Take your turn, HAL.
Much-loved Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A Space Odyssey is getting a new tie-in board game where one player, as HAL 9000, tries to kill everyone else as they scramble around a spaceship trying, desperately, to turn off their very badly-behaved PC. It’s perhaps the third most famous aspect of 2001, right behind monkeys killing each other with bones and arguing with people who love the Arthur C Clarke book more.
In the 3-5 player, 30 minute game, HAL’s trying to take down life support or three important ship systems, while the players are trying to put three logic sequences into HAL’s core to shut it down. Each player will have a special ability depending on which crewmember they are, while HAL will get to take multiple turns and generally “doesn’t play fair,” says the publisher.
It’s an ideal fit, of course, because I personally really love the part in 2001: A Space Odyssey where Dave waits for like 10 minutes because HAL can’t figure out what to do on their turn and is like “just give me a second.”
Jokes aside, you can’t write 2001 off as a cheap tie-in or IP cash grab. It’s designed by Phil Walker-Harding, a prolific game designer who most famously made the million-selling Sushi Go and its even better spinoff Sushi Go Party!, among other pretty good games like Barenpark, Cacao, and Imhotep.
2001: A Space Odyssey will be published by Maestro Media, a company you might know if you’re into board games and PC games because they published The Binding of Isaac: Four Souls, the spinoff card game of the rather-famous roguelike made by original Isaac designer Edmund McMillen. They’re also behind that brilliant and/or horrible Smurfs tabletop roleplaying game.
You can get 2001: A Space Odyssey the board game when it releases on June 20, and check out more on the Maestro Media website.
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