Survive the Island Review
Advert: this game was gifted by Mason Williams PR, this has not affected our opinion.
First and foremost, let me reassure you that Survive the Island is not like the Squid Games, no one will actually die. Except maybe some poor innocent meeples, but they’ll be reincarnated every time you play, so there is no need to lose sleep over it. With any concerns about loss of life quashed, we can move on. Ask your smart speaker to play a popular Gloria Gaynor song and have a read of this board game review!
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Setup
The board needs to be unfolded and upon it, the tiles are randomly placed to form a central island. Five sea serpents should be placed on the relevant spaces too. Other monsters and the die need to be nearby. Players then take a player aid, two rafts and all the Adventurer meeples in their colour. This is the only time players will be able to look at the underside of their Adventurers to see what numbers they are.
Players then take it in turns placing one of their meeples on an empty island space if available, then on shared spaces if player count is high. Finally, they take it in turns to place their two rafts beside the island. With that all done, set up is tickety-boo!
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Gameplay
The aim of Survive the Island is to save your Adventurers by getting them to the corners of the board. Your score will be the combined total of the numbers on the bottom of your saved meeples which you will find out at the very end of the game. Once placed, you can never look at the underside of a meeple, even if it is eliminated.
On your turn you will play through three phases. The first is moving an Adventurers three spaces. This movement can be split between multiple Adventurers if required. The same meeple can move one to three spaces on land or in a raft, but only one space if swimming. Additionally, you can only move a raft if you have as many Adventurers as other players or the majority of meeples on that raft.
Then you will remove a land tile from the board. Starting with any sand tile, then any forest tile and then the mountain tiles. These will reveal either an immediate affect that you carry out, such as adding monsters to the board or, a tile you can save for a future one-off bonus, such as repelling monsters that are trying to eat you.
The final phase is to roll the monster dice and if the symbol matches one that is on the board, you will attempt to move it to gobble up or wreck your opponents’ turn.
When a player runs out of Adventurers, they start taking two land tiles on their go. The game ends when three volcano tiles are revealed, these are all under mountain tiles. Alternatively the game can end if all players have no meeples on the board.
Tally the scores and the most points wins!
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What it’s like
Survive the Island is a quite mean. That kind of gameplay isn’t for everyone, especially younger players, but as that is the main focus of the game it doesn’t feel particularly spiteful. There is usually a ‘best’ tile to remove, or the easiest Adventurer for a monster to eat. If you’re unsure who to attack, you can cast your eye to see who has had the least eaten or saved the most to make it all seem less malicious.
It would be considerably less fun if a player got ganged up on, and I am mindful of that. The game does prevent that, as a player who has no Adventurers on the board ramps up the end game. I particularly admire how the player elimination is handled.
The setup is a bit prolonged, which frustratingly starts the game off at a plod, especially with higher player counts as you take turns to place a single meeple on the board. By the time you have finished that, you’ve totally forgotten what numbers were on the bottom of your Adventurers, and if you haven’t by then, you soon will as they move around the board.
After that though, the game gradually gathers a good pace and canters along. There is some downtime with higher player counts as you can’t plan your move that far ahead, but you are still invested with the goings-on in case your Adventurers move or meet their demise. The way the monsters can move and cause chaos is fun with the right gamers.
Keeping track of the number on your meeples is too tricky for me. I can just about remember the few higher value ones, but I just try and save as many as I can. For me that makes end game scoring somewhat of a mysterious lucky dip!
Survive the Island has an ‘old school’ board game vibe and that’s because it’s routes are in a 1980s game called Survive: Escape from Atlantis! I never played it though so I can’t tell you how it compares I’m sorry to say.
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Table Presence
Survive the Island looks great on the table, the colours zing and the monsters and Adventurers make it all very colourful. The 1980s feel doesn’t shine through with the revamped artwork and design, but there is something about it that gives a nod to its retro routes.
All the components are of a nice standard. The land tiles are chunky and all the monsters and Adventurers are of a good standard. I like the screenprinting on the monsters, it gives them character. The rafts are a little bit fiddly and sometimes the meeples fall off when moving, but that may just be clumsy me!
The rulebook was good, I missed one rule about only swimming one space during the first few plays but soon realised and corrected, it was in the rulebook but I had clearly glazed over by that point. It all fits away neatly in the box too.
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What the kids thought
Max (10): On my first play I was annoyed as I lost all my meeples and the last two to be eaten were my number 5s. But I’m pleased I have played again as it was fun!
George (13): I like the monsters, it might’ve been fun to have more monsters to choose from, like a mythical bird who could swoop on rafts. I like how it looks as it is bright and colourful.
Harrison (16): I really like the savage nature of Survive the Island. I like sabotaging my opponents and feeding them to the monsters. Removing the tiles is interesting and I like trying to decide where to place your Adventurers at the start. It’s my favourite game of this type where you have to track hidden information.
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Final thoughts on Survive the Island
If you can gloss over the meanness of Survive the Island, then you will appreciate the game for what it is. Your explorers will be proverbial cannon-fodder for the monsters that roam the board and working out spectacular deaths for your opponents’ pieces is surprisingly fun.
There is a bit of downtime that is sadly unavoidable, but the fact it can play up to five players is a boon, especially for us. With more players on the board it is more swingy. Less planning can be done ahead of your turn as carnage will undoubtedly ensue. However, the attacking is more widespread at higher player counts and helps to make things seem less vindictive.
Survive the Island feels like a party game in a board game, its relatively light hearted and has that ‘take-that’ fun. Taken in this spirit, and with these expectations, it is a game I can see getting to the table fairly often.
Key Facts
Number of players: 2 to 5
Board Game Review Recommended Age: 8+
Publisher’s Recommended Age: 8+
Playing Time: 45 minutes
Setting Up and Take Down Time: 5 minutes
Designers: Julian Courtland-Smith
Publisher: Zygomatic
RRP: £28.99
Summary
Survive the Island will appeal to certain gamers more than others. Those that can laugh at the savagery unfolding before their eyes is the board game’s target audience. Anyone who only likes to play nicely should probably avoid this one as they won’t get the best out of it.
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Artwork and Components
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Complexity
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Instructions
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Interaction
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Value for Money
Overall
Pros
- Colourful
- Fun eating other players adventurers
- Plays up to five
- Players still involved after all adventurers have left the board
Cons
- Is quite mean
- Some downtime
- Swingy at higher player counts
- Tricky to remember numbers on explorers
Need more games?
If you already own Survive the Island and enjoy it, or are looking for other inspiration, you might also like these similar games:
- King of Tokyo
- Hit the Silk!
- Atlantis Rising
- The Wolves
Buy Survive the Island
If you want to buy Survive the Island after reading our review click on one of our affiliate links below (note there has been no affiliate links until this point)
Reviewer’s Note
For clarity: we don’t get paid for our reviews. However, we were kindly gifted this game by Mason-Williams PR on behalf of Asmodee UK. We have tried not to let this affect our review in any way.
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