Nemesis Boardgame Review – Terror in the Void of Space

You wake up from cryo sleep. The lights are flickering. Someone’s already dead. Something’s moving in the vents, that’s definitely not the ship, and it’s getting louder. Nemesis doesn’t just want you to survive, it wants you to panic. Awaken Realms’ 2018 massive hit perfectly fused cinematic tension with brutal semi-cooperative gameplay, turning every session into your own unscripted Alien movie where something is in the ship with you, trust is optional and betrayal is inevitable.

Publisher: Awaken Realms
Designer: Adam Kwapiński
Players: 1-5 (true solo is extremely challenging)
Playtime: 90-180 minutes
Genre: Semi-Cooperative Sci-fi Horror
Release: 2018

What is Nemesis All About

Players take control of crew members; Soldier, Scientist, Scout, and others, thrust into chaos aboard a crippled starship.
Your job sounds simple enough complete your secret objective and make it home alive. Each round you’ll move through dark corridors, search rooms for gear, fight (or flee from) Intruders, and desperately fix the ship before it fatally malfunctions, or before someone decides you’re expendable. The tension lies in the dual goals: survive and fulfill your personal mission. Those two rarely align.

Mechanics & Flow

At its core, Nemesis is a blend of hand-management, dice-driven combat, and push-your-luck exploration. You can make a lot of noise moving around in the dark while trying to be quiet. You’ll get to move, craft, or shoot, but every action increases noise, drawing attention from whatever’s breeding in the vents. The traitor element elevates it from survival game to psychological thriller, (an aspect that can be overlooked while running for your life). One crewmate might secretly need you dead. Another might be carrying an infected embryo. And yet you need them, to open doors, start engines, or haul corpses.
Rounds build from cautious creeping to full-blown chaos as objectives collide and aliens flood the map. The pacing is cinematic: slow dread, sudden panic, explosive finale.

Theme & Components

Few games nail atmosphere like Nemesis. The art direction channels Alien and Event Horizon while the 20 Intruder miniatures turn your table into a sci-fi nightmare. Tiles, cards, and character boards are rich with detail, though first-time setup can feel like refitting a shuttle mid space flight. Rulebook clarity is decent but dense, however I feel new players will really benefit from the extra-large size of the pages as you get to see more per section (bigger pictures help a lot with where things go too).

Ease of learning/Accessibility

This is not a casual game night pick. Nemesis sits firmly in “hobbyist heavyweight” territory – rewarding but demanding from setup to play to teardown. The rulebook’s organization is better than Lockdown’s later, but first-time groups should plan an extra 30-45 minutes for setup and reference checks. Once the rhythm clicks, turns flow naturally and the thematic logic should help players remember rules. Cooperative instincts make it approachable for mixed-experience groups, helping each other makes it easier, until someone locks you in a room with an Intruder.

The Table Experience

Here’s where Nemesis earns its legend. Every play feels like a shared story written in screams, dice, and “I can’t believe you did that”. You’ll cheer as the Soldier when you burn an Intruder nest, raise an eyebrow when the Scout (your wife) jettisons the wrong escape pod, and laugh nervously when no one wants to open the next door.
The game thrives on tension and unpredictability. Win or lose, you remember your sessions—especially the ones that end with you drifting alone into space while the engines explode behind you.

Final Thoughts

Nemesis remains a top tier in storytelling and social tension. It’s messy, loud, and occasionally unfair, but that’s what makes it fun.

• Who will love it: fans of Alien, betrayal mechanics, and cinematic board-game moments.
• Who might not: players who hate long setups, luck-based turns, or dying spectacularly.

If you’d like to buy it, Amazon has some for a decent price https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L7HYWRW