Forbidden Island

Customer Reviews

Lots of gaming fun for cheap! Review by obsidian3d

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Forbidden Island is a very nicely balanced cooperative game. It has tension, luck, skill and teamwork all wrapped up in a game that also has beautiful artwork and packaging. It's easy to teach to non-gamer folks, yet still entertaining enough to be enjoyable for gamers too. It also plays in less than a half hour, so you can easily play multiple times or use it as a bridge in between other games. (Posted on 4/23/12)

Very fun, challenging co-op game Review by KR

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Forbidden Island is a very fun and challenging co-op game by the same creator as the similar Pandemic game. Forbidden island is, in a sense, a simpler version of Pandemic with a completely different theme; in Pandemic you're working together to find the cures for 4 viruses before they eradicate the world while in Forbidden Island you're working together to find 4 treasures before the island sinks beneath your feet. I actually found that the sinking tile aspect of Forbidden Island was more tense and foreboding than the outbreak aspect of Pandemic. When I play Forbidden Island I really feel like I'm running out of time and have to constantly be worried about sinking the crucial treasure tiles.

The components of the game are all very good quality and the art on the cards and tiles are very nice to look at. I also enjoy that the layout of the tiles is completely random so you're not playing with a static board.

For the price of the game you can't complain at all. It's got very nice pieces and it's in a relatively small and durable case which is perfect for taking with you to friends or on vacation etc... I also want to mention that although it says 2-4 players, I have tried playing solo and it works quite well. Since it's a co-op game when playing with 2-4 players you can easily play alone and control two different characters. (Posted on 11/15/11)

FANTASTIC Review by MabDawg

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I am more of a serious board game player that likes to have my brain racked repeatedly in one game, however this is a game that I make an exception for. Its got the best game case I own, the tin makes for an excellent trip game as it really keeps its contents secure and safe. The game art on the pieces is very well done, and the game plays very smoothly. I find it to be incredibly enjoyable and can be an icebreaker for people that are not sure about board games. I have got several people to play other games I own because they enjoyed Forbidden Island so much. The game gets tougher as you have more players so it really makes you play as a team. I also find that if you only have 2 players, you can each do two characters flawlessly. For its price I am not sure if there is a better game for its value, as I have already played it more than 30 times, with new gamers and experienced as well. It is a fantastic game. (Posted on 8/20/11)

Pandemic Lite Review by Murray

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Matt Leacock, the designer of this game, is also the designer of Pandemic.

Forbidden Island is essentially Pandemic lite, or Pandemic for kids. Instead of travelling around the world, keeping diseases at bay while you stock up enough cards to develop a vaccine for each differently colored disease; you move around an island, resurfacing any sunken areas while you stock up enough cards to excavate a treasure.

You work co-operatively with your fellow players and each character (randomly assigned) has a different ability that can help. On your turn, you can move around the + shaped island and draw cards. After your turn, you flip over the cards in another deck to see which parts of the island has been flooded. Later on you can use your action points to resurface these sections.

Just like Pandemic had outbreak cards, there are flood cards in Forbidden City mixed in with the normal player cards. They have the same effect: shift the flood number up so that you turn over more flood cards per turn, flood a certain spot, and then shuffle all the flood cards that were previously discarded and put them on top of the deck so that you'll see them all over again. If a spot on the island is flooded again before resurfacing, you'll lose that spot permanently and may be stranded.

All the while, you are collecting player cards, hoping to match several together for a treasure. You will need to arrive on the correct place for the treasure, hopefully it hasn't sunk yet! Once all the treasures have been taken, all players must return to the helipad in order to leave the island and officially win.

Again, just like with Pandemic, you can increase the difficulty of the game, this time by setting the flood rate higher at the start of the game (instead of stuffing more outbreak cards into the player deck).

This is a great, cheap game to teach kids about planning and working together. It plays faster than Pandemic and is great for kids, but if you want something more to bite into, then you must go for Pandemic. The game suffers from the same problems as Pandemic, including faster players dictating game flow and putting others on the backburner, and eventual fall to repetition.

Still, it comes in a nice tin and great art. If you think Pandemic is too much to invest in, then this should be your fallback co-op game. (Posted on 9/21/10)