The Search for UAPs Review

We all wander through life searching for things to provide meaning to our time on earth. Some search eBay for long out-of-print board games to finish their collections. Some search locked storage containers in the hopes they’ll find a forgotten treasure. Me? I search the skies at night looking for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.

The Search for UAPs is a new version in the ever-expanding “The Search for…” franchise, this time designed by Ted Alspach. It supports 1-5 players and takes about an hour to play (longer if everyone is very bad at deduction games). I will avoid referencing the original game in the series (The Search for Planet X) for the most part in this review, but stay tuned for the “Game Experience” section for some direct comparisons.

Gameplay Overview:

The Search for UAPs is an app-mandated game and doesn’t come with any preset scenarios in its rulebook. To start, players will fire up the app and get a code that can be shared so everyone has access to it on their own device. (Or, if everyone is so inclined, one device can be passed around like the stuffing bowl on Thanksgiving.) The app will dictate all of the setup criteria except for the things players themselves get to choose, like the starting positions of their Researcher. Certain aspects of the setup, namely the quadrant modifiers, can also be adjusted directly in the app if players prefer.

The goal of the game is to find as much stuff in outer space as possible. (“Stuff” is a technical term first coined by NASA (probably).) Players are looking for things like the Hubble Space Telescope, Spy Satellites, and of course, the titular UAP. Each of these objects follows different rules and will also score players varying amounts of points depending on how difficult they are to find. The UAP is worth the most, but finding it doesn’t necessarily mean an automatic victory; it does, however, trigger the end of the game.

In general terms, players are limited in the areas they can search based on which region of earth their Researcher is currently located. One of the actions players can take on their turns is to move this character in order to gain access to another collection of data points. But seeing as how the earth is constantly rotating (if you believe that sort of thing), one of the rings of outer space stuff will move more or less every turn, depending on what actions players take.

Speaking about those actions, most of them are some kind of “search” endeavor. Players can survey a cluster of sectors that are accessible to their Researcher for general information and can target information in a single sector. Targeting is the easiest way to get intel (the app just tells the player what’s there), but it also moves that player further along the turn order track, which means their opponents might get more (and often consecutive) turns.

Another action players can take is to put down a token on the shared central board to signify where they think an object is. These are revealed regularly, and correct guesses will score points at the end of the game.

All of these actions are tracked on the game’s slick app, which allows players to view much of the pertinent information from behind their own privacy screen.

In each game, the four regions of earth will be assigned rules that vary their usefulness from game to game. For instance, some regions may not cost action points to move to, while others may make surveying that sector more difficult. The app will remind you of these rules during the game.

Once the UAP is found, the game ends, and whoever has accumulated the most points is the winner.

Game Experience:

For those familiar with this type of deduction games, The Search for UAPs will feel like a logical progression. While the game has a few more rules, the puzzle itself largely follows the same general idea. What makes UAP successful is that the base difficulty has been ramped up with the inclusion of location elements and the necessity to move one’s Researcher around the earth.

This is a key factor to consider when gathering information, and timing both that and which sections to actually search is at the heart of the game. Using the “powers” of the different regions is also a fun and effective quirk that adds a lot of depth (and, obviously, replay value) to the game.

The app that you’re required to use is a marked improvement over The Search for Planet X; there’s a decent chunk of things going on in the physical world that players should enter into the app as the game progresses (although it’s not strictly necessary). The experience is very user-friendly, however, and if used correctly, the app makes understanding the game state a breeze.

Less user-friendly are the game’s “wet-erase” markers and magnetic personal rotating “note” board. The markers are just pretty annoying to use. You have to constantly cap and uncap them to keep them wet enough to write with. I ended up just licking mine when I needed to write, which didn’t feel like the best idea. The personal boards themselves are really neat, but they’re just a touch too small, and everything can get a little jumbled. The components for the game are mostly stellar, however.

Final Thoughts:

For those in the audience who have and love The Search for Planet X, I think The Search for UAPs provides a more complete game and deduction experience. They are different, however, and The Search for Planet X is much more straightforward. For that reason, both games will be staying in my collection. But on their own merits, I feel The Search for UAPs is a better game with a better app and a few much-needed rule tweaks that really improve gameplay (the timing of the player guesses being the most significant one).

Final Score: 4.5 Stars – With a stellar app, tough deduction elements, and an engaging game arc, The Search for UAPs is a great game that fans of the genre should definitely pick up (just be sure to swap out those markers).

Hits:
• Deep puzzle expands nicely onto the existing engine
• Quadrant modifiers add replay value and a new element
• Good components overall except for…

Misses:
• … the frustrating “wet-erase” markers
• Personal player boards are a little to cluttered