This week we played forbidden island and it was a pretty fun game. From watching the introductory video I didn’t think it would be very fun. It seemed confusing and not really my type of game but it was actually pretty fun. I really like games where you feel immersed in another world and I like that there’s a lot of places to go, like the dunes of deception, cave of embers, crimson forest, howling garden, lost lagoon…etc. I think it’s fun that you can go to these places, but I also feel like it would be a fun element to the game to have to do a different type of task for different places in order to unflood it. Despite the fact these are different places, it’s the same process to unflood them, and I think it gets a bit repetitive after a while. I also think it would be fun if they implemented other ways that the places would be unreachable to go to other than flooding. I don’t really understand the concept of all of these places being continuously flooded and unflooded. It would be neat if there were more objects to obtain while playing because once you get the blue chalice, drawing the blue chalice cards is a bit inconvenient and pointless.
Once you understand the main concepts of the game I feel like it would be really fun and easy to play with kids. The rules are so simple that if you play more than twice at a time I feel like it would get boring, but kids around the age of 10-12 might enjoy the simplicity of the game, and the adventure aspect it has. However, kids like to win and I think having a collaborative win or loss might not be as entertaining for kids that like having the satisfaction or instant gratification of a designated winner or loser. My mom and I babysit sometimes, and I think the 7 year old that we watch would really enjoy this game, especially because of the intense element of having a timer/ flood level that you’re trying to beat. However, in order to win, there needs to be somewhat of a strategy, and she might struggle trying to come up with a plan that works.
Our group had enough time to play the game twice. The first time we won and the second time we lost pretty badly, the water levels rose too high and we did not escape in time. The first game we came really close to losing but were able to save ourselves at the last minute. To be honest, I feel like we knew what to expect better the second time we played, and were able to strategize, so having such a short game and losing rather quickly was not what I anticipated.