Clank! In! Space!

Clank! In! Space! arrived in 2017 from designer Paul Dennen, published by Renegade Game Studios as a standalone sequel to the original Clank! A Deck-Building Adventure. Where the first game sent players into a dragon’s dungeon, this one puts them aboard the spaceship of the evil Lord Eradikus, tasked with stealing artifacts and escaping before getting caught. The game retains the core deck-building and push-your-luck foundation that made the original popular while adding a modular board, an expanded card market, and several new wrinkles that give players more options on each turn. Community reception has been strong, with many players considering it an improvement over the original and others appreciating both games for slightly different reasons.

The sequel benefits from building on proven foundations. The original Clank! demonstrated that combining deck building with board movement and a push-your-luck mechanism creates something more exciting than any of those elements alone. Clank! In! Space! doesn’t reinvent that formula. Instead, it expands the decision space, adds variety through its modular setup, and wraps everything in a sci-fi theme that gives the design team more room to play with card abilities and board geography.

Replayability Done Right in Clank! In! Space!

The modular board is the biggest improvement and it changes the replay equation significantly. The central sections of Lord Eradikus’s ship are double-sided and can be arranged in different configurations, meaning the map layout changes from game to game. Different arrangements create different choke points, treasure distributions, and escape routes. In the original Clank!, experienced players could memorize optimal paths through the dungeon. Here, the shifting geography forces adaptation and keeps even veteran players on their toes. It’s a clean upgrade that adds substantial replay value without adding any rules complexity.

Push-your-luck tension remains the heart of the experience, and it works as well here as it did in the original. Every noisy card you play adds clank cubes to the shared pool. When the villain attacks, those cubes get dumped into a bag alongside neutral cubes, and a random draw determines who takes damage. Deeper incursions into the ship yield better loot but keep you in danger longer. The decision of when to grab your artifact and run versus when to push for one more turn of looting generates the kind of table moments that people remember. This mechanism gave the original Clank! its identity, and the sequel preserves it faithfully.

The expanded card market offers more strategic depth during the deck-building phase. Players have access to a wider variety of cards than in the original, and many of them interact with the sci-fi setting in interesting ways. Movement cards, combat cards, and economic cards all compete for attention in your growing deck, and the choices you make in the early turns have real consequences for your options later. Building a focused deck that serves your intended path through the ship feels more rewarding here because there are more tools available and more variety in how different decks play out.

Thematic integration with the sci-fi setting gives the game its own personality separate from the original. The ship has security checkpoints, cargo bays, and command modules that create natural landmarks for navigation. Hacking modules, faction alliances, and bounty rewards add flavor to the card effects beyond simple numbers. Players aren’t just collecting resources and moving, they’re sneaking through a villain’s headquarters, and the design supports that fantasy well enough that the theme enhances decisions rather than just decorating them.

Where Clank! In! Space! Falls Short

Turn length increases noticeably compared to the original, and this is the most common criticism in community discussion. The expanded card options mean each player has more to read, consider, and resolve on their turn. At three or four players, the gap between your turns can stretch long enough that momentum sags. The original Clank! moved briskly because turns were simpler and card effects were more direct. The trade-off for more strategic depth is more downtime for everyone else at the table, and some groups find that exchange unfavorable.

Pop-culture references in the card text and flavor are hit or miss. The sci-fi setting opens the door for jokes and allusions, and the game leans into them heavily. Some players enjoy the humor and find it adds character. Others describe the references as forced or dated, and for groups who prefer their games to take themselves a bit more seriously, the tone can be grating. This is entirely a matter of taste, but it comes up frequently enough in community feedback to be worth mentioning.

The learning curve is steeper than the original for new players. More card types, more board spaces with special rules, and the addition of mechanics like faction influence create a game that takes longer to teach and longer to internalize. Players who already know the original Clank! will adapt quickly. Players coming in fresh face a more complex initial experience that the game’s playful presentation doesn’t always telegraph. First games tend to run longer and feature more rules lookups than subsequent sessions.

Component wear has been a noted issue among regular players. The modular board pieces fit together tightly, and repeated assembly and disassembly can fray the edges. Cards see heavy use and show wear without sleeves. For a game that earns its replay value through variety, the physical materials don’t always hold up to the level of play the design encourages. This won’t matter to groups who play occasionally, but dedicated fans may want to invest in card sleeves and careful storage.

More Than a Reskin

The question that hangs over every standalone sequel is whether it’s a meaningful expansion of the original idea or just a coat of paint. Clank! In! Space! earns its existence through the modular board and the expanded decision space, both of which address real limitations of the original game. The fixed dungeon map of the first Clank! meant experienced players could chart optimal routes, reducing tension over time. The modular ship prevents that. The simpler card market of the original meant decks often converged on similar strategies. The expanded selection here rewards more diverse approaches. These aren’t revolutionary changes, but they’re the right changes, addressing the original’s weaknesses while preserving its strengths.

Should You Play Clank! In! Space!?

If you enjoyed the original Clank! and want more variety and depth, Clank! In! Space! is a natural step up. It’s also a strong entry point for groups who like the idea of deck building but want it attached to something more physical and thematic than a pure card game. The push-your-luck tension appeals to competitive players who enjoy risk calculation, and the cooperative feeling of watching someone else’s cubes get pulled from the bag creates table energy that purely mechanical games can’t match.

Skip it if turn length bothers your group at higher player counts. Skip it if you prefer your games without jokes on the cards. And if you’ve never played the original Clank!, you might want to start there since it teaches the core concepts more cleanly, and this sequel will be waiting when you’re ready for more.

The Verdict on Clank! In! Space!

Clank! In! Space! takes the already entertaining deck-building adventure formula and launches it into orbit with a modular board, expanded card market, and tighter thematic integration. The push-your-luck tension of the clank bag remains the star of the show, and the variable board setup gives this entry more replay value than its predecessor. Longer turns and some forced humor keep it from universal acclaim, but for groups who enjoyed the original Clank! and want more room to explore, this sequel delivers.