Forbidden Island, Game Review

Time is quickly running out as the land beneath your feet is sinking into the ocean. Your team of stalwart professional adventurers must work quick and smart to recover the treasures of the island and get everyone to the helicopter in time. You have experts on your team that can help in different ways, but even with all of your skill the island is going to be lost and this is the last chance to recover the artifacts of a time gone by.

Forbidden Islandis a cooperative game designed by Matt Leacock, illustrated by C.B. Canga, and distributed by Gamewright for 2 to 4 players where everyone succeeds together, or not. There are six characters that are randomly dealt to the players to determine who is working to recover the four artifacts. While the island is sinking players must work together to shore flooded areas and do the treasure hunting.

On your turn you draw cards from a players' deck. The players' deck consists of treasure, action, and Water Rise!" cards. Each player can only hold five cards in their hand, which creates another level of needing to work together. To recover a treasure you need a set of four of the same treasure card and there are only five of each in the players' deck. You have to decide which cards to save. Then when the opportunity arises you can pass treasure cards to get one player holding a set so they can move to the right tile and collect the treasure. After you complete your action island cards are drawn to see which sections of the island flood.

Drawing cards from the island deck creates the timer for the game and increases the difficulty the longer the game goes on. Similar to other cooperative games the island cards reset during play by the random draw of a Waters Rise! card from the players' deck. When this happens the previously played island cards are shuffled and placed on top of the island deck, putting any tile that have become flooded at risk of sinking out of the game. A water level chart also rises which determines how many island cards are drawn each turn.

Twenty four island tiles are placed in the same pattern to create the shape of the island, but they are placed in random order. Every game the island is different. There are two locations for each treasure and the helicopter pad. If the both treasure tiles for an unclaimed treasure sink or the helicopter pad sinks, the treasure hunters fail in their mission.

Forbidden Islandis for ages 10 and up. We played it several times and found it to have a good balance for older and younger players. The game is designed to last 30 minutes and we found that really close.

If you are a fan of Pandemicand have some younger players who want to join into the game, Forbidden Island is a game you should check into.

Originally published by Utah Geek Magazine.

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