Race For The Galaxy: The Brink Of War

Review by Maggie Morrison for Race For The Galaxy: The Brink Of War
Rating:
I was a little concerned at first when I saw yet another mechanic was being added to this game as it is already fairly complicated. The prestige points at first annoyed me because they just seemed like yet another thing to think about. But after a few play-throughs, I got the hang of most of the new cards and the new prestige factor and I ended up liking it. Instead of being the only path to winning, I found that it incorporated fairly well into the rest of the game and ended up introducing another range of strategies to the game, which will help keep the game fresh for those people who play a lot.

I would say, though, that it did result in Race being that much less accessible to new people. The game already tends to sound far more complicated than it is in practice and the prestige points make it even more intimidating if you have a doubtful new player. If you are introducing the game to someone new, or tackling it for the first time yourself, you may just want to start with the original game and the first expansion before diving into Rebel v. Imperium and Brink of War.

But for people who have been playing Race for a while, I thought this expansion enriched the experience and kept the game fresh. I loved it and was glad I got it.

Review by Lanette Richardson for Race For The Galaxy: The Brink Of War
Rating:
This Product is an extended version of the Race for the the Galaxy. I haven’t played it yet, but I enjoy the main game itself as well as the the two extended versions that we already have. I would highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys strategy games or games that aren’t as interactive (destroying other players) with other players as some games are. The game first time played can take about an hour, but once you know how to play, it can go very quickly, about half an hour. Lots of fun.

Review by J. Connolly III for Forbidden Island
Rating:
I really enjoyed this game and have played with my children (11, 9, and 7) as well as an adult gaming group. This game scales well between the two groups and everyone had a good time.

Components

The game has excellent components. The game is very good looking and the designers have done a great job with the look and feel of the game. The cards are durable, the four treasures look good and you can tell that a lot of time and thought went into the design. The game comes in a small tin which looks nice but doesn’t fit well into my game collection.

Gameplay

After a couple of plays you can finish a game in about 30 minutes. This makes the game a good choice if you have limited time or want to play a couple of different games on a game night. You and your friends play against the game and if you don’t work together you will lose. Every time I’ve played, there has been a good sense of urgency that makes the game exciting.

Pros:

Theme

Quality of Components

Price – it’s only [...]!!

Light enough for new players, but still fun for experienced gamers

Cons:

Strategy Light – I’m not convinced the replay value is high. Increasing the difficulty level may fix this but I’ve only played on Novice level.

Review by Michael Mandolese for Forbidden Island
Rating:
Easy to learn, fast paced, and beautifully illustrated. A good balance of luck and strategy.

I’m new to cooperative gaming so its a breath of fresh air to play a game where you’re all working together instead of trying to beat each other. Definitely a great game for families.

The 24 tiles that make up the “board” ensure that no two games will be alike, so there is a lot of re-playability. Also when you loose, which happens a fair amount (its challenging!), it definitely leaves you with a “lets play again!” attitude.

Gameplay was about 30 min. The box and components were excellent quality and with a $14.99 price tag how can you go wrong? I highly recommend it!

Review by R. Doyle for Forbidden Island
Rating:
I’ve played this with adults and kids. For most adult gamers it will get boring after 3-4 games; not complex enough to play over and over. Good though for kids 8-12. Also a good entry into cooperative games for anyone. High quality game parts; should hold up well.

Review by Peter Schott for Forbidden Island
Rating:
I’ve been keeping an eye on this one since I found out a little more about it. The name was intriguing, but I didn’t know much else so had ignored it for a while. However, seeing it pop up on some of the sites I monitor for family-friendly games, I delved a little deeper.

First, as others have stated, the components and artwork are great. Very eye-catching and it gave my 7-year-old something to play with during the slower parts of the game.

The gameplay was a pretty simple concept after the first couple of turns. Take up to 3 actions, draw two treasure cards, handle Waters Rise if need be, draw Flood cards and flip/remove tiles. There are also two special cards – helicopter to move pawns from one tile to any other and sandbag to shore up one tile anywhere on the board. Those can be played at any time, even during another player’s turn.

I should also mention the price in case you haven’t kept an eye on that – full retail is currently $16. With the quality of the components, that’s pretty hard to believe, but very welcome on the wallet. Others have noted it as well, but we’re used to paying more for games with good components, gameplay, and theme.

That being said, the game is designed around the theme of an island holding four powerful artifacts that will sink if anyone tries to claim them. The object of the game is to collect all four artifacts, return to the helicopter pad, and have all players escape the island at the same time before it sinks. That doesn’t sound too hard by itself, but several times during the game, the waters will rise, at times removing tiles that form a critical route or worse, are crucial to winning the game. As the waters rise, the cards representing tiles that have already been flooded are put back on the top of the deck, making it more likely that they will sink and be removed soon.

Players can collect treasures by being on the correct tile and possessing 4 (of 5) treasure cards for that item. Cards can be given to other players during their turn if they’re on the same tile. Players can also “shore up” the island during their turn. This is essential to keep routes open to escape the island and take treasures.

We purchased our copy at a local comic shop today, unboxed it, and played one hand. It took a couple of turns to get used to the gameplay, but it was nice being able to discuss our moves and try to have a strategy on what to do. We managed to escape due to two helicopter cards being ready to pull everyone to the landing site and then escape the island very close to when we would have had the waters rise again. I could definitely feel some tension on wondering whether we’d all make it or not. The game was easy enough for our 7-year-old to play and I’d say it was a lot of fun.

I can’t speak for how much this game is or is not like Pandemic. I can say that:

The cooperative aspect is fun.

The theme fits the game very well.

The game’s mechanics are straightforward and easy to grasp.

The price is excellent!

I think that this game was a great choice. It may not replace some of my top games as far as frequency of play, but I think this will be high up on my list of games played this year. If you want a co-op game for the family, I’d highly recommend this. For the price, it’s hard to find a game of this quality anywhere.

Review by Mark Jackson for Forbidden Island
Rating:
*designer: Matt Leacock

*publisher: Gamewright

*date: 2010

*BoardGameGeek rank/rating: 2090/8.04

*age: 10+

*# of players: 2-4

*print status: in print

Maybe it’s because I started writing this review during the final few weeks of the TV series, LOST… but the whole “island full of crumbling ruins & ancient secrets” vibe resonates pretty strongly with me right now.

But don’t take my (admittedly gamer-oriented) word for it: listen to my (gamer-in-training) 8 year old son… or his non-gamer 8 year old friends… or my long-suffering wife (who games because she loves me!)… or even other actual gamers who’ve played the game. It’s been a hit with everyone who has had the opportunity to play!

Forbidden Island is a cooperative game for 2-4 players, though since the game is played with open hands, it works just fine as a solitaire game as well, with the player controlling two (or more) pawns. (Another odd Lost reference: this is definitely a “live together or die alone” kind of game.) Regardless of the number of players, it seems to clock in at right about a half hour of playing time.

The color text of the game has the players on a search for elemental treasures (The Crystal of Fire, the Statue of the Wind, The Ocean’s Chalice & the Earth Stone) created by an ancient civilization. Of course, it’s not a simple archaeological expedition – the island is booby-trapped to begin sinking when anyone attempts to steal the treasures… and that’s exactly what you’re here to do.

I could go into a detailed rules explanation… but that seems pretty pointless when a PDF of the rulebook is available online, thanks to the good folks at Gamewright. Simply put, you’re using 3 actions per turn to move your piece across an island made of tiles, attempting to collect the treasures, shore up the sinking parts of the island, and generally survive long enough for all of you to grab the last helicopter off the island (is Frank Lapidus the pilot?). At the end of each turn, you draw cards to increase your hand (and potentially increase the rate of flooding) as well to sink more parts of the island.

There are lots of ways to lose:

*if the helicopter landing pad sinks, you lose

*if one of your team doesn’t survive, you lose

*if you fail to recover all four treasures, you lose

*if the island floods completely, you lose

But it wouldn’t be much of a cooperative game if you won all the time, right? So far, we’re doing very well playing at the Novice setting, while we’re about 50/50 at the Normal setting. I have yet to convince my son to try it at the more difficult settings. (BTW, a clever game feature – you only have to change the starting level of the water – indicated on a sliding scale – to change the difficulty of the game. No re-mixing the deck, no convoluted alternative set-up.)

The components are high quality – nice cards, great chunky tiles with evocative “forbidden island” artwork that reminds me a bit of the computer game Myst, and nifty plastic “treasures” – all packaged in a cool-looking tin with a well-designed box insert. (For those of you non-gamers, the “well-designed insert” may not sound like a big deal, but I can tell you from experience that it makes it easier to transport & keep the game in top-notch condition… and that not all companies think this part through.)

A side note: since the designer, Matt Leacock, is best known for his OTHER cooperative game, Pandemic, it’s helpful to note that while the games share some mechanics (most notably the Infection/Waters Rise restacking of the decks & the various player roles that allow each person to “break” the rules in a particular way) but that the board play (due to the sinking tiles) and kid-friendly theme make for a very different game experience.

Finally, the recommended age of 10 is correct – but only if the kids are going to be playing without any adults helping run the game. With a friendly adult, the game can easily be played by kids as young as 5. The cheap price point (the MSRP is only $15.99) means that Forbidden Island will be likely be one of the best kid gaming investments you’re likely to make this year.

Review by S. Cocchiarella for PREMIUM Euro Game Play Card Sleeves (50 Sleeves/Pack – 59 MM X 92 MM) 125% Thicker – Designed for Game Play
Rating:
Purchased 26 packs to sleeve Dominion + Intrigue + Seaside. Having played Magic: The Gathering for many years I’ve used a variety of sleeves and these are top quality. They fit the Dominion cards well and I’d recommend them. It’s a bit expensive to sleeve the game, but Dominion is so shuffle-intensive that it’s worth the investment to protect the cards. Be warned that once sleeved the cards are much thicker and the Kingdom cards are the only ones that will still fit well into the provided storage divider (there are some good storage solutions in the dominion forum at [...])

Review by joyousdance for PREMIUM Euro Game Play Card Sleeves (50 Sleeves/Pack – 59 MM X 92 MM) 125% Thicker – Designed for Game Play
Rating:
I am glad I purchased the better quality sleeves. When I got them, I was surprised that the thickness was what I would have expected from a standard thickness sleeve. The standard sleeves must be really thin. This is the sleeve I would go with.

I purchased these sleeves for the game “Agricola”. The sleeves nestle perfectly around the card with a little bit of overhang at the top of the card. I think I would have preferred it without the overhang, but perhaps that protects them from spills better. I guess I could also heat seal them and trim them if I wanted.

There is a bit of shine on the sleeve which makes the card a little bit harder to read, but not much. It won’t take long until I am used to it, I am sure.

I just can’t imagine why it costs what it does for little plastic sleeves. They should be a lot cheaper, as far as I am concerned.

Review by Dave for PREMIUM Euro Game Play Card Sleeves (50 Sleeves/Pack – 59 MM X 92 MM) 125% Thicker – Designed for Game Play
Rating:
I bought these to protect my copies of Dominion and Dominion Intrigue, and they do not disappoint! They fit the cards snugly, and cause little interference with shuffling because the extra thickness makes them fairly stiff. Unfortunately, they do make the gold, silver, copper, and curse cards too thick for their slots in the plastic insert. One solution is to remove the plastic insert entirely, the other is to pull 18 copper, 12 silver, 6 gold, and 6 curse cards and keep them in the center slot underneath the label insert when storing.

This was the cheapest option for me because I bought enough to qualify for free shipping. However, Mayday Games will now ship for free to your local gaming store, so combining that with their 25% off discount for Dominion will get you the most bang for your buck.