The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine

One of the best games out there right now i think.

A great game that has the group cooperating to take tricks as needed to complete goals. The players, however, cannot speak to one another and that makes the game very interesting and challenging.

It's fun, but it's hard to get your group on board to help you win. lol.

Plays are quick and fun. A good diversion for pregame or between game moments.

Deceptively simple but ohhh so challenging. This is the first time I’ve ever played a game where you HAVE to collaborate to be successful! Such a different way to play - loved not being in competition with each other. Sounds crazy, right?!? Every level is different but so dang fun to work together with a group. I’ve bought this as gifts over and over.

While this game is officially for 3-5 players, the 2 player variant included with the game is great. I'm sure more players would add more challenge but it's still very enjoyable at 2.

After playing Euchre with my brother and our partners on Thanksgiving, I decided to bust out The Crew to provide a different perspective on trick-taking. Unlike most trick-taking games, the central conceit of The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine is that all players are working together to complete Tasks. Generally speaking, each player is assigned Tasks for a mission (round of trick-taking), and the Tasks are the particular cards that each player must win in a trick. For instance, if I am assigned the blue 6 as my task, then I must win the Blue 6 in a trick. The players complete the mission once all the Tasks are completed; if at any point a Task is failed (e.g., if someone else on my team won the trick with the blue 6 in the previous example), players can reshuffle and try again. The communication mechanic is a neat touch—each player has a token which they can place on one of the cards from their hand, and the token is positioned to show that a card is either the highest, lowest, or only card of a particular suit. Overall the game consists of 50 missions that are meant to be played together as a consistent team. The missions add tricks, sequences, and other constraints to raise the difficulty. We only played the first few missions and enjoyed our time with it—we will get it back on the table next time we're together and locate Planet Nine!

The game itself is great, but this edition I received from Miniature Market, printed in the USA, is of very poor quality. The cardstock is cheap and not linen finish (the original Polish printing is). Also, the cardboard is poorly punched and ripped in a couple of places. This is my second copy of the game. I ordered along with The Crew: Mission Deep Sea, which is of obviously superior quality and printed in Poland.

Great game to play with older family members who are just looking for a basic card game.

We have only played 2-player and the AI is SO fun. Every game is tense. Can play the early games in a few minutes, so it has a great way to teach you the game as you go. We love it.