Greater Than Games | Spirit Island | Board Game | 1 – 6
Greater Than Games | Spirit Island | Board Game | 1 – 6 Players | Ages 14+ | 90 – 120 Minutes Playing Time
 |  |  |  |  |  | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | 1-6 | 1-4 | 1-5 | 1-4 | 2-4 | 2-4 |
| Age | 14+ Years | 14+ Years | 14+ Years | 14+ Years | 10+ Years | 14+ Years |
| Playing Time | 90-120 Minutes | 60-120 Minutes | 90-115 Minutes | 90-150 Minutes | 60-90 Minutes | 60-120 Minutes |
| Dimensions: | 29.46 x 7.49 x 29.46 cm; 907.18 Grams |
| Model: | SISL:CORE |
| Material: | Paper |
| Colour: | Multicoloured |
| Batteries Required: | No |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Age: | 14 years and up |
| Assembly: | No |
| Dimensions: | 29.46 x 7.49 x 29.46 cm; 907.18 Grams |
| Material: | Paper |
I enjoy the mechanics. I think I just want more variety in the spirit choices. I may edit if/when we get the Branch and Claw expansion. My husband and kids on the other hand, rate this very highly. Of the games in our collection (roughly 20), this is the only one our 19 year old will happily sit to play. Plays better at 3 than 2 in our opinion.
My husband and my daughter played this game. It took them a while to figure out, but they both had fun playing! There are different things to add or change if you get bored of the board game, which makes it worth its money!
My friends and I have frequent game nights. This gave has been so much fun and the reliability can’t be beat. I’ve played this game a dozen times and never played the same character twice. The rules are a bit overwhelming at first, but there are tons of good explainer videos out there. My biggest problem is trying to store all the expansions. Love it!
Once we learned how to play this game it was a lot of fun. It is a group game where everyone is on the same team working together. It is the most fun team game I’ve ever played. The game pieces are of great quality, not cheap feeling.
Game is wonderful, I suggest for any game group. My problem was the damage to the box. When I received it from Amazon there was a large hole punched in the box. I did contact the publisher and they sent me a new box free of charge. I do t think this was their fault but they took good care of me.
This is a complex game. There are many pieces and even more rules. If neither of those points bother you, this is one of the best co-op games I’ve played. Spirit Island is extremely satisfying to play and every game is memorable. Good communication is necessary. If your group is struggling, you are playing too quickly and not communicating effectively enough.
TLDR: If you like complex board games, this is by far a favourite of mine, ideal for 2+ players, and incredibly replayable.
What I think of it:
This is possibly the most complicated board game I’ve ever played, but also the most enjoyable and engaging. There’s a steep learning curve, but once you understand the mechanics the variety and intense strategy involved will keep you hooked for hours. What makes this game work is that it’s so well balanced, which is incredible considering how every game is unique, with a host of different characters to try, random events, different scenarios and adversaries to choose from.
I’ve only played this two player and that feels like an ideal number, although more players would allow some interesting combinations of characters to be played.
How the game works:
You work cooperatively to expel invaders from the board, using a variety of spirit characters, each with their own unique power cards and innate abilities. There are three main stages to invader play, with each land type being explored on, then built on, then ravaged. The fact you can see which land will be impacted two rounds ahead allows for a lot of forward planning, and the satisfaction of narrowly avoiding catastrophes. There are so many ways to play this, from all out attack, to careful defence, to causing fear which reduces the number of invaders you need to kill in order to win the game.
I could carry on, but the simple message is buy it!!
I was very reluctant in buying this game for a long time, due to the theme which did not speak to me. In general I’m not interested in learning some Fantasy made-up rules. However, this game surprised me.
Yes, it’s fantasy, but the rules are very straight-forward. The world they are creating is very closely related to ours, with the exception that natural phenomena are controlled by the players.
And, in the end it is a very good co-op game. There is no alpha player issue, as the powers and spirits are so different that it is almost impossible to have the full view of the current game state. You need to talk and align with the other players.
Concerning difficulty, it is not as hard as it is promoted. You most likely will win even your first games, something that is impossible to think of for other Expert games.
A quality product. It has bit of a learning curve. But once you get the hang of it, it is quite interesting. I Played one game with my husband. Would love to try the next level.
Note that the back of the box shows SISL:CORE PR14, and not “XXth Printing”. The item was received in good condition even though it was packed in a larger box and didn’t have any protection around it.
OVERVIEW: You play Spirit Island on a board made up of one map per player. Each map is seeded with enemy settlements and allied Dahan natives. Players take their turns simultaneously, beginning by choosing one of their spirit’s growth options which will place presence on the board to allow them to use powers. Doing this lets players often increase either their energy income or the number of cards they can play per turn. They will then select the power cards that they will play for the turn, paying their cost (if any). Some cards are fast and will activate immediately. The invaders then take their turn ravaging some land types, defeating any Dahan there, and blighting the land. They will then build new settlements and other land types, and then send out explorers to repeat the process. The players then resolve any slow powers they played for the turn and discard all cards used for the turn. If the players can defeat enough of the invaders before too much of the land is blighted, they win.
PRO, 5 out of 5: FOCUSED SIMULTANEOUS PLAY. Because each player begins on their own separate board with limited range on their powers, they can generally focus on the problems facing them on their map. This reduces analysis-paralysis and speeds up the game. But as the game progresses, players will be able to extend their presence to their neighbor’s maps, which slowly ratchets up the cooperation and creates more of a tactical puzzle as the game goes on.
PRO, 5 out of 5: FEAR EFFECTS. Players have a pool of fear tokens. As settlements are defeated and card effects are resolved, the tokens are moved down to the “generated fear” section. When all of the fear has been earned, the tokens are moved up and one fear card is moved down, waiting to be activated later in the turn. When 3 fear cards have been earned, the terror level for the game increases. Increasing the terror level makes both the victory conditions for the game easier and also levels up the powers of the fear cards you earned. The fear cards themselves are a lot of fun. Since you never know what effect they have, they give you random boosts to your strategy.
PRO, 5 out of 5: TACTICAL PUZZLE. The tactical richness of Spirit Island really is unparalleled. The invader actions are telegraphed multiple turns in advance, giving you time to defeat them. The tactical puzzle gets even more interesting with the use of fast and slow powers. Trying to coordinate how to best use your powers to address the telegraphed invader actions makes this one of the best tactical puzzles in co-op board gaming history.
PRO, 5 out of 5: VALUE AND VARIETY. Spirit Island comes with 4 scenarios that drastically change the rules of the game. It also comes with 3 different European adversaries for you to face. Each adversary has unique abilities and step-by-step upgrades to provide the exact challenge you want. As if that wasn’t enough, you can even flip the game boards over to get a more challenging but more geographically realistic alternate board setup. All of this gives Spirit Island immense replay value and allows players to adjust the difficulty to the exact level they need.
PRO, 5 out of 5: SPIRIT DIFFERENTIATION. Each spirit has unique setup rules, abilities, growth and power options, innate powers if they get combos from certain cards, and an entirely unique set of 4 power cards that only they can use. It’s a staggering amount of differentiation, and the game really feels almost completely different each time. And I haven’t even mentioned the ridiculous variety of minor and major powers that you can upgrade your spirit with throughout the game. This can culminate into ridiculous superpowers like lightning bearing down on the land or floods to wash enemy cities away. The variety in how your spirit will play game to game is truly spectacular.
OVERALL SCORE, a resounding 5 out of 5. Spirit Island is absolutely one of my top co-op games of all time. I just love this game. Both serious and casual players that I’ve introduced the game to have loved it as well. The combination of incredible variety, fast gameplay, and deep tactical puzzles is amazing. To keep my thoughts brief, Spirit Island is a co-op that every gamer should have in their collection. As a side note, the expansion “Branch & Claw” adds a ton of content to the game. I honestly don’t play the game anymore without it. It should also come as no surprise that Spirit Island is excellent when played solo. When I play with just one spirit, I can complete a game in about 30 minutes, which is an amazing amount of gameplay for such a short time invested. Adding in a second spirit makes the puzzle that much tougher and exciting. All of my previous recommendations hold for people who want to play Spirit Island solo. It is GREAT.
Happy gaming! This is Dr. D, and I’m out!
The game is fantastic. The spirits are all unique in their own way, the way they grow, spread and interact.
The difficulty is adjustable as much as you are comfortable with, allowing you to grow in understanding, in tactics and Invader movements.
I had a difficult time to wrap my head around the invader movements, but after a couple of plays it clicks. Give yourself the time to absorb and adjust to the movements.
My favourite game, I must say.
It has a feel of playing chess. So if you like the thinking and puzzling aspect in games, you will like this one.
My wife and I could not stop playing this when we first got it.
The theme was lovely, and we could not wait to exhaust it entirely to give us an excuse to get the DLC
Yeah, it’s a great game. I waited a while to get it because it seemed quite involved. It is. But after 3 or 4 plays, it shines. Whole family loves it now. It’s cooperative. It’s Complex. Lots of variety and Depth. Very Replayable. Can play Solo or in Group. meaningful choices. rich in theme.
Downsides (not for me, to me it’s a 5 star but FYI): Steep Learning Curve. Hard to teach casual gamers. Most components are good, but i didn’t like some (spirit tokens, blight tokens, etc. Seemed cheap-ish so I found replacements).
Overall though, just a wonderful game. And the expansions… top notch.
un gioco meraviglioso altamente strategico, adatto per i giocatori esperti, merita il suo posto alto nel ranking del BGG (sito per giochi da tavolo). Siete degli spiriti che respingono dei colonisti invasori usando dei poteri assimetrici e che richiederanno alto coordinamento per avere successo.
My wife and I love complex games – this game has a ton of rules and it takes a few rounds to really get going and understand the rules. Luckily there are online videos that help you learn how to play. The game is tough! It can be very hard to win, but it gets easier as you go – after every three rounds the victory conditions change and are easier to accomplish. I’ve only played this game with my wife, and the two player option is fun, but I think this game would be best with more people! I’m hoping to play with 3 others soon. And there are a couple expansions for this game, I think one would even make it 8 player!
The game is great fun. My wife and I have spent many hours playing this we still have not had enough.
We love the way the gameplay changes completely depending on what spirit you have chosen. It’s not a simple or easy game but that just adds to its charm and with good instructions and many youtube guides it’s worth it for the experience. Superb!
I bought this game after researching strategy board games like Terraforming Mars, Brass Birmingham, Great Western Trail, Tapestry, Root, Everdell & Wingspan as a birthday present for my 9 year old daughter.
As you can tell from the title of this review I just can’t adding adjectives and positive ones at that to its name. I’ve played board games and if you want to know what this is like in short …. its Catan (board capture) + Forbidden Island (sudden death & sudden win) + bit of monopoly (management of resources) + ticket to ride (game within a game, each player playing there own) + asymmetric gameplay.
The game is complex no doubt but not so difficult that you don’t understand it fully to start falling in love by your third gameplay. Best strategy would be to pace your self with game setup and sequence of play watching YouTube videos (like one video tutorial from YouTube channel “Before you Play”).
The game has been designed such that new players start out with a simple elementary gameplay, then add elements which can make their gameplay real strategy intense once they know gears, nuts, bolts and engine of this game.
This is one game you would play for at least a year and still think thrice before purchasing an expansion, no not because expansions are not good they are superb actually, its because year on, you would still feel that the game is giving you enough of a kick, challenge and fun that you aren’t bored to buy an expansion.
My daughter picked the game very well by the second game play ( She loves ticket to ride, catan & forbidden island). My wife did not initially, she watch me and my daughter play two player and got so interested that we had to stop and restart three player game. Whether you are a enthusiast or a seasoned board gamer, I would strongly recommend you to give this a try.
The best I can describe my experience is like coming out of cinema after watching avatar, titanic or jurassic Park first time. The game lingers on your mind, pulls you towards itself. It keeps making you think what you could or would do . . Hence promoting more plays ….. I guess this is going to be a sleeper hit and Hall of famer in following years.
I hope you enjoy this as much as we did! Happy invader hunting and liberating the island ….. !!!!
This has to be one of the most enjoyable co-op games I’ve played. The game offers a wonderful amount of replay-ability with 8 unique feeling characters (spirits) and multiple scenarios and options to add on difficulty or slight variance without a change to core game play. The game also has wonderful art for it’s characters and card backs that help make the game feel more vibrant, that also adds to tie into the already well maintained theme.
For new players or people not used to very complex games, this game may seem a little overwhelming at first, so the first game will be a learning experience that may have players only learning how to effectively play after a whole game which takes 1-2 hours. The game has a recommended first play setup and I would recommend utilizing this for a smoother and easier first game.
The delivery itself was fast with everything contained in perfect condition and no missing pieces.
Esse jogo fenomenal! Apesar da dificuldade estar classificada com a impressionante nota 4 de 5, no BGG, as regras so relativamente simples. O que deixa ele ultra pesado o raciocnio estratgico que ele exige. sinistro. Mas fale a pena. um jogo! Vale muito a pena. Ah, entrega perfeita, dentro do prazo e com a caixa bem protegida.
1. Theme – It’s a cool theme, but more importantly it feels like you’re actually fighting back invaders. A lot of games have a cool theme, but then the gameplay turns out to be moving cubes, or gather sets, or rolling dice. But the theme and gameplay complement each other and make for an immersive experience.
2. Asymmetry – This game should be the very definition of asymmetric gameplay. The spirits are SO different that it feels like a different game in a lot of ways just depending on who you are. If you get great at one character and try to play the same strategy with another you will fail miserably. This is one of the primary reasons I’ve played it solo at least 15 times in 2 months!
3. Difficulty/Complexity – It’s hard. I got my hat handed to me at first, but yet each time it was easy to see improvement so I felt encouraged to try again. Later, as I became acquainted with the spirits better I started to win – but still not every time. Now I win a high percentage of the time but yet the game still has more to offer because you can tailor it to your preferred difficulty level. You can flip the board and have a harder setup, or you can choose an invader, or you can choose a harder blight card… you can truly make this as hard as you want which keeps me entertained and enjoying my sessions with or without anyone else.
Such a great game. I can’t wait to try out the expansions and I can’t wait until R. Eric Reuss comes out with whatever his next creation will be.
very complex game that takes a long time to set up, and understand the rules. set aside a lot of time for your first playthrough. but it goes quicker once you get a handle on it, and builds to a big splashy climax that everyone can contribute to both individually and collaboratively.
Longer review:
Just got this game and played once through with a 12/15 yo, and both are familiar with complex tabletops. We played it (and pretty easily beat it) with both of the two nerfing rules in play, as we were learning the game; next time I’ll play with just one of the nerfs. It still took about 4 hours to play, after setup, and that only got us through about 1/2 of each of the game timer decks before we won outright. (I wouldn’t expect a game that consumed those decks to necessarily take 8 hours–it’s just the learning curve).
The below notes are feedback from just the first play through. I really think it’ll get much much easier with experience.
Cons:
-it took about 90 minutes to follow the setup instructions. I’d expect subsequent games to be closer to 30 mins now that we understand the nomenclature of the pieces. There’s still somethings that will take time, like deck building.
-it needs a good size table. There are lots of cards for the players to manage individually that cycle in and out of play.
-the rules are daunting. I spent 2 hours reading them and grokking them, and then another 30-45 mins teaching the kids, and it took about two turns before we really all got it what each thing was and was going to do.
-lots of pieces and cards to manage
Pro:
once you get through the rules learning curve, it actually becomes quite straightforward and intuitive and goes quickly. I fully expect future games to play much quicker, even if we add rules complexity/difficulty. most games like this I’ll re-read the rules after the first play to see what mistakes of understanding were made; this was the first time that I’ve done a reread and really found no mistakes in our play of fundamental understanding. that is to say, once you get it, it’s pretty intuitive.
I like the card management for powers. it allows individuals to easily understand their own abilities and how they can play a role. complex games like this are often a struggle between remembering the rules and then how to best use those rules for your strategy to win. We obviously struggled with that in the beginning (“I don’t understand, what is the best choice?”) but once we could see the path to victory the options for each player actually became pretty clear.
Individuals can both contribute independently but also need to work together to stack power effects.
The best part of the game, and really it’s most interesting feature, is that it’s back loaded. Most resource management games you start out with a lot of stuff and burn it down; the question becomes do you win or lose before you run out of resources. That’s hard because you don’t know the pace of consumption, so you’re either too cautious or too frivolous with resources in the beginning. For instance, Dead of Winter plays like that.
Spirit Island on the other hand is the first game that I’ve played that is the reverse of that. Individual character’s powers build throughout the game, leading to increasingly flashy effects. It builds to a nice climax. The win conditions actually become easier, not more difficult, over time, and the game increasingly works against itself over time through a progression of disadvantaging the AI (game opponents) the more rounds that are played. It could be a trap, actually, to count on late-stage win conditions that whoops fail to materialize in time. It has the benefit that, as we’re learning the rules and making mistakes of strategy in the early rounds, those mistakes are surmountable by later play with bigger effects once you know the pace and what’s coming at you.
The only thing that I think we might have regularly forgotten is that while villages and cities each have 2 and 3 HP respectively, and do 2 and 3 damage respectively, destroying them only add 1 and 2 fear respectively. I wish there were more fear tokens to consume in order to allow for villages and city destruction to consume 2 and 3 fear tokens respectively, in alignment with their HP and damage, it’d be easier to remember. How often we made that mistake really would inform how easy it was to meet the win conditions. But that’s really just a mistake, not a core misunderstanding.
I’ve definitely played games with more pieces and cards to manage. This one is probably medium, and most of them are on the play board not in a player’s personal management responsibility.
Bottomline is that the three of us are all looking forward to playing it again, with different and harder starting conditions; now that we know the rules and the pace of play it’ll go much faster and be much easier to design strategy against it. But if you’re not a gamer that enjoys setting aside a whole afternoon to get started with a game, this may not be the game for you to approach. It’s therefore more of a family game for players that will return to it, than a social game that you want to teach to visitors for just one playthrough.
Spirit Island is a great game and has the potential to earn its price in gameplay hours.
Once everyone knows the rules and everything is set up the game’s difficulty comes from the practically limitless potential of options in any given turn. I’ve played a lot of Co op games but I’ve never spent so long on one round of any game discussing the ‘best’ group strategy. Whilst this makes a single game stretch into 2-4 hours it is incredibly rewarding. That being said, if you’re looking for something you can learn, set up and whizz through a few rounds in an hour, look elsewhere.
Spirit island is just masterfully balanced. At every point in the game it feels like your team are just about keeping their heads above water with almost exponentially expanding enemies. The balance comes from your own characters (spirits) also ramping in power very quickly, gaining new powers, being able to use more of them per turn and the options that unlock as player’s skills intertwine and synergize.
I would strongly advise that one person with a good head for rules and logic does a single player play through first (ideally watch a few play guide videos too) before diving in to a full multiplayer game. I can see how it would be very frustrating with four players all asking different questions whilst trying to figure it all out. Having one person that knows it well enough means that the game becomes really fairly simple rules wise and the challenge is in the decision making, which is great.
I was bought this game as it has a solo play option (you can’t always have a group of friends around). It’s nice that the solo play variant exists, it provides a little mental stimulation but some spirits simply can’t compete in solo. Having more guidelines for solo play with suggestions would help (all available through forums/reviews though).
There are a wide variety of different spirits to play and a variety of scenarios to play meaning that to experience/see the whole game you would likely need to play quite a few games. Given how fun it is to play as a group, the inherent replayability and length of any individual game there should be many hours of fun to be had.
Bottom line. Spirit Island is an expensive game but if you can muster a few moderate to hardcore boardgame fans that cost easily divides down quickly. 20 hours of fun for four people knocks that cost down to a bargain and that would only be 5-7 play throughs. The fact that it is a cooperative game sucks in lots of people who would otherwise refuse to play and makes it way more fun for everyone.
Worth it.
Irei atualizar o comentario assim que jogar umas 20x e explorar o conteudo mais dificil
Grande jogo cooperativo, bem complicado para novatos se adaptarem mas se ja jogou algum coop e tem vontade de aprender, consegue levar de boa (experiencia propia, levou 3 partidas para o meu grupo aprender)
This game is very good. People who are experienced with board games can pick this game up and play fluidly in just a few turns, but it can initially be overwhelming for casual players. The game is quite difficult, especially at first, but everything is tied together very well thematically and is very much less luck based than most cooperative board games; therefore, the (base) game is easier to play and win the more you play, but there are several ways to increase the difficulty once it feels too easy. Everyone playing feels important and all choices matter. Replay value is very high, and nobody I’ve played it with has had anything negative to say about it.
Pros:
+ Thematically Consistent
+ Truly 1-4 players (even single player is fun and challenging)
+ Various difficulty levels and options for gameplay variation offer high replay value
+ High-Quality pieces with great art
+ Very hard to take control of other players – everyone feels important and their choices matter
POSSIBLE Cons:
– Overwhelming at first (many different pieces and gameplay elements)
– Can be difficult to teach because of the above point
– Seemingly few ‘scenarios’ and ‘adversaries’ (but ultimately enough once you understand how they work)
– Generally very challenging for new players even with the most simple set-up
Neutral Points:
~ Long play time for casual players (30-40 minutes for single player, 60+ minutes with 2 players, and easily 90-120+ minutes with 3 or 4 players, especially if playing with new players)
~ In-box dividers/piece holders are flimsy and bulky, but box includes many resealable plastic bags for pieces
~ Random elements are a small part of the game, but are very predictable, fit with the theme, and don’t feel ‘luck-based’
~ NOT kid friendly. Don’t be fooled by the colourful art – This game is challenging and complex for many adults, and I wouldn’t even want to try playing it with anyone younger than a board game savvy 13 year old (I’m thinking of my younger siblings and cousins around that age as examples: some are definitely able to play and some I wouldn’t let touch the box)
Things to keep in mind when first playing the game:
* If you can, learn the game with 2 players first, with the rule book and online FAQ open – learning with a single player will likely result in a quick and brutal loss that won’t teach you enough, and learning with more than 2 players will likely result in a jumbled mess which will take far too long. Playing with several people is much easier when at least one person already knows how to play.
* USE THE ‘EASY’ CHARACTERS – Seriously, their rules and powers are much easier to manage, and you can eliminate the deck building portion of the game as you learn the more integral elements
* Don’t be discouraged by the difficulty of the game. This game is hard to beat at first. Once you learn some strategy through trial and error, victory is much easier (which is why scenarios, adversaries, and blighted island cards are in the game, all of which increase the difficulty and/or complexity)
This is somewhat more complicated… the first play through took forever- like three or four hours, and we are not stupid people.
But as with a lot of board games, if you are willing to put the time in, and play it the way it’s intended (eg. With less communal planning than Pandemic), its mechanics eventually feel natural, giving something in between a tabletop RPG, MTG and a trad territory based game.
The art style is great, the concept is rich and both come together in the play style. It’s still early days for us, and it’s still a bit of a palaver, so I’m a bit hesitant on the five stars, but I love it and nothing can make me think otherwise!
Gi questa breve introduzione d un’idea di quanto vasto possa essere Spirit Island: le diverse combinazioni di spiriti e l’ampio numero di poteri a disposizione di ciascuno di essi fa s che le possibili combinazioni siano innumerevoli, consentendo un’esperienza di gioco che varia significativamente ad ogni partita. Vincere complicato al punto giusto, offrendo ai giocatori una sfida significativa ma non frustrante, e l’esperienza pu essere arricchita dalle varie opzioni che il gioco offre per aumentare o diminuire la difficolt e dai vari scenari – ispirati a rievocazioni storiche – che applicano di volta in volta condizioni specifiche.
Se da un lato la variet e il numero delle possibili opzioni e combinazioni costituisce la principale ricchezza del gioco, ne anche il principale (e forse unico) difetto, almeno per chi lo considera tale. Ad ogni turno la quantit di operazioni da svolgere e di scelte da compiere davvero elevata, e siccome la “coordinazione” fra i giocatori risulta cruciale al fine di poter mettere in pratica una strategia efficace, discutere e concordare di volta in volta “chi fa cosa” prende talvolta del tempo. Personalmente non trovo nulla di negativo in tutto questo, anzi, ma posso capire che chi alla ricerca di un gioco pi “veloce” possa essere spiazzato da tanta complessit. In buona sostanza, se state cercando un “party game” che si spiega in cinque minuti e si gioca in mezz’ora, Spirit Island non fa per voi; se invece siete alla ricerca di un’esperienza pi coinvolgente ed elaborata, probabilmente una delle migliori opzioni sulla piazza.
Essendo il numero di scelte e la coordinazione fra i giocatori la vera discriminante della durata del gioco, si pu stimare che una partita duri 40-45 minuti per partecipante; in tre – probabilmente la soluzione migliore – ce la si cava comodamente in un paio d’ore.
La qualit dei componenti buona: le miniature sono ben realizzate e i componenti “cartacei” sono curati molto bene, cos come le illustrazioni su ciascuno di essi, che sono molto ben realizzate. Il manuale chiaro ed esaustivo (per chi mastica l’inglese, ovviamente, il gioco non ancora stato tradotto) e risponde immediatamente e con chiarezza alla stragrande maggioranza dei dubbi che possono sorgere durante una partita. Come gi detto, inoltre, il gioco offre moltissime varianti che semplificano o complicano l’esperienza, oltre ad alcuni scenari storici che vengono minuziosamente dettagliati all’interno del manuale, che ne offre una contestualizzazione davvero ben curata.
In definitiva, Spirit Island un gran gioco, straconsigliato agli amanti dei board game pi elaborati e complessi.
That said.
I am absolutely in love with this game and have just ordered the expansion. Like the above reviewer, I’d never bothered to play a board game solo till I encountered this, and my friends and I have already got together to play it 4 times in a row, neglecting the rest of the library. It’s just so nicely designed, all the rules make sense and work thematically. Each spirit plays differently so there’s something for everyone, which is conveniently laid out on the back of the card (this spirit is heavy offense, this one is slow to get going but later powerful, this one is mostly Fear based but picks off individual explorers well, etc) and there’s so much strategy in how they work together. There are also lots of options to adjust the difficulty and keep it interesting, including extra blight rules, scenarios, and named invaders like the Spanish or the English who have their own special rules. It lets you chose which, if any, you want to play with, but the base game is amazing on its own. And while the first play through took me a little while to get my head around (especially using slow powers effectively to be useful on future turns, and remembering they only Ravage one terrain at a time), the rules are actually pretty intuitive and easy to remember when you get into it. The rule book is well laid out but we don’t actually refer to it that often after the first game or two.
Heartily recommend!
Firstly, this is probably not one to introduce to new gamers. It is a bit fiddly, there are a few more rules than your average game (but not overbearingly so), and there can be a fair bit of analysis paralysis. All of which makes the game a bit longer than it perhaps could have. And that’s the second point, it’s a fairly long game. A 2 player game usually takes us around 2-3 hours, but note that we are pretty prone to excessive planning and deliberation. If you are more of a gung-ho kind of group then you will play it quicker, no doubt. Thirdly, I’m not sure how much I would enjoy this game at the higher player counts due to the extra amount of decisions you will be adding into the game. Its hard enough coordinating between the two of us to get the most optimal outcome and with more players I could see it becoming overwhelming, but it could go either way. Finally, it takes a little bit to set up and you will probably want to play through at least once as a learning game. I would suggest you watch some run throughs and reviews on Youtube before purchasing just to make sure that this is right for you and the people you want to play with.
I also think it is important how you play your first few games. Don’t jump in and add things straight away. Like the rulebook suggested, we played with low level spirits and power progression cards, with no blight card, no scenario and no adversary for a first couple of games and we won them all. We then played a few with the blight card and then eventually added a scenario. We have not lost a game yet, yet the situation has been pretty dire in many of them. It is indeed a hard game but I think its important to note that if you can’t win by the usual methods then you can always switch tactics to creating as much fear as possible to end the game (when the fear deck runs out, you win). I also think that the difficulty is one of reasons new gamers may not fair so well.
Having said all that, Spirit Island is brilliant. We don’t particularly like long games but this one goes so quick! You know its a good sign when you look up and wonder where the last 2 hours went. All of the spirits are so different from one another, it really motivates you to play as each one so you can understand their full potential and work out pairings that fit together well. And on top of all these different spirits you can play as, there are also different island scenarios AND different adversaries that you can face at increasingly harder difficulties. This makes the replayability of the game immense, and we are thoroughly enjoying working our way through each one. At first glance this game didn’t jump out to me, it doesn’t have the stunning artwork that some other games have but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the whole thing. There are a lot of clever and satisfying moves that you can pull off. This also works really well as a solo game. I have never played a board game solo before, never had any motivation to do so. But I found myself playing Spirit Island alone whenever other players weren’t around, and so for me that speaks volumes.
Very happy with this one, it is expensive but you get lots in the box as well. There is a reason this game is ranked in the top 25 on BoardGameGeek.
1-4 players, Cooperative
Overview-
You play as a spirit working to rid your island of colonists! They are invading your land and you are not having it so you must work to either scare them off or destroy them. Very deep, very strategic and VERY fun!
Win Condition /Length-
So for you to win you have to achieve your victory condition listed on the current Fear tab on the board. Starting out you must fully clear the board of all explorers, towns and cities. Lol good luck on that. Luckily as you spread more and more fear throughout the island these victory conditions become easier as the game progresses. The next fear condition is just clearing out the towns and cities and the 3rd is just clearing out the cities. If you get ALL the fear cards removed it’s an instant win! I love the fact that the win conditions become a tad bit easier as the game progresses. It really makes it seem like you are making progress within the game with all your efforts.
That’s not to say the game is easy though. There are three ways you can lose which are by either completely having your presence removed from the board, all the blight tokens are added to the board or if you need to draw an Explore card and cannot. So as you are working against the invaders, they are working against you and time is not your friend.
The game plays in about an hour and a half which for me is perfect. Luckily since all players take their actions at the same time, adding more players doesn’t really increase the game length which is also awesome. That said, the more players, the more discussion so you will still see a slight increase in time played.
Components —
Excellent, excellent components. The board pieces are made of a sturdy thicker cardboard and the energy and fear tokens are also made of the same stuff and almost feel like wooden tokens but they’re not. There are some wooden presence and Dahan (the natives) tokens which are pretty cool. The wooden Dahan pieces are little huts. The rest of the pieces are plastic invader pieces which are comprised of little explorers and towns and cities. Those are all pretty detailed and look great on the board. There are some super tiny plastic pieces for the Blight that you add as well but these are kinda meh for me. I feel like they could have been bigger and maybe like green? The gray color doesn’t really fit in my eyes as a blight.
The player boards are also a nice sturdy thick cardboard and look and feel great. There are also a ton of cards that all have a nice linen finish so they feel premium. Not to mention the abundance of extra game stuff such as scenarios and events that you can optionally use to play. Top notch stuff.
Setup/Takedown —
Setup is pretty fast honestly and can vary based on number of players and if you want to do any scenarios. If you are setting up for a 2 player game its SUPER fast. The insert the game comes with allows you to easily remove 2 trays that hold all the components and sit them next to the game board. Most of the time during setup is just shuffling the power cards and discussing which spirit each player wants to use since they are all completely different. Takedown is just as fast.
Box/Storage —
The box is average sized and comes with a really nice insert that holds all the cards, player boards and pieces nice and secure. Once you have all the pieces in the trays, just slap the oversized instruction booklet on top of them and then the game board pieces on top of that. It should create enough of a seal that you can store the game on its side and nothing should spill out of their respective places.
Visual Appeal /Theme —
I go wild for the look and theme of this game. Actually that is the main thing that drew me to buy it. I freaking love the idea that I am playing as a spirit trying to scare colonists off my island because it seems like it’s usually the other way around. The artwork is very well done for the most part and actually doesn’t look as cartoony as you would think based on the outside box cover.
Rulebook —
Great Rulebook! It has oversized glossy pages that match the size of the box. It’s super easy to read and understand and the way it’s written and the order of the instructions are perfect. Lots of colors and pictures to make it easy to understand the points that are being conveyed. Of course I don’t think any rulebook is 100% perfect so there will of course be SOMETHING that isn’t quite clear. The different phases in the game rotation can be kinda confusing at first but luckily there are rules reference cards included which are always a great thing in games. Also the turn order is printed directly on the fear board so any player can easily see what needs to be done.
Table Presence/Game Board —
The game boards consist of 1 up to 4 island tiles all connected depending on number of players. You can play a solo game and it uses 1 island tile and so on. These island tiles all have different colored sections based around what kind of land like mountains or desert. Also you can flip them to create more difficult thematic land tiles. The art on this side looks more realistic and terrain zones are combined instead of separated. I love the variety this game provides in pretty much all aspects. There is also a small board that holds the fear cards, blight and explore cards. This board is the one that has the turn order listed on it.
Table presence grows the more players you have as the island becomes bigger with every added player. On a solo game it has a rather small footprint so you can whip it out on a coffee table if you want, although you still need to place your token holders somewhere. A 4 player game can take up a decent amount of space but honestly not any bigger than ohhh like Monopoly.
Table Talk/Fun Factor —
This game is made for table talk, actually it’s basically a requirement if you hope to win! Since the game is fully co-op and each spirit plays completely different you will want to discuss your plans with your teammates and vice versa. That said, this become more and more difficult at higher player counts due to all the different possible strategies. I can say I had more fun playing this game 2 player and less just because of that fact. But I had a TON of fun! I spent one entire day just playing this solo trying out all the different spirits to see how they played and the strategies they could use. The game is almost like a puzzle and you are seeing all the different ways of solving it. There is a small amount of chance involved with the draw of the explore card as you don’t know where new invaders will explore but that’s it! From then on you have to plan out the best way of dealing with the invaders based on your powers and any new power cards you draw.
Optimal Player Count —
For sure 2 players with solo being a close second. As I mentioned above 3 player or even 4 player games get bogged down significantly with strategy for new players or players that suffer from analysis paralysis. You could spend so much time looking over the board, discussing options, looking at your cards, looking over the board, discussing options rinse repeat. This becomes more a problem at 3 and 4 players because the amount of options increases. However at 2 players it’s simple to discuss options with 1 other person and come to an agreement quickly. The solo games are incredibly fun and since there are no pesky victory points in this game, you are just trying to win! The game also comes with scenarios and different blight cards and other kinds of invader options and the thematic side of the boards to create more difficult games if you manage to dominate the regular style. Also there are other rule options in the direction booklet to edit the difficulty of the game.
The one thing I can say for 3 and 4 player games is that you can really create a nice rounded out spirit selection. Since each one plays differently you can choose spirits that work well together and really create a killer combo.
Final Thoughts —
This game is excellent and I cannot recommend it enough. The theme is just so rich and the gameplay is so unique. Not only that but the game comes packaged with so many variant options that the replay value is just off the charts here. I mean 8 COMPLETELY DIFFERENT spirits to play as not to mention the varying island boards and all the options with cards. The powers decks are extremely varied and there are a ton of fear cards and you don’t use all of them in a single game so each game will be different. In fact the game can be pretty deep in terms of strategy so I wouldn’t recommend it for a younger audience. But clever teens should be able to get into this, especially if they like to solve puzzles.
But, a fair few reviews suggested that not only is this different for being a simultaneous turn area-control game, but it also outpaces the alpha-player syndrome by having the spirits be different enough so you cannot truly plan the turns for someone else anyhow.
Having played 3 different spirits now: Yes this is true. The game is complex, but plays quick enough at 90-120 minutes, has very good options for new players to get into the game without disrupting play, has a *ton* of variety with the different spirit combinations, and is also extremely clever. I’m impressed. A lot. I figured this’d be good after all the raving reviews, but not that it’d be *this* good.
Plus, the components are really great, with a clear visual distinction between plastic (bad guys) and wood (good guys), solid production, thick cardboard, a very well made manual and even an included insert – though it sadly doesn’t fit sleeved cards. 🙁
Two thumbs up. Very much recommended.
Buy this is if your group of 2-4 enjoys asymmetry between players, more meaty games, and likes their cooperative endaevours. I would say avoid if either cooperative isn’t your thing, or your group prefers <1h games with ready-set-play rules. The rules are easy enough to understand but the game is not simplistic, unlike most co-ops.
Worum gehts?
Als Spirits einer Insel kmpfen wir gemeinsam Seite an Seite mit den Dahan (Einwohner) gegen die Invasoren, die in unser “Inselidyll” einfallen, es zerstren und besiedeln. Nach und nach fallen die Invasoren ein, bauen Towns und Citys und verwsten/verschmutzen die Insel (Blythmarker). Wir mssen geschickt mit unseren unterschiedlichen Krften und Fhigkeiten agieren und gut zusammenarbeiten, um die einfallenden Invasoren in Schach zu halten und sie nach und nach zurckzudrngen. Den Spirits stehen Power-Karten (Minor- Major-Power-Karten) zur Verfgung, mit denen sie sich nach und nach ihr Startdeck erweitern knnen und strker werden. Das Spiel hat also eine Art Deckbuildinganteil. Interessant ist, dass die Spirits schnelle und langsame Krfte/Fhigkeiten haben. Die schnellen knnen VOR der Invasorenphase gespielt werden, die langsamen erst danach. Die langsamen sind oft strker in ihrer Wirkung, knnen aber erst nach den Invasoren gespielt werden. Ein Spirit kann aber die langsamen Fhigkeiten (seine und die der anderen Spirits) schnell machen. Das ist extrem stark und hilfreich!
Interessant ist auch, dass das Einfallen und Besiedeln in 3 Phasen geschieht. Die Invasoren fallen ein (explore), bauen (built) und zerstren (ravage), wobei dann hier unter Umstnden die Blyth-Marker erzeugt werden, die zunehmend die Gesundheit der Insel zerstren und dann weitere negative Effekte triggern. Da diese Karten (bis auf die verdeckt gezogene Explore Karten) fr die Bauen- und zerstrungsphase offen liegen, kann man also gut planen und wei, wo in der nchsten Runde was geschieht.
Varianz:
Die enorm hohe Varianz ergibt sich aus den vllig unterschiedlichen Spirits, die ihr Anfangsdeck durch weitere Power-Karten erweitern; aus dem variablen Spielplan; aus den vielen Mglichkeiten den Schwierigkeitsgrad zu erhhen oder aber eben auch zu senken und nicht zu letzt aus den Modulen wie Szenarien oder Fraktionen (z.B. Preussen, Schweden, England…) gegen die gekmpft werden kann, die man aber auch ganz weg lassen kann (gerade in den ersten Partien wrde ich das auch empfehlen, den Schwierigkeitsgrad kann man dann ja nach und nach erhhen).
Die Spielplanteile haben unterschiedliche Vorder- und Rckseiten. Der Spielplan kann beliebig aufgebaut werden und wird an die SpielerInnenzahl angepasst.
Spielgefhl:
Alle Spirits spielen sich vllig anders und erfordern – aber ermglichen auch – ganz unterschiedliche Strategien und Vorgehensweise. Die Spirits mssen sehr gut zusammen arbeiten, weil sie alle sehr speziell sind und mit ganz unterschiedlichen Strken ausgestattet sind. Toll ist, dass auf den Spirittableaus schon ein Spielstil empfohlen wird und der Spirit vorgestellt wird mit seinem Schwerpunkt.
Es gibt welche die besonders gut in der Verteidigung sind, die sind dann meistens schwach im Schaden machen, oder welche, die besonders gut Furcht bei den Invasoren erzeugen.
“Furcht bei den Invasoren erzeugen” bedeutet, dass Furcht-Marker generiert werden, durch die wiederum Furcht-Karten freigeschaltet werden, die den Spirits helfen und man im Terrorlevel fortschreitet. Je mehr man im Terrordeck voranschreitet, um so leichter werden die Siegbedingungen fr uns!
Ein Mechnismus und Aspekt, den man also nicht vernachlssigen sollte. Anfangs mssen zum Sieg Invasoren, Towns und Citys entfernt werden, spter hat man dann z.B. schon gewonnen, wenn alle Towns und Citys zerstrt sind, die Invasoren kann man dann vernachlssigen. (Klingt jetzt etwas seltsam, ist aber glatt und rund.)
Schwierigkeitsgrad:
Das Spiel bietet sehr viele Mglichkeiten den SChwierigkeitsgrad anzupassen (gegnerische Fraktionen, Szenarien). An dieser Stelle wrde ich Vielspielern, die das Grundspiel oft und sehr gerne spielen, schon die Erweiterung empfehlen! Neue Spirits und etliche neue Mglichkeiten… mit der Erweiterung wird das Spiel jedenfalls noch einmal schwieriger. Mit Erweiterung hat mir das Spiel auch (deutlich) besser gefallen.
Fazit:
Spirit Island ist ein gutes taktisches und strategisches Koop-Spiel, was man auch gut zu zweit spielen kann und dennoch gebe ich “nur” 4 Punkte.
Dem Grundspiel mit Erweiterung wrde ich zwar auch nur 4 Punkte geben, aber es geflt mir doch noch einmal viel besser als nur das Grundspiel allein, weil es dann doch noch einmal mehr Facetten bietet. Trotzdem wird Spirit Island nicht mein Lieblings-koop-Spiel.
Bis auf den Spirit of Dreams and Nightmares (der is irgendwie total schrg) habe ich jetzt jeden Spirit (in unterschiedlichen Kombinationen) gespielt und hatte viele spannende und unterschiedliche Spielepartien. Etliche Partien waren aber auch recht zh und langatmig. Eigentlich muss man auch die meiste Zeit das immer gleiche tun. Fr einen kooperativen Spieleabend wrde ich aber (vielleicht habe ich es jetzt einfach zu oft gespielt) je nach Spielrunde andere Spiele eher auf den Tisch bringen.
Insgesamt spiele ich persnlich andere Koop-Spiele lieber und mir machen andere Spiele einfach mehr Spa (lieber spiele ich z.B. Defenders of the Realm, Arkham/Eldritch Horror, Sword/Sorcery, Aeons End oder Gloomhaven). Was einem Spa macht ist ja sehr individuell und kann man manchmal auch nicht erklren. Wir hatten jedenfalls etliche Partien, die in der Analysis-Paralysis mndeten und es extrem lange Down-Time gab. Die Zge mssen halt schon gut geplant werden, weil man sonst schlicht berrannt wird. Das ist eigentlich auch nicht schlimm und das Diskutieren von Zgen macht mir grundstzlich auch Spa. Hier ist es aber so, dass es – bei aller Varianz in Aufbau und Spiritfhigkeiten – etwas repetitiv wird.
Ein weiterer sehr subjektiver Kritikpunkt: Mir gefllt die Optik dieses Spieles wirklich berhaupt nicht. Mich persnlich spricht es optisch gar nicht an. Es wirkt auf mich wie ein unfertiger Prototyp, dem optisch Schliff und Design fehlen. Die Planteile sind funktional, sehen aber echt nicht gut aus.Die Invasoren, Towns, Citys Figuren sind funktional (man kann sie kippen, damit man wei, wie viel (1 oder 2) Schaden gemacht wurde, das ist sehr gut!). Sie sind wei und sehen auf dem Spielplan einfach hlich aus.
Die Rckseite (dunkelgrn) spielt sich etwas schwerer, ist aber optisch ein totales Chaos und unbersichtlich. Schn und gut gemacht finde ich lediglich die Tableaus fr die Spirits.
However, I got it a couple weeks back and it has made it to the table a lot since then. I played it a couple times solo to get a feel for it as I like to understand a game before trying to introduce others to it to fumble through. I only intended to play a round or two solo and started by trying to play two spirits and just go through the motions for two characters at once (not a great idea as I found out especially first time), then tried it on its “solo” mode and after a couple rounds of that ended up playing a full game through because it was pretty fun as a solo game. Only other game I have actually actively played solo is Mage Knight so that was a bit of a surprise there. Probably would not buy it for that reason, but I think it is somehting I could see doing from time to time if it isn’t getting on the table much at some point.
I then played it with my wife, who really liked the game and immediately asked about when we could find a way on the table again, and she has brought up playing it a couple times since then. I have had a few different friends I have played with and all have made a repeat showing for the game as well. After just spending the day playing a few games of it with my wife and another friend I really got to recommend this game.
What I like:
1. Theme. The theme of this game is very compelling to me, lots of games are about the “Age of Exploration” in one way or another (colonizing, exploring, trading, etc), but I have never played a game that went from the perspective of the natives. In this game the Europeans colonizing all over the place are the bad guys that need to be beaten. And they are love-craftian demons that are plaguing the land and need to be dealt with. The game really conveys the theme surprisingly well for a more “euro” type game.
2. This game is all about hand management. This game is about knowing what your options are and figuring out the best way to manage those resources. You don’t have to get “lucky” to manage to pull the right cards at the right time, they are all available to you or at least you control when and where they are all available to you. You need to plan out not only your current turn but what your other turns are going to be based on the remaining cards or decide when you are going to “reclaim” your cards and start over. If the idea of planning out a 2-3 turn strategy of using your cards (and potentially trashing those plans based on what happens) this game isn’t for you. But if you love a game like Mage Knight I would say this is pandemic meets the Mage Knight card system and you will love this game.
3. It is a really quality co-op game. Personally I am a fan of co-op games, while a competitive game I can sometimes enjoy I much more like a game where we are working for a common goal together because I don’t get as much enjoyment for “besting” someone else as I do figuring out a good solution together. What I really like about this one is that there is enough going on that you really do want to figure out how to best use your resources, but it doesn’t lead to the “alpha” issue where one person just plays everyone’s turns. For the most part you will play your cards with minimal heavy influence from neighbors and mostly just talk about I can handle these areas and these areas but have can’t handle any of this and trying to figure out the best way to spread out your resources. But I have not run into too much of a problem with telling someone what cards to play.
Overall, I can’t recommend this game enough, hopefully this gives you enough information to know if this will scratch your personal tastes as well.