“Forbidden Island” is a fun and engaging board game developed by game designer Matt Lecotte. It was released in 2010 and is aimed at families and friends who love group games.
Lay out the game board, which represents the sinking island, with the four treasure locations (Fire, Earth, Water, and Air) in the corners.
Shuffle the Flood deck and draw six cards to determine which tiles are initially flooded. Place the corresponding flood cards under the matching tiles on the game board. Tiles that are not initially flooded are referred to as "safe."
Shuffle the Treasure deck and deal two treasure cards to each player. These cards represent the treasures you'll be trying to collect.
Select your role cards (Pilot, Engineer, Navigator, Diver, Explorer, or Messenger) and take the matching role card, pawn, and water meter. Place your pawns in Fools' Landing, a central island tile that never sinks.
Gameplay:
Players take turns in clockwise order, and each turn consists of three steps: Take up to 3 actions, Draw 2 treasure cards, and Flood tiles.
Actions can include moving to an adjacent tile, giving a treasure card to another player if you're on the same tile, shoring up a flooded tile on your location, capturing a treasure if you have four matching treasure cards, and using your role-specific special abilities.
Draw 2 treasure cards from the Treasure deck at the end of your turn.
After drawing treasure cards, you reveal Flood cards from the Flood deck equal to the current Water level (as shown on the Flood meter). The flooded tiles are flipped face up, and you place a flood card on each of them. If a tile is already flooded and you draw it again, it sinks into the abyss, and you remove it from the game.
The Water level increases when you draw a "Waters Rise!" card from the Treasure deck. This card is placed in a discard pile, and you move the Flood meter marker up by one level. When the meter reaches its maximum, the island starts to sink faster.
Winning and Losing:
You win the game by collecting all four treasures (with 4 matching treasure cards each) and making it to Fools' Landing. Then, you have to lift off from the island to succeed.
You lose if Fools' Landing sinks, if any treasure tile sinks before you capture the corresponding treasure, or if any player is on a tile that sinks and cannot swim to an adjacent tile.
Remember that the key to success in "Forbidden Island" is teamwork and cooperation. Players must communicate and strategize to ensure they don't lose any of the treasures or have players stranded on sunken tiles.
- Advantages:
Ease of learning: One of the best features of the game is that it is easy to learn and start playing without much hassle. People of all ages can quickly understand its rules and participate in the adventure, and the game promotes social interaction between players, as the team must work together to save the island and avoid drowning. This makes it ideal for social evenings and family activities.
Tension and excitement: The game lives on the presence of an element of tension and excitement. The game's difficulty increases over time, as players must constantly cooperate to survive. This makes the game exciting and fun as the game includes fun strategic elements as players must think carefully about the best way to distribute buildings, salvage treasures and escape the island before it sinks.
- Defects:
It may become repetitive over time. You may feel that the game becomes repetitive if you play it repeatedly, especially if you have mastered the basic strategies.
Limited challenge: Although there is tension and excitement in the game, it may be less challenging for people looking for more complex and complex games and if there is not good cooperation between the players, the game may end quickly and it will be difficult to get back into the game.
Ultimately, if you're looking for a simple, fun party game that brings friends and family together, Forbidden Island is a good choice. It provides an exciting experience suitable for a variety of players, and contributes to enhancing social interaction and collaboration.
