Stella: Dixit Universe Review – A Spark of Inspiration

Interpret the images as the spirit moves you and make connections with others, but get too greedy and you may fall into darkness.

Published by Libellud, Stella: Dixit Universe is a 30-minute party game, designed for 3-6 players.

Gameplay

Three rows of five picture cards are set on the table. Each round, a clue word is drawn. Each player studies the pictures and secretly marks on their player board which pictures they believe represent the clue word. After everyone has selected their cards, they announce the number of cards they selected. If one player has chosen more than anyone else, they are considered to be ‘in the dark’.

Players then take turns. On your turn, you reveal one of the cards you selected. If several other people also selected that card, it is a spark for all involved players, and they earn two points for it. If only one other player selected that card, it is a super spark, and both players also earn an extra bonus point on top of the regular two points. If no one else selected the revealed card, you fall. You will announce if you selected other players’ revealed cards, but you can no longer earn more points for the rest of the round, and will not have another turn of revealing a card this round.

Players take turns revealing their cards until everyone has fallen or everyone who has not fallen has revealed all the cards they selected. At the end of the round, everyone marks how many points they earned. If a player was in the dark and fell, he scores one less point for each picture he successfully matched with someone.

At the beginning of each subsequent round, one of the rows of cards gets replaced with new pictures, and a new clue word is drawn. The player with the most points at the end of four rounds is the winner.

Review

Stella is a beautiful game, with lovely artwork. It is also a clever way to have a clue-giving game without anyone actually having to be the clue-giver. Everyone is, in a sense, a guesser, with the correct answers determined by the players themselves and which cards they guessed.

There is a push-your-luck element to the game, as well. Sticking to the more obvious cards will give you a better chance of scoring, but might leave you not scoring as many points as the other players that round. However, guess too many cards and you’re more likely to lose points.

If you are the player who’s in the dark that round, everyone else has already revealed all their choices, and you still have cards on the table, then you’re automatically going to fall on your next reveal and your matches will be worth fewer points. But being in the dark doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to fall, as different players might have chosen different cards, which could turn the round into a big point scorer for you.

This combination of mechanics leads to a clever guessing game, with little downtime between turns, where everyone is constantly involved.

It is also a gorgeous game with beautiful artwork. The game can also be played with any Dixit cards, which is a nice way to expand the game and add variation to the cards.

There is not much negative to say about Stella. It’s pretty, it’s engaging, and works well across its player counts. This is a recommend from us!

Pros: Interesting twist on the clue-giving genre, push-your-luck elements, beautiful to look at

Cons: None

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.