Forbidden Island is a family favorite. I like it because it's cooperative, so we all win or lose together - usually win, but it was a close call tonight! I'm kind surprised it's such a favorite for us, as at least one of my sons is not much of a fan of cooperative games - likes to make his own choices! I like the artwork and the pieces. Also, the game plays well and tells a good story. Basically each player is a member of a group of explorers on an island that is sinking, and the goal is to get the four treasures and to fly off the island without drowning.
Above is our initial set- up for tonight. Cards are always placed randomly, but in the same shape as shown above.
Here are the treasures to be claimed.
During each turn a player takes 3 actions. He can move to another tile (orthogonally), shore up sinking tiles, hand off a treasure card to another player with whom he is sharing a tile, use his special ability, etc. Each player has a role, and it is their role that gives them their special ability. For instance, the pilot can fly to any tile for one action on his turn, and the messenger can hand off a treasure card to another player even if they are not on the same tile. After taking your 3 actions, you then draw 2 cards from the orange pile, which contains treasure cards, sand-bag cards (for shoring up tiles), helicopter cards, and waters rise cards. You really don't want to see those waters rise cards come up, because they force you to move the counter up on the tide meter, which tells how many cards you need to flip up. These cards correspond with land tiles, and when a card with the same name as a land is flipped up, that land begins to sink. If the tile is under water and its card gets flipped up again it sinks entirely and it out of the game.
In the picture above Iron Gate and The Temple of the Moon are flooding, which is why they are flipped to the grey side.
By the end of the game, our island looked like this! It was a rather close call. It's important to make sure not to lose the tile with the helicopter on it, because you need to fly off the island in order to survive!
You can see on our tide counter as well how close we are to losing! The numbers along the edge indicate how many land cards you need to turn over at the end of your turn! That said, however, this game is not nearly as intense as many that we play. It's possible to have a conversation while playing and yet really enjoy the game and do well with it at the same time.
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