Forbidden Island is a cooperative treasure recovery game brought to you by publishers Gamewright.
In Forbidden Island, 2-4 players take on different roles to try and retrieve hidden treasures that had been stowed away on an island before the island becomes submerged and you drown.
Set Up
First of all, you need to set up the 24 tiles you have in a random order like so: 2 tiles at the top, beneath them you place 4 tiles, then 6, then another 6, then 4 and finally 2 in a diamond arrangement. These tiles represent the island that you and your friends are on.
In Forbidden Island, 2-4 players take on different roles to try and retrieve hidden treasures that had been stowed away on an island before the island becomes submerged and you drown.
Set Up
First of all, you need to set up the 24 tiles you have in a random order like so: 2 tiles at the top, beneath them you place 4 tiles, then 6, then another 6, then 4 and finally 2 in a diamond arrangement. These tiles represent the island that you and your friends are on.
Take the Flood metre and set it to what difficulty you would like to play; novice, normal, extreme or legendary. This denotes how many cards from the top of the flood deck will be flipped over at the end of the turn.
Next, shuffle and place the orange or Treasure deck and the blue or Flood deck next to the Island tiles. The Treasure deck contains cards showing a picture of the four different treasures on the island; there are five copies of each card for each treasure. It also contains Helicopter cards, Sand bag card and Water Rising cards (three Waters Rise, three Helicopter Lift and two Sandbag) which I'll get to later. Each player is dealt two cards from the Treasure deck and then the top six cards of the Flood deck are flipped over to show which tiles start submerged.
The Sandbag card allows that player to shore up a tile anywhere on the island at any time.
The Helicopter lift allows that player to move any player to any tile on the island. This card is also necessary to win the game by getting you off the island.
The Water Rise card means that the flooding is gonna get worse. When a player draws a Water Rise card it's immediately discarded and you put the Flood Metre up one notch, along with taking all the flipped cards from the Flood deck, shuffling them and placing them on top of the Flood Deck. Lastly you flip the number of Flood cards from the top of the deck equal to the number on the Flood Metre, possibly resulting in sinking a tile and removing it from the game.
Each player then picks a role, each role having an ability that could help your team of explorers;
Navigator: The Navigator's ability is that they can move another player two adjacent tiles for just one action.
Messenger: The Messenger is able to give any other player on the island a Treasure card, in exchange for one of their actions for the turn, no matter where they are, so you don't have to be on the same tile.
Pilot: Once per turn as one of their actions, the Pilot can fly to any tile on the island, very useful for gathering Treasures.
Engineer: The Engineer can use their ability to shore up to two tiles up as their action. You do have to be able to shore them both up so you can't choose one in front of you and then one diagonally or on the other side of the island.
Diver: The Diver is able to move one or more spaces through a flooded or missing tile but must end up on a shored tile at the end.
Explorer: The Explorer is able to move and/or shore up diagonally as their actions for the turn.
and takes the matching coloured playing piece. Players then place their coloured playing piece on the corresponding starting tile which will be represented by having the coloured playing piece in the bottom corner.
Gameplay
Each player has three actions in his or her turn and they can choose from a selection of four;
Moving: Each movement counts as one action. You can't move diagonally
Shoring up: If a tile has started to sink, it's flipped and showing the greyed out side, you can choose to use one of your actions to shore it up. You do so by flipping it back to its coloured side.
Give a Treasure card: You can choose to give a Treasure card to one of your team mates, maybe if they have more of one Treasure or are closer to the tile your need to get it, in which case you can make one of your actions giving them a treasure card from your hand. You must be on the same tile to do this
Acquire a Treasure: If you find yourself with four of the same Treasure card and on the corresponding tile to acquire it, you can do just that by discarding all four of the Treasure cards and taking the Treasure.
At the end of that players turn, they draw two cards from the Treasure Deck and the top two cards from the Flood Deck are flipped over revealing which tiles will start sinking. Players can only have a maximum of five cards in their hand so if you draw above five you must discard the difference. If a player is on a tile that needs to be flipped over, that player must swim to a adjacent tile, if they can't, the drown.
You win the game by gathering all the Treasures, all players getting to Fools Landing and using a Helicopter Lift cards to escape. Beware, you lose the game if;
- Both tiles with a matching unclaimed Treasure sink.
- Fools landing sinks.
The Helicopter lift allows that player to move any player to any tile on the island. This card is also necessary to win the game by getting you off the island.
The Water Rise card means that the flooding is gonna get worse. When a player draws a Water Rise card it's immediately discarded and you put the Flood Metre up one notch, along with taking all the flipped cards from the Flood deck, shuffling them and placing them on top of the Flood Deck. Lastly you flip the number of Flood cards from the top of the deck equal to the number on the Flood Metre, possibly resulting in sinking a tile and removing it from the game.
Each player then picks a role, each role having an ability that could help your team of explorers;
Navigator: The Navigator's ability is that they can move another player two adjacent tiles for just one action.
Messenger: The Messenger is able to give any other player on the island a Treasure card, in exchange for one of their actions for the turn, no matter where they are, so you don't have to be on the same tile.
Pilot: Once per turn as one of their actions, the Pilot can fly to any tile on the island, very useful for gathering Treasures.
Engineer: The Engineer can use their ability to shore up to two tiles up as their action. You do have to be able to shore them both up so you can't choose one in front of you and then one diagonally or on the other side of the island.
Diver: The Diver is able to move one or more spaces through a flooded or missing tile but must end up on a shored tile at the end.
Explorer: The Explorer is able to move and/or shore up diagonally as their actions for the turn.
and takes the matching coloured playing piece. Players then place their coloured playing piece on the corresponding starting tile which will be represented by having the coloured playing piece in the bottom corner.
Gameplay
Each player has three actions in his or her turn and they can choose from a selection of four;
Moving: Each movement counts as one action. You can't move diagonally
Shoring up: If a tile has started to sink, it's flipped and showing the greyed out side, you can choose to use one of your actions to shore it up. You do so by flipping it back to its coloured side.
Give a Treasure card: You can choose to give a Treasure card to one of your team mates, maybe if they have more of one Treasure or are closer to the tile your need to get it, in which case you can make one of your actions giving them a treasure card from your hand. You must be on the same tile to do this
Acquire a Treasure: If you find yourself with four of the same Treasure card and on the corresponding tile to acquire it, you can do just that by discarding all four of the Treasure cards and taking the Treasure.
At the end of that players turn, they draw two cards from the Treasure Deck and the top two cards from the Flood Deck are flipped over revealing which tiles will start sinking. Players can only have a maximum of five cards in their hand so if you draw above five you must discard the difference. If a player is on a tile that needs to be flipped over, that player must swim to a adjacent tile, if they can't, the drown.
You win the game by gathering all the Treasures, all players getting to Fools Landing and using a Helicopter Lift cards to escape. Beware, you lose the game if;
- Both tiles with a matching unclaimed Treasure sink.
- Fools landing sinks.
- Or a player drowns.
Thoughts
I love this game, it's easy to set up, easy to learn/teach and it's a beautiful game. Yes, it's not as challenging as other games but it's good for all ages and if you need a challenge, try bumping the starting water level higher. Ultimately I think most players will enjoy Forbidden Island even if it's just it's charm and art style and I would definitely recommend it even just on re-playability.
If you want to try Forbidden Island for yourself, head down to your local games and hobbies store and I'm sure they'll be happy to oblige. In the mean time, keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming news and updates.
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