familial narrative threads: Kratos travels to Atlantis where he encounters both his mortal mother and his long-lost brother Deimos, who was kidnapped by the gods during childhood to prevent the fulfillment of Olympus’s prophesized demise.

The climax sees Kratos and his brother reunited, doing battle with the Greek God of Death, Thanatos. Despite victory, it’s another unhappy ending for Kratos. By the time the credits roll, Kratos has grown even wearier and more furious with the other Olympians.

5. God of War: Betrayal (2007)

This mobile 2D sidescroller is officially part of the God of War canon, according to Sony Santa Monica animation director Bruno Velazquez. The gods, displeased with Kratos’s bloodlust, attempt to stop his latest conquest with Argos, a many-eyed giant that serves Hera, Queen of the Gods. Kratos is framed for the killing of Argos by an unidentified assassin in an attempt to further fracture his relationship with Olympus. Later, Zeus sends a messenger to put an end to Kratos’s continued destruction. Kratos responds with violence, once again defying the other gods. Betrayal leaves players with this message, setting up the events to come in God of War 2: “Soon, the fury of Zeus would rain down upon [Kratos].”

God of War: Betrayal was released in 2007, before the rise of smartphones, and isn’t available on modern mobile storefronts. It can be skipped without consequence, but those who want to play it will have to access it via a Java emulator.

6. God of War 2 (2007)

God of War 2 pits Kratos against Zeus, the King of Olympus. Kratos, already ostracized due to his yearslong rampage, rejects Athena’s plea for peace and continues wreaking havoc throughout Greece. It’s the final straw for Olympus; Zeus descends to the battlefield and kills Kratos.

Kratos finds a new ally in Gaia, the mother of Titans and Earth. She provides Kratos with a way to rewrite the past and save his own life. After a trip to the Underworld, Kratos follows Gaia’s instructions, leading him to the Sisters of Fate. After more bloodshed, Kratos takes control of the Loom of Fate and returns to the scene of his death. Kratos’s plan to kill Zeus is thwarted when another Olympian steps in front of his blade. It’s here that we (and Kratos) learn about his true parentage. Kratos uses the power of the Loom to recruit the Titans of the past to his future war. Back in the present, Kratos leads the Titans in an assault on Mount Olympus, setting up God of War 3.

7. God of War 3 (2010)

Taking place directly after the previous game, God of War 3 concludes Kratos’ Greecian saga and resolves his war with Zeus and the Olympians.

Kratos and the Titans battle with the Olympians to catastrophic effect. Kratos (once again) has his trust betrayed and (once again) descends into the Underworld. There, Kratos teams up with an old ally to take down Zeus once and for all. Back on Earth, Kratos faces the wrath of Titans and Gods alike, leading him on an epic killing spree toward a final showdown with Zeus.

Kratos declares an end to his vengeance, and with the world in ruin, makes a sacrifice to release hope to mankind.

8. God of War: A Call from the Wilds (2018)

God of War: A Call from the Wids is a Facebook Messenger text-adventure released ahead of 2018’s God of War. The ~30-minute story introduces Kratos’s son Atreus and provides background on the character’s extrasensory abilities, while adding a bit of flavor to his relationships with Kratos and his mother, Faye. The story is set sometime before God of War 2018 when Faye is still alive.

A Call from the Wilds seems to no longer be playable, though like God of War: Betrayal, this is a story that can ultimately be skipped. Those who want to experience it can find complete playthroughs on YouTube.

9. God of War (2018)

Set many years after God of War 3, 2018’s God of War transports Kratos from Greece to the Norse realm of Midgard, where Kratos now resides with his son, Atreus. Kratos and Atreus plan to fulfill Faye’s dying wish: to have her ashes spread from the top of the highest peak in the Nine Realms.

Their journey is no straightforward hike; the duo travel through multiple realms, encountering friends and foes from Norse mythology, including Baldur, Freya, Thor’s sons Magni and Modi, the last living giant Jörmungandr, and Mimir. Along the way, Kratos struggles with fatherhood and the truths he keeps hidden from Atreus — about his past and Atreus’s identity.

Following their adventure, the Nine Realms enter Fimbulwinter, a three-year-long precursor to Ragnarök, the end of the world.

10. God of War Ragnarok (2022)

Given the recency of Ragnarok’s release, this plot synopsis is especially vague to avoid spoilers.

God of War: Ragnarok, the most recent and story-rich God of War game, is set three years after 2018’s God of War, as the Nine Realms near the end of Fimbulwinter and the beginning of Ragnarök.

Many characters return from 2018, alongside newcomers such as the All-Father Odin and his son Thor, but it remains focused on the adventures of Kratos and Atreus with a greater emphasis on the latter, who explores his newly discovered identities and powers. As Kratos and Atreus, you’ll traverse all nine realms and the Realm Between Realms on personal quests of identity and a greater quest to defeat the Asgards and survive Ragnarok.

We won’t spoil the journey, but Ragnarok leaves the door open for future God of War stories to be told.

How to Play the God of War Games By Release Date

• God of War (2005)
• God of War 2 (2007)
• God of War: Betrayal (2007)
• God of War: Chains of Olympus (2008)
• God of War 3 (2010)
• God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010)
• God of War: Ascension (2013)
• God of War: A Call from the Wilds (2018)
• God of War (2018)
• God of War Ragnarok (2022)

What’s Next for God of War?

Sony has yet to announce another God of War game, though given the critical and commercial success of God of War (2018) and Ragnarok, we expect there to be future entries.

What has been announced is a God of War TV series. The live-action show, in development for Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service, will adapt the story of 2018’s God of War. Game director Cory Barlog serves as an executive producer; Rafe Judkins (The Wheel of Time) is the showrunner.

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

On the chitin-covered heels of the impressive Witch Queen expansion and a relatively strong year of live-service support overall, it seemed like Destiny 2 was finally gaining momentum as it headed toward the conclusion of its epic saga. Sadly, my optimism for a game I’ve spent thousands of hours playing has come crashing down like a Cabal drop pod after just a couple dozen with Destiny’s latest expansion, Lightfall. The story is so shockingly incoherent that even someone who has spent countless hours reading Destiny’ lore like I have couldn’t understand its nonsense, the new destination on Neptune feels as lifeless as the real planet, and the endgame/seasonal activities have so few surprises to offer (at least so far) that they give me deja vu in the worst possible way. Thankfully, a number of Lightfall’s activities are challenging enough to warrant me leaning forward in my seat, the new Strand subclass is a nice addition to Destiny’s sandbox, and the most recent batch of quality-of-life improvements largely succeed at making my time shooting space rhinos in the face a less bumpy ride. I still have a little more to do and the eventual raid ahead of me, but so far even Lightfall’s best parts haven’t been able to wash the overwhelming taste of disappointment out of my mouth.

The opening moments of Lightfall are some of its best, as Destiny’s long-awaited final villain, The Witness, arrives in our solar system to deal a blow against humanity and our allies. But any excitement is quickly swept into the vacuum of space as you’re bizarrely and inexplicably redirected from the action to take part in a seemingly unrelated sidequest in the Neptunian city of Neomuna. Not only is the story a decidedly low stakes diversion that draws you away from the real conflict happening on Earth, but it flatout does not make sense. That’s not just me saying that, either; some of the Destiny community’s greatest lore minds have been completely stumped by the utter nonsense of Lightfalls’s story.

The events on Neomuna surround a macguffin called The Veil, a mysterious artifact that you’re told is super important, but nobody ever, ever tells you what it is or its purpose, even a little bit – ever. Your enemy is Calus, a stack of pancakes cosplaying as an air fryer, who serves as the least intimidating antagonist in Destiny’s history. As you wage war against an incompetent moron for control of an artifact you know nothing about, you’ll also discover the dark powers of Strand, a green elemental subclass our heroes spend half of the campaign trying to figure out how to use in a process so dull they literally skip over some of it by giving you a Rocky-style training montage at one point. Yikes.

Along the way, you also meet the Cloud Striders, Nimbus and Rohan, who are 12-foot tall cybernetically infused humanoids with personalities that were apparently drawn randomly from a basket of cliches. Rohan is an elderly Cloud Strider who all-but stares directly into the camera to tell you he’s a day away from retirement (I wonder what will happen to him), while Nimbus is a young surfer dude who makes cringey jokes as humanity’s holocaust unfolds. Staying on brand with the rest of the campaign, the writing for these two is so extraordinarily bad it makes interacting with them a painful chore, especially Nimbus, who manages to make the low stakes of Lightfall’s story feel even more laughable with his irritating adolescent hijinks.

Just as quickly as it began, the story wraps up a mere 8 hours later while resolving none of its greater questions and kicking the can down the road for any actual story developments to be dealt with at a later date, neatly putting all the pieces back exactly where they were at the beginning. The storytelling is so dreadful it makes me nostalgic for the days of the infamous “I don’t have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain” line uttered in vanilla Destiny – but worse than that, it undermines the approaching finale by trivializing the arrival of The Witness and slamming the brakes on any momentum or goodwill Destiny gained from The Witch Queen’s excellent writing. As a longtime Destiny fan, I was utterly heartbroken by both the disappointing whiplash in quality and all the wasted story potential by the time I finished Lightfall’s campaign.

It’s not just the plot that disappoints, either. The levels themselves feel decidedly less unique or memorable than The Witch Queen. The interesting puzzles and diet raid mechanics featured in last year’s campaign have been replaced with irritating battles taking place in an arena where you’re often running in circles to survive, stopping to take shots here and there while you can. Instead of fighting interesting new enemies like the light-bearing Hive, Lightfall has you mostly fighting the same burly Cabal that we’ve been at war with for nine years, which have always been one of Destiny’s less engaging adversaries.

Strand does at least help ease the monotony of the campaign’s action, representing the biggest shakeup to Destiny’s sandbox in a long while. The powers themselves aren’t revolutionary to Destiny: you get a new melee ability, new supers for each class that deal huge DPS, and some new buffs and debuffs to play with – like Suspend, which lifts enemies off the ground and entangles them briefly, or Sever, which causes the enemy’s damage output to become significantly reduced. Admittedly, these additions aren’t hugely different from what we’ve seen in Destiny over the years. For example, Suspend effectively does the same thing as the freezing powers of Stasis that we got with Beyond Light. And casting Strand supers to take out large groups of enemies works more-or-less identically to other subclasses but with a different color.

But that’s not to say Strand has nothing unique to offer! The main reason to pick it over other classes is in its unmatched mobility, since the subclass replaces your Guardian’s grenade with a grapple hook that allows you to swing around the environment and pull yourself towards enemies to follow up with a devastating melee hit – both of which are a lot of fun. It’s definitely an interesting tradeoff since gaining access to a grapple hook is rarely worth losing a grenade over, but it still adds some much-needed diversity to the sandbox and is a great option to help navigate the vertical nature of Neomuna’s skyscrapers.

You’ll be spending most of your time on the neon-soaked streets of Neomuna, a city that’s been peculiarly hidden from the rest of the galaxy until now, yet houses massive buildings and technology that surpasses even that of Guardians during the golden age. Unfortunately, this setting is as flimsy as its lore, and is barren and lifeless despite supposedly thriving up until the recent Cabal invasion. Each area of Neomuna contains a handful of featureless buildings and plenty of Cabal and Vex enemies to battle, but little else to engage with aside from the standard fare of patrols and public events that we’ve seen in every Destiny location since 2014.

You might be thinking: “but shouldn’t this thriving city on Neptune be full of people to talk to?” Of course it should, right? It’d be crazy to make the whole thing look like a derelict corporate park with no intelligent life in sight. Well, as you’re conveniently told early in your visit, all of Neomuna’s citizens have been uploaded to a virtual network to achieve immortality, so they only appear around the city as blurry, ghostlike outlines. The only physical beings occupying the meat space of Neomuna are our duo of Cloud Strikers, who apparently follow the Sith’s rule of two so there’s no chance of you meeting a third, maybe more interesting character even by accident.

Luckily there’s at least one exciting new enemy for you to fight along that way, as Lightfall introduces the Tormentor, a warrior of the darkness who chases you around with a scythe, takes away your abilities with suppression powers, and can nearly one-shot you with his terrifying grapple attack. As the first true footsoldier of the darkness we’ve faced after years of speculation that their pyramid ships would be filled with new horrors for us to confront, the Tormentor serves as a glimmer of hope for what I imagine will be a fully realized enemy faction once we finally face The Witness head-on. But for now they’re one of the only things to occasionally inject some desperately needed freshness into Lightfall’s otherwise stale sandbox. They may be a bit overused in the campaign for that reason, but they are at least a genuinely fun new obstacle to overcome.

A less thrilling addition is that Cabal enemies, now infused with the wicked powers of darkness, will frequently drop a shard upon death that grants an overshield to their allies for a long time unless it’s destroyed. While it’s at least a new challenge to contend with, it mostly just causes the flow of combat to grind to a halt every couple of seconds as you’re forced to remove overshields from the enemy before proceeding, only for another shard to drop the next time you kill something.

Once you’ve completed Lightfall’s campaign, you’ll be greeted by the usual post-game quests and busywork that have followed all of Destiny’s recent campaigns. There’s nothing bad about the postgame stuff I’ve played so far, but there’s also nothing super exciting about it. You’ll learn a little more about Neomuna and go on an odyssey to obtain a new exotic weapon, or maybe even grind out some more customization options for the Strand subclass, but nothing I’ve played has made me particularly motivated about continuing to traipse around Neptune.

I still have some quests to check off my list before finalizing this review, and am hopeful the raid that debuts on March 10 will prove more entertaining than the rest of my adventure so far. But as of right now, things are looking pretty dire for a game that’s been close to my heart for many years. No doubt Lightfall’s shortcomings are made more painful by immediately following The Witch Queen and its strong post-launch updates, which felt like Destiny 2 had finally overcome its storytelling woes and charted out a strong future for itself. After playing Lightfall, perhaps too fittingly given its name, that future doesn’t look quite as bright.

Fantasy Flight Games is widely known for its popular Living Card Games (or LCGs) genre such as Marvel Champions and Arkham Horror: The Card Game that give you all the thrill of deckbuilding and battling that you’d expect out of a traditional collectible card game like Magic: The Gathering or Pokemon, but without the hassle of buying booster packs to get that one card you need to complete a deck. Instead, there’s a mandatory core set and a number of optional themed expansions and character packs that contain the same cards for everyone, leading to a more consistent experience for all players.

Fantasy Flight’s latest card game takes a slight detour from the standard LCG fare and is instead a standalone deckbuilding experience set in the Star Wars universe, aptly named Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game (see it on Amazon). Designed specifically for two player head-to-head combat, Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game allows you to take control of the Empire or the Rebel Alliance to strategically recruit allies and accumulate resources with the ultimate goal of destroying a number of your opponent’s bases.

What makes Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game different from other preconstructed card games is that each player starts with the same base set of ten cards and assembles their deck during the course of the game. This means every game can be wildly different from the last depending on which cards are available, as well as your overall strategy.

What’s in the Box

Inside the rather compact box you’ll find two 10-card starter decks – one for the Rebel Alliance and one for the Empire. Each deck serves as a basic structure to get you started that you’ll look to enhance during gameplay. Both decks feature identical card effects, with the only difference being alternate artwork to fit their chosen faction.

There is also a shared deck of 90 Galaxy cards that feature Rebel, Empire, and neutral cards that both players will draw through during the course of the game. This deck contains the majority of cards both players will seek to acquire to bolster their decks. Additionally, there’s another smaller shared deck of 10 Outer Rim Pilot cards that can be used in the early game to accumulate more resources – more on that later.

Each faction also includes 10 Base cards spanning a number of iconic locations from throughout the Star Wars universe including Tatooine, Endor, Hoth, Alderaan, Coruscant, Mustafar, Yavin 4, and the Death Star. Aside from their mandatory starting location, each player can choose which bases they want to use during the game, depending on their overall strategy. These additional bases are kept secret from the opponent, often leading to a bit of surprise in the latter parts of the game.

The last few items in the box include the Balance of the Force track, two reference cards, 50 damage counters, 20 resource counters, and a Force marker. All in all, it’s a fairly light box in terms of components which makes for easy setup and teardown.

Rules and How to Play

The goal of Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game is simple – destroy all of your enemy’s bases before they destroy yours. This is accomplished through strategic deckbuilding and combat using the allies and resources you’ve accumulated during the game.

Each player begins by choosing their faction, either the Rebel Alliance or the Empire, and gathering their 10-card starter deck and corresponding bases. As previously mentioned, the starter decks feature identical card effects, with the only difference being the artwork. This gives both players an identical starting point and allows them to build in the direction they see fit, while taking into account factors such as available cards and their opponent’s strategy.

After both players have their starter decks and bases, the Galaxy deck is shuffled and the top six cards are revealed to create the Galaxy Row. This shared space features cards from both factions – as well as neutral cards – that players can acquire if they have the appropriate number of resources. The Outer Rim Pilot deck is also placed near Galaxy Row as an additional source of allies that both players can add to their decks.

The Balance of the Force Track is also set up next to Galaxy Row in reach of both players. This small folding track indicates which player is currently more attuned with the Force at any given moment during the game. This is important as certain cards gain additional effects if you currently have the Force on your faction’s side. To begin the game, the Rebel player starts with the Force all the way on their side. Lastly, the purple damage counters and yellow resource counters are placed off to the side within reach of both players.

Each player draws five cards from their deck to create their starting hand. Since the Rebel players begin with the Force, the Empire always takes the first turn of the game. Players also agree on the total number of bases that must be defeated in order to claim victory (the recommended number of bases is four). And with that, you’re ready to play.

There are two main types of cards players will encounter in the Galaxy Deck: standard unit cards that feature characters or vehicles and capital ships. The artwork on the cards is beautifully detailed and includes over 100 iconic characters such as Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Boba Fett, Grand Moff Tarkin, Cassian Andor, and many, many more.

All cards have a cost, indicated by a yellow number in the top left corner, that must be paid in resources. Below the cost are numbers accompanied by three unique icons that indicate attack power, resource generation, and Force generation. Most cards only feature one or two, but more powerful characters can include all three. Capital ships also feature their total health in a purple circle near the bottom of the card, similar to bases. These cards are important as they act as a line of defense between your currently active base and your opponent’s forces.

The center of the card features the unit or capital ship’s name with its unique effect printed below. Many of the card effects are cleverly thematic to the character itself, like Boba Fett drawing a card as an extra “reward” when bounty hunting a card in Galaxy Row, or the Jawas being able to “scavenge” cards from the Galaxy Row’s discard pile as if they were available to purchase.

On the bottom of each unit card is a reward for defeating it, as well as its health, printed upside down. This is intentional, as cards in Galaxy Row are oriented towards the faction that they belong to. For example, Rebel cards will always face the Rebel player as they can’t be added to the Empire player’s deck. However, the reward and health total for that specific card face the Empire player so they can easily read the information if they decide they want to attack that specific unit.

During each turn, you can perform a number of actions as frequently as you’d like and in any order. These actions include: playing a card from your hand, spending resources to purchase a card from Galaxy Row, using an ability on one of your cards, committing units to an attack on the opposing player or one of their cards in Galaxy Row, and finally, resolve an attack.

Cards in your deck don’t have any “mana” cost to play and are discarded at the end of each turn, so you’re encouraged to play everything in your hand, if possible. Early cards generate resources when played that you can use to purchase more powerful cards from Galaxy Row. Once acquired, these cards are added to your discard pile. When your deck runs out, you shuffle your discard pile to create a new deck. Early on, you’ll be shuffling every couple turns or so, but as you add to your deck you’ll have more to draw through.

Some cards in your deck have attack values that you can use to directly attack your opponent’s base, while other cards will generate Force for your faction, allowing you to move the Force marker one space closer to your faction’s side. While the Force is all the way on your side, you’ll gain an additional resource each turn that you can use to acquire more units and capital ships from Galaxy Row. Certain cards gain additional benefits from having the Force on your faction’s side, so it’s important to always keep an eye on its current location during the game. The Balance of the Force track creates a small metagame of tug of war between you and your opponent that adds an interesting dynamic to the overall game.

If you choose to commit your units to an attack, you can either choose to attack your opponent, or one of their cards in Galaxy Row. If you choose to attack your opponent, you must always attack their Capital ship if they have one before engaging with their current base. Alternatively, you can attack one of their cards in Galaxy Row. As long as your unit’s attack is higher than the unit’s health in Galaxy Row, it is defeated. Not only can you gain the reward printed on the card, but it also removes a potentially beneficial card from your opponent’s overall pool of cards that they might want to add to their deck. This creates some interesting strategy as you’re racing to purchase the best cards for your deck before your opponent potentially sabotages your plans.

At the end of each turn, you must discard all remaining cards in your hand, as well as any units you committed to attacks during your turn and any unspent resources. The only cards that remain in your play area are any remaining Capital ships and your current base. Then, you draw five new cards from your deck and pass the turn to your opponent. The limited availability of units and resources creates a “use it or lose it” mentality that’s very different from many other competitive card games and also keeps the game moving at a steady clip.

Play continues back and forth until one of the players’ bases are defeated. The player who initiated the attack claims the base as a reward, while the opposing player chooses a new base to deploy from their deck of base cards. Each base is vastly different from the others, with some featuring higher overall health and a slightly weaker effect versus lower health and a more powerful effect that can help you in the moment. This creates a level of variability that can shift the overall tempo of the game and potentially help you make up some ground if you are behind. Once all of a given player’s bases are defeated (usually four, but you can play up to 10 if you want a much longer game), then the game is finished and a victor is declared.

For your first game, it’s recommended that you play to three bases and use a preset deck of five bases to choose from during gameplay. These preselected bases feature effects that are a bit simpler to understand for your first game, and the slightly reduced base count ensures your first game can be completed quickly. My first playthrough took about an hour, but subsequent games went much smoother as I became more familiar with the rules. Most of my later games were completed in about 45 minutes, despite having higher base counts.

Despite being fairly quick games, there’s definitely some pacing issues. Because the deckbuilding experience is akin to a light engine building game like Splendor, the early turns feel a bit like you’re going through the motions. The fact that both players have identical starting decks doesn’t help to differentiate the gameplay early on, either. Things really ramp up after the second base falls, though, and it really feels like an all-out war is happening. I found playing to four bases felt the best, as you really got to feel powerful and savor it a bit before the game ends, unlike other engine builders that end just as you’re reaching your full potential.

As with most card games, your experience is very dependent on card draw. However, since you’re essentially drawing from two decks (your own deck and the shared Galaxy deck), things can quickly begin to snowball if luck isn’t in your favor. Thankfully, there are ways to mitigate some of the RNG you’ll encounter with your own deck. One of the keywords featured on some of the cards is Exile, which allows you to permanently remove one of your cards from the game. While this may seem counterintuitive in a game centered around building a deck, the concept of “thinning” your deck ensures that each card you draw is more impactful.

However, Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game’s biggest design issue lies within Galaxy Row itself. The idea of a shared pool of cards to draft from is unique, but if one player doesn’t get their faction cards to show up for an extended period of time, it can feel oppressive. Not only is your opponent strengthening their deck, they can basically ignore Galaxy Row and start attacking your base while you’re stuck waiting for meaningful cards to show up. They can effectively lock you out of progressing your deck by not purchasing any additional cards and forcing you to defeat their faction cards to (hopefully) make space for your own while they continue piling on the damage to your base. Not to mention, getting some of your faction’s most powerful cards (such as Darth Vader for the Empire or Luke Skywalker for the Rebels) early on can really swing the game in your favor, while leaving your opponent feeling helpless if they don’t have access to any of their heavy hitters yet.

The fact that Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game is a self-contained experience is both a blessing and a curse. Having a complete game with so many iconic characters all in one box is great as you don’t have to keep up with ongoing expansions and character packs, but with only 30 unique cards per faction in the Galaxy deck (in addition to the 30 neutral cards), games can sometimes feel a bit predictable. Despite all the characters and locations in this box, there’s still so much left to explore in the vast Star Wars galaxy that could be added in the future. I’d love to see new factions such as the Republic and Separatists from the prequels, or the Resistance and First Order from the sequels.

If you find things getting stale after a while, Fantasy Flight Games includes some additional game modes and optional rules to spice things up in the back of the rulebook. For instance, you can play with all 10 bases for an extended game, or implement a rule that allows you to “pay off” neutral faction cards that show up in Galaxy Row, allowing you to cycle in better cards without needing to add the card to your deck if you don’t want it. There’s even a 4-player variant that allows you to battle it out between two teams, although it requires an additional copy of the game.

Where to Buy

• See it at Amazon
• See it at Asmodee
• See it at Walmart