A feature to focus on tabletop game reviews, hauls, and kickstarters.
Source: Purchased
Publisher: Gamewright
Type: Strategy/Co-op Game
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes & Noble
Rating: 4.5/5
Dare to discover Forbidden Island! Join a team of fearless adventurers on a do-or-die mission to capture four sacred treasures from the ruins of this perilous paradise. Your team will have to work together and make some pulse-pounding maneuvers, as the island will sink beneath every step! Race to collect the treasures and make a triumphant escape before you are swallowed into the watery abyss! The latest creation by cooperative game master, Matt Leacock who created the best seller Pandemic.
Forbidden Island is an Indiana Jones of the tabletop world. It is up to the group of players to use their unique skills to recover each of the four artifacts and leave before the island sinks into the abyss forever.
I bought this after watching a couple of youtube play-throughs, which made the game seem like something super quick and super fun to play with other people. It’s not low-stress like Takenoko, but it is one of those games that won’t leave you wanted to beat someone with the box by the end.
Pros: The game itself is really pretty. Each tile is double sided, one with a colorful scene from part of the island and the other with a blue shaded version of the same image, which represents the water rising. I also really like that this game is quick to play but not necessarily easy. You could play a 20 minute game and lose, or you can play 15 minute game and win. It’s really the luck of the draw. It’s also a really good game for new tabletop players. I wouldn’t call it a relaxed game, so it might not be fun for those who have trouble focusing on games in general, but it’s user friendly and keeps the group talking. There are a ton of tiles but overall the amount of pieces isn’t really all that much since you use everything right away.
Cons: I don’t have very many complaints about this one. I do wish the artifact pieces were made of something a bit stiffer, as they as really squishy plastic. However I do recognize that this makes it a kid friendly endeavor as well, and you can’t break it since it basically gives under pressure. “Shuffling” the tiles is also rather…difficult. It mostly became a ‘throw the tiles on the table, move them around and restack them’ kind of thing, but I didn’t have too much trouble with the Island reforming the same way more than once.
Overall: Forbidden Island is a must for any lover of tabletops! Every game shelf needs a good co-op game and this one certainly fits that bill. It’s quick, easy to explain, and a lot of fun to try and figure out how to get pieces while the game tries to take those opportunities away. I’m really happy with this purchase and I’m considering buying the sister game, Forbidden Desert, to see how that one plays.
In Libris Veritas 