The Forbidden Island itself is made up of 24 square location cards, which you’ll shuffle and arrange into a diamond, of sorts (meaning you’re getting a modular board set-up every time, which is great for replayability). There’s a Flood Deck of cards and a set number are revealed each turn, determining which part of the island has now become (partially or totally) flooded. There are also Treasure Cards belonging to each of the four sacred objects, and players have to acquire four of a kind (in a kind of hand-management, set-collection fashion) in order to claim the matching treasure.
Players will each get a pawn that starts on the island. During their turn it becomes an action point allowance system, where they can take up to three actions of the following options: move to an adjacent tile, flip partially flooded tiles back to their ‘land’ side, give a Treasure Card to a fellow player, or capture a treasure at a specific location, itself. At the end of their turn, the active player will gain two Treasure Cards and then wince as they reveal cards from the Flood Deck to see what’s flooded…
If a Waters Rise! card is revealed from the Flood Deck, a corresponding Water Level marker rises (which means more cards per turn will have to be revealed), and the current discard pile of Flood Cards is shuffled and then placed on top of the remaining Flood Deck.
This is all sounding a bit Pandemic, isn’t it? And you’d be right to think so – Forbidden Island is also designed by Matt Leacock, and he’s mirrored many of the fantastic mechanics from his other hugely popular cooperative game and translated them into a simpler format.
The characters have asymmetrical player powers – just like in Pandemic – and there are various ways in which you can lose the game: if one team member is on a totally flooded tile and cannot swim to safety; if the Treasure tiles sink before you’ve claimed them; if Fool’s Landing totally sinks; or if the Water Level reaches the top.
Forbidden Island is a brilliant cooperative experience if you and your gaming pals are looking for a team challenge that’s on the ‘gateway’ side of things. There are various levels of difficulty on offer in the set-up, as well as similar titles Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Sky, before you can move onto the likes of Pandemic in its many guises, or the campaign option that is Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 (all by Matt Leacock).
Player Count: 2-4
Time: 30 Minutes
Age: 10+
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