Panic Station is a game about paranoia-driven game for 4 to 6 players in which you control two characters, a trooper and an android, and head out to investigate what is happening in a remote station. Sometime during the game, one of the players will be infected by the alien lifeform and become a Host. Once infected, the player will then have an objective to stop the humans from completing their mission. How he does that depend on his ability to 'convince' the other players.
Gameplay Overview
You are being given 2 characters: a trooper and an android. Together with other players, you enter the station in hope of finding the hive (cause of the infection) and burn it down. To do so, you'll need 3 gas cans, one of which you have right at the start, the other two to be obtained either through searching the station rooms or build trust with his teammates so they can pass their gas cans to him. It sound simple, but in the game, it's not. The reason is because the gas can serves another purpose: it can save your life when the host (or another infected character) tries to infect you, so it is extremely valuable.
Your trooper is the one capable of using a flamethrower to torch the hive. If he's dead, then you (the player) cannot fulfill your mission. What about the android? Your android is able to use projectile weapons to kill parasites that will spawn and roam about the rooms, or attack other players who you suspect are already infected when they come to you.
In this game, parasites spawn quite often. If the parasite ends its turn on the same space as another character, they will take damage. As you get more damage, your action points drop, resulting in less action per turn. So if you have ammunition in your hand, having your android next to you is probably a good idea.
Throughout the game, moments of paranoia pop up quickly, especially when the initial stack of items cards are being drawn. That means one of the players has the Host card. No one knows who has it, and that's what causes the game to work so well. You have to try and figure out who it is, while trying to complete your mission. If you are not the Host, who can you trust? What if you are the one who drew the Host card? What will you do? Your mission has now changed and your goal is to stop the other players from completing their goal, either by infecting them, kill them, or prevent them from having enough gas cans to complete the game. Once either side has fulfilled their goal, the game ends.
Conclusion
This game reminds me of Ridley Scott's Alien and James Cameron's Aliens, especially when reading the manual. On paper, the game mechanic works beautifully. When applied onto the game, there are some mechanics that does not fit well into the game. On your first few tries, you will probably make mistakes with the rules. Later on, you might find some game mechanic not fitting to the theme as a whole. You might even add variants to tweak the gameplay so it work better. Despite these shortcomings, I find myself wanting to play it again hours after finishing it.
(Note: The experience of the game depends entirely on the gaming group. Those who like this type of game will definitely bring out the fun in it.)
Overall: B+
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