Forbidden Island
Review

Forbidden Island (2010) is a cooperative collecting game where you try to survive on a sinking island long enough to collect four treasures. You play by moving across the Island, stopping Island tiles from sinking, whilst collecting enough cards to rescue the four treasures. It is a game about maximising the impact of your actions each go by choosing the right player for the right job at the right time.

You play as a team of adventurers, each with a unique ability, who are exploring a sinking island trying to find and recover four treasures. You only have a limited number of actions per go, so efficiently combining these with your character's abilities is key to success. After each turn, more parts of the island flood and are lost forever. This means that you spend as much time shoring up important locations as treasure hunting, to avoid key places being lost.

As you progress, the water level rises and more of the island is destroyed. If you allow a player to drown, key Island tiles to be destroyed or the water level to rise too far, then you lose. So, you must collect sets of four treasure cards quickly, swapping them for the treasure on specific Island tiles and make it back to the Helicopter tile to secure victory for your team.

This is a game of communication and careful planning. The key to victory is ensuring that the island is always your priority and that you use the best character for each job, so that you maximise the impact of your actions.

Our examiner, Rob Prior, first checked Forbidden Island 13 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 12 months ago.