Tag Archives: Forbidden Island

Forbidden Island Reflection

The game I played in class was Forbidden Island. I had never played a cooperative game before and thought it was really fun. I liked how it was not about competition, but rather team problem solving and brainstorming. It was fun to see how other players would go about navigating a situation. I think my family would really enjoy this game because it was fairly easy to learn. Additionally, some members of my family are more skillful at tabletop games than others and since this is a cooperative game it would allow for there to not be an unfair advantage.

The hardest part of this game was once the water level started to rise. At this point you had to decide which island tiles were worth saving and which one you could go without if need be. It took a lot of foresight to think about how you would make a path to the treasures you still needed and how to get all the players to Fools’ Landing at the end. It was also hard to figure out how to get all four of the treasure cards into one person’s hand, especially because you couldn’t have more than 5 cards at one time. It felt like a logic puzzle at times.

One leadership concept that this game relates to is challenging the process. All the members of my group were open to receiving suggestions from the others. If we felt that there was a better way to solve a problem, we were all open to changing our method. This allowed us to be able to accomplish the goal of the game.

Game of the Week: Forbidden Island

For this week’s game we had two options Pandemic or Forbidden Island. My group chose to play Forbidden Island. In my opinion, the hardest part about this game was strategizing as a team. Everyone in my group had different methods of strategizing so when it came time to make plan we all had very different ideas. We ended up having to share ideas to figure out the best way to beat the game; this is how it ties to leadership. Leadership is not about being the only one to make decisions but rather being open to hearing other opinions and working together.

I would recommend this game to anyone who wants to improve their teamwork skills. Forbidden Island forces you to communicate with your teammates or it is impossible to defeat the game. At first, my team and I kept losing very early on in the game because we were not discussing strategy. Once we started talking we were able to beat the game pretty quickly. Instead of leaving everyone to decide what to do with their own turns we began discussing how the turns could be used to benefit the good of the team.

I have never been the biggest fan of games where you have to work together to defeat the game itself. Being pretty shy, it is hard for me to talk to others if I don’t know them well. Communicating is probably the most integral part of Forbidden Island. That being said it was a great way for me to become more comfortable communicating with people I am unfamiliar with. I really loved the concept of the game and had a great time playing it.

Figuring Out Forbidden Island

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.