Survive Escape from Atlantis Board Game

You have 10 people on a sinking central island - you need to get them to dry land avoiding the sea creatures along the way. The island sinks by turning over tiles (one per turn) and each tile randomly reveals a good or bad addition to the game. When you turn over the volcano tile the game ends and the points on your surviving mini people (meeples) are revealed and counted up to decide the winnner. It's best played with 4 players for the most variety and tension.This game has proved highly popular in my family. We play it weekly and it always goes down a storm. Mostly because:- It's good fun - you can be nice or nasty and never really know who's winning until it ends. There's enough luck in the game for anyone to win but enough strategy to keep it from being just random chance.- It looks great. The painted wooden pieces are all really nicely designed and as the board develops it's very impressive looking.- The rules are easy for young/new players to pick up but they can be expanded and varied in many ways to stop it being repetitive.- The game doesn't drag on - unlike Monolopy and other well known games, this game always lasts around the same number of turns (about 30 mins to an hour) so you know you can squeeze in a game in an evening without wishing it over.There do seem to be a couple of gaps in the rule book (perhaps to try and keep it simple) such as what counts as a turn for a swimmer or whether dolphins move their swimmers, but the best thing to do is to decide yourself through playing what rules you enjoy and stick to them. If in doubt, check out the hundreds of forums about it at BoardGameGeek where it's clearly very popular.You get so much for your money - it's essentially the same price as a video game. I've already purchased both expansion packs (Giant Squid and 6 players) at £5 each they're both as great value as the game itself.A final point:Some people have noted that on the blue meeples it's hard read the points on the bottom, or that through multiple plays you can start memorising which meeples/tiles are which through their slight imperfections - this was never a problem for us but I could imagine a serious gamer might be put off by this and they did correct all these problems with the 6 player expansion pack. Personally I just bought it so we could include more players but it was nice that they listened to feedback. :)

It's wonderful to have the original rules restored to this abused game. Some of the best features of the original were removed eg hidden location of volcano which builds the tension of the final moments; different (hidden) values for the men to be rescued. All are back with a few new ideas with great board and bits. No expense has been spared in its production which is better than the original which has been unavailable for years. This an excellent family game which is fun for adults too. No great brain strain, but a bit to think about and luck as a great leveller (so useful when some players get a bit too serious). Enjoy!

I have played Survive! Escape from Atlantis 7 times now. A mix of 3 and 4 player games, with a variety of player types - those who prefer co-operative games, 11 year olds, fluffy gamers, competitive gamers, etc.This is not a deep game so this will not be a deep review.3 stars and a wish format review it is then!1st Star : Great componentsThe board is colourful and vibrant, as well as not being too big for most game surfaces. The tiles used in the game are excellent, while the artwork is limited (beach/sand, forest/jungle, mountain) it is in the tiles thickness that the quality really is apparent. In the game the tiles are removed in the order of beach, forest, mountain. This is represented on a visual and tactile level by the varying thickness - the beach being wafer thin, the forest standard thickness and the mountain being some of the thickest card I've ever encountered in a board game. This not only gives the game a slightly 3D appearance but also serves as a useful reminder to remove in that order.The meeples in the game are very appealing. There are 10 classic Carcassone-esque meeples in red, green, blue and yellow. On the bottom of each one is a number ranging from 1-6, which in the game signifies how many points saving this Atlanian is worth (I always like to think of the 1s as the peasants while the 6 is the royalty of Atlantis!). These are clear in most cases, though the blue is of a dark shade and can make the number difficult to read.There are also meeples for the sharks, whales, sea serpents and dolphins (the latter of which are only used in one of the variants to expand the game). All of these are chunky, steady and evocative in appearance. The sea serpent is appropriately the largest and really does loom over the top of the little Atlanians as they swim to safety.Oh there are also 12 brown wooden boat components. These are the least visually appealing of the components, but my friend who played the 80s version of Survive! assures me that they are a big step up from the former plastic versions.There are 2 custom dice in the game, which are a good size and mostly clear.2nd Star : The very definition of screw-your-neighbourThis game really captures the frustration, sadistic pleasure and the laugh out loud fury of you and your friends sending sea serpents, whales and sharks to devour your meeples. I believe one of the most important aspects of a "screw-your-neighbour" game is the possibility of your actions also benefiting the other people at the table. If the game is simply destroying your opponents then it is more accurately "screw-your-enemy" and no one expects anything other than pain from anyone else.In Survive! Escape from Atlantis there arise situations where you will be sharing a boat with one or two other player's meeples. At times like these a temporary and mutually beneficial alliance can be forged. However this can conjure up some hilarious backstabbing in itself. Because of the numerical values on the base of your meeples, if you know you've got a lowly 1 point Atlanian peasant on a boat, then you can afford to sacrifice this commoner in the hope that the other two player's meeples are 6 point royalty. The expression on the other two player's faces as you steer the shared boat into the jaws of a sea serpent is priceless.Because your end score is calculated, not by the quantity that escape, but by the value of the numbers on their undersides, the game avoids a "everyone gang up on John, looks he's got 4 meeples back and we've all only got 2!" When those four escapees could be 1s and 2s, whereas the other player's two escapees could be the 5 and 6. This prevents the game from being transformed into a logical "everyone else vs. the leader". Instead you can never be sure who has escaped from the island and therefore - everyone is both your neighbour and your enemy!3rd Star : A shallow swimming pool - but there are plenty of slides to trySurvive! Escape from Atlantis works the same way every time you play. There will be variants in which tiles you turn over, where the sharks and whales turn up, etc. However if you have a plan that works one game, you can probably implement it in another. In this way the game is slightly shallow and isn't one that you will play 6 games of in a single night. However the rulebook comes with lots of variants to try. Some make minor alterations to the game to add a little spice to the game - such as ignoring the numerical values on the bottom of meeples and instead deciding the winner simple who has the highest number of meeples who escaped (which I have actually tried as a method of teaching new players).While most of the variants fall into this category, one of them makes a major change to the game. It introduces dolphin meeples who will protect your swimmers, while also changing the dice into the game making the sea serpents, whales and sharks far more mobile and therefore more dangerous. Really this variant should be the default way to play after your first few games, since it does enhance the game....and a wish thumbsdown: The waters around Atlantis are exotic and filled with adventure - but you can easily see the bottom.(Stretching for a title there) Survive! Escape from Atlantis is a great game, but even with the variants and different players you will find this game making its way to your table less and less. If you are starting your board game collection - do not begin with this one. It cannot support the weight of being the default game, its tactics/strategy (I always get those two confused) being too limited in scope. This may be because in a game I look for depth and others are happier with a more lightweight quick game.(Finally in the components there is a cheap feeling "velvet" bag. I suppose this is supposed to be used to lay the tiles at the start, but I don't find it works well for that. By far the weakest, and thankfully least important, component).Final thoughts:This game will never sit at the top of my game pile. However it will also never collect dust! This game is perfect to cap off a long evening of a more intense and mentally challenging game. It is short, satisfying, and a fun way to end an evening.I am glad to have it in my collection and I'm sure I will play it many more times over the years.