Survive:
Escape from Atlantis!
Review

Survive: Escape from Atlantis! (1982) is a traversal game where you need to escape from an island before it crumbles into the sea. You play by moving figures, avoiding sea creatures, and boarding boats headed for safety. Like Fortnite, you battle not only your opponents but also the shrinking island as you strive to survive long enough to make it back to safety.

You play as a team of ten people who need to escape from the crumbling Island of Atlantis before a volcano explodes. Each turn you can move your figures three spaces across the Island tiles towards boats and then across the sea to safety. However, every turn you must also choose an Island tile to remove, making it smaller and triggering actions that move monsters, destroy things, and throw other players into the sea where whales, sharks and sea monsters await.

All the time you are trying to time your dash through the dangerous waters to avoid the worst hazards. It's a cutthroat game where you're not only mean to enemy figures but also favour your own higher-value characters (indicated under their base). This adds another dimension because if you are too obvious about which are your most valued figures they can target them. The winner is the player with the highest total value of survivors when the island is finally destroyed.

The result is a highly competitive game, where getting your opponent eaten is just as important as moving your figures to safety. It is as much a battle, as it is a race to survive. So, you can expect things to get heated even before the volcano explodes.

Our examiner, Rob Prior, first checked Survive: Escape from Atlantis! 15 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 9 months ago.