Like the title! For someone getting into board games, what would you recommend? Bonus points if it is or can be played cooperatively, with 2 players, and double bonus points if it has a sci-fi theme (like, grand sci-fi), though the previous points are more important.
What do you like to play? Arcs and Earthborne Rangers both look cool to me, but wanted to ask here too! Anyone have experience with those two?
Spirit Island is a great coop game where you play slumbering nature spirits who have to wake up and kick all the colonizers out. There's some funny elements to the component designs as well; all of the tokens for the spirits and indigenous peoples are wood or cardboard, while the colonizers are white plastic.
Pro-tip: most boardgames have mods on Tabletop Simulator on Steam, which makes it a decent way to "demo" games before you go out and spend $50 on something you might not like!