Devir The Forbidden Island (BGISLA)

The Forbidden Island BGISLA — Cooperative board game by Matt Leacock

The Forbidden Island is a cooperative board game from Devir, for 2-4 players, recommended for ages 10 and up. After reviewing it, we think it's an excellent choice for families and groups who prefer to win or lose together.

Publisher: Devir. Type: Cooperative board game. Players: 2-4. Recommended age: 10+.

The Forbidden Island is a cooperative game designed in 2010 by Matt Leacock, author of the Pandemic series. In this game, all players work together with a common goal: to retrieve the four treasures from the island and escape by helicopter before the waters swallow everything. Either everyone wins, or everyone loses.

It is one of the best entry points into the cooperative genre, especially recommended for children aged 10 and up and for families who want to discover this type of game.

How to play

To set up the game, shuffle the tiles and place them face up in a cross shape, forming a different board in each game. Each player takes on the role of an adventurer with a special power: pilot, explorer, engineer, messenger, navigator, or diver. These powers must be used in a coordinated way to help the team.

On each turn, the player can take three actions from the following:

• Move to an adjacent tile
• Shore up a tile that is sinking (flip it face up again)
• Give a treasure card to a teammate on the same tile
• Collect a treasure by handing in 4 cards of the corresponding treasure

After the actions, the player draws cards from the treasure deck and checks the water level marker, which indicates how many island cards to draw. The indicated tiles sink (are flipped face down) or, if they were already sunk, disappear from the board forever.

Victory and defeat conditions

Players win if they manage to collect all four treasures, reach the helipad, and escape by helicopter. They lose if:

• A player gets trapped on a disappearing tile and cannot swim to any adjacent one
• A tile containing the only possible location to collect a treasure disappears
• The water level rises to the maximum
• The helipad sinks

Why it works so well

The Forbidden Island generates constant communication between players. Joint plans must be made, agreed-upon decisions taken, and each character's special powers used at the right time. The continuous rise in the water level creates a real sense of urgency that maintains tension until the end. As the board changes in each game according to the tile placement, replayability is very high.

When the group has played a couple of games, the difficulty level can be adjusted: novice, normal, elite, or legendary.

The four treasures

• The Earth Stone
• The Crystal of Fire
• The Statue of Wind
• The Ocean's Chalice

Box contents

• 24 island tiles
• 58 cards (treasure, adventurer, flood)
• 6 adventurer pawns
• 4 treasure figures
• 1 water level marker
• Instructions in Spanish

Specifications

• Reference: BGISLA
• Author: Matt Leacock
• Publisher: Devir Iberia
• Language: Spanish
• Players: 2-4
• Recommended age: 10 years and up
• Game duration: Approximately 30 minutes
• Game type: Cooperative, adventure, resource management
• EAN: 8436017220285

Warranty and shipping

• Warranty: 3 years
• Free shipping on orders over €49.99
• Available for shipping throughout Spain

EAN: 8436017220285