Forbidden Island – The Cooperative Strategy Survival Island Board Game,2-4 players

We're on a bit of a cooperative board game kick lately, and Forbidden Island did NOT disappoint! After loving Pandemic, we were looking for something similar, and this one was a blast. The whole "island sinking" thing really amps up the tension – you're constantly scrambling to keep tiles from flooding while trying to find the treasures. It's a really fun and unique mechanic.We played with four players, and it was the perfect amount of challenge. Each player has a different role with special abilities, so you really have to communicate and work together to succeed. There were definitely some tense moments where we thought we were going to get swamped, but we managed to pull through in the end! It was a really satisfying feeling to escape with all the treasures.The game is easy to learn, but there's still plenty of strategy involved. It's perfect for a family game night or a get-together with friends. We loved that it's cooperative, so everyone's working towards a common goal. If you're looking for a fun and engaging game that will have you on the edge of your seat, Forbidden Island is a great choice. Highly recommend it! Five stars!

I got this game to play as a two-player board game primarily. My husband and I needed a break from trying to assault, destroy, and otherwise obliterate each other in other games. Sure, we have lots of fun and can be pretty competitive, but sometimes you want to play a game where you aren't attacking each other endlessly. This was the perfect solution because it is a cooperative game.Basically how this game works is that each person plays a different (randomly selected) character with unique abilities. Your objective is to collect the treasures on the island and escape before the island sinks (or sinks enough to cut off your escape route!). The game begins fairly leisurely but can feel quite frantic toward the end as more and more parts of the island are lost and you see your hope of escape dwindling.There are several starting difficulties to choose from and we have thus far only played the most beginner difficulty. Game play is the same for all difficulty levels except that your island will begin sinking more quickly sooner, making you be more strategic to prevent the loss of essential areas of your map.Game play for us has typically last 20-30 minutes, which makes it a reasonable game to play in most circumstances. The best part of the game though, is the discussion and planning that you do together, as a team. Rather than trying to sabotage your opponents, you are working with the other players toward a common goal. Sure, sometimes there is disagreement as to how to proceed and ultimately the person taking the turn gets final say in how the turn is played, but it's all working together against the island rather than working against each other. You all succeed or fail as one. My husband has, on occasion, talked about taking turns in such a way that would sabotage our success, but that's just how he plays when he's frustrated with how things are going. In general, everyone will be working together.This is a fun game for two players and I think it would be interesting to have more people just to have some of the other character abilities in the same game. I would certainly recommend it for two players! This has definitely found a permanent spot in our game playing rotation due to it being quick to play, cooperative, and without a lot of complex rules to remember.

You're on a quest to retrieve the four lost treasures from an island that sinks as you journey on it. Will you make it out or will the island swallow you whole?Rules (trying to keep it short):Basically, this is a co-op game of your players (2-4) vs. the island, removing the element of competition with each other but retaining it against the island. The island is set up of tiles which start flooding before the game even starts. A tile that is flooded once gets into flooded state (which has a well drawn flooded version on the back). If a flooded tile is flooded, it gets removed from the game. Players have the ability to dig up a flooded tile, which is essential to winning the game. Each player also represents a character, which gives them a special ability (e.g. the pilot can move to any tile once per turn). Each player can also have up to five treasure cards, which consists of any of the four treasure cards and a few special cards. When a player has more than five cards, he must discard down to five. When a player has four of the same treasure card, he qualifies to retrieve that treasure. The game starts with each player having two.On a player's turn, they can take three actions, an action being:1) move to a nearby tile2) restore a flooded tile3) retrieve a treasure (must be on the treasure's tile and have four cards of that treasure)4) give a card to another player on the same tile5) special ability that your character hasAfter making actions, the player draws two treasure cards and then has to draw an amount of flood cards based on the flood meter. The flood meter starts off at a level (default is 2, although one can change this) and increases in the game if a player draws the waters rise treasure card. The waters rise treasure card also causes flooded cards to reshuffle ON TOP OF the flood deck, meaning that any recently flooded tiles may quickly become removed. This card adds a level of excitement to the game and has caused us to hold our breath quite a few times. When all four treasures are retrieved, all players must go to the helicopter tile and one player uses a special treasure card to win. Losing occurs when the wrong tiles flood.Thoughts:Forbidden Island is a game that I was unsure of when I first tested it on my own. However, bringing other people in and setting a mentality of "The Island is out to get us" really adds a level of enjoyment to the game. The game also has pretty nice artwork of the tile and its flooded versions, making it nice to look at.One thing that's really neat about the game is that it's not static. To make the game more difficult, one can start off with a higher flood meter, which can dramatically change how the game moves. There are also variations on the game, which chiefly consist of setting up the island different from how the rulebook says (see [...]. I've even seen a variation where a player's starting tile can be used to teleport that player back if someone else lands there.Gameplay is quick, generally taking only thirty minutes. Cleanup is pretty quick too. It's not hard to want to play again afterward.