"I have come to the conclusion that SH is not really a solar system exploration game, it's a game with a pasted-on space exploration theme. Everything that makes solar system exploration interesting and challenging has been removed from the game for "simplicity". It is riddled with inaccuracies and inconsistencies that make it not work as a setting - Planets don't move over time, travel times are unrealistically long (for ships) while being instantaneous for cargo, failure rates are way too high... The rules are also badly presented and contradictory in places and are full of over-simplifications that further act to destroy the theme. And the pace of the game is just too slow, and you could be screwed by randomness at any point.
It's just too flawed to be worth the money (and it is a very expensive game) - if you want a good, fun solar system exploration game then get SpaceCorp instead, but avoid this."
I really tried to like it and spent a lot of effort on it. I made a TTS mod where I fixed all the board misprints and upgraded the graphics, and I even made a realistic travel time calculator (with planets that moved over the timeframe of the campaign - you can find that at https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2482480/long-analysis-travel-time-distance-equation-and-re ), but the more I dug into it the more shallow I realised it was. For starters the default travel times in the game are completely arbitrary and based on nothing realistic. And the gameplay itself is just boring - there's far too much dice rolling, it takes far too long to get anything done, takes up far too much space, and ultimately far outstays its welcome. It would have made more sense as a game where you explore some islands in an archipelago than a space exploration game. In the end it was just brutally disappointing in every way.
nyrath