FORBIDDEN ISLAND
Join us as we get stranded on Matt Leacock’s kid-friendly follow-up to Pandemic and explain why you should sink into its simple charms
Words by Matt Jarvis
Matt Leacock’s 2008 magnum opus Pandemic often overshadows the rest of the talented designer’s repertoire. One of the games that shouldn’t lost in the wake of the seminal co-op hit is Forbidden Island, Leacock’s 2010 kid-friendly adventure heavily influenced by his work two years previous.
Forbidden Island‘s debt to Pandemic is clear, as players hop from location to location in search of matching cards needed to obtain four treasures (instead of curing diseases) and working to stop regions from flooding (instead of being infected) while the amount of water pouring in continues to rise periodically – the game’s analogue for Pandemic‘s dreaded epidemics and outbreaks.
Before you shrug it off as simply ‘Pandemic for kids’, know that while many of the gameplay actions and events are comparable to its older sibling, Forbidden Island is an experience that stands alone. Its gentle mechanics and slightly easier difficulty – although those after a trial can up the challenge to ‘elite’ or even ‘legendary’ levels – make it even more of a gateway game for newcomers to the tabletop hobby than Pandemic (of course, it can be a stepping stone to that game, too) and the beautiful presentation of the illustrated location tiles and miniature plastic treasures in a compact tin mean it’s perfect as an attractive gift to introduce friends and family. Plus, there’s a sequel – we’ll get onto that in a moment.