This is an amazing free addition to the board game that turns a negotiation-based competitive game into a marvellous cooperative experience reminiscent of the noteworthy indie video game, FTL.
As of reviewing this in late 2022, I've played through once in a three-player game in August and scored a very difficult, skin-of-our-teeth victory. A large positive part of our experience lies in the freedom players have when kitting out their ships; since everyone is trying to optimise their ship for a different purpose, you are more likely to get ship parts and crew that scale well with one another, unlocking interesting combos. A prominent negative I can mention is that the frequent typos break immersion in the scenarios presented.
An additional benefit is that this theoretically makes the two-player experience good. Competitively, the base board game depends so much on negotiation that the solo mode is an interesting negotiation-free puzzle and three players allow the game to shine, but the two-player experience is caught in an unsatisfactory limbo between the two. Cooperatively, this limbo space no longer exists and the players can work together on the puzzle presented.
Finally, I want to mention the pleasing aesthetic of the game; I don't particularly remember the audio, which I'm sure was fine, but the artistic style shared with the base board game feels simultaneously retro, arcade-gamey, and futuristic with its pixelated appearance.
EDIT: I have more recently played the game with four players and it stretched out too long. The duration of the game scales out of control based on the number of players. This should strictly be played with three or fewer players.
