Forbidden Desert Board Game

This was a Christmas present for my nine year old son. I had played it before and though he would like it, but I was surprised to see how easily his younger brother, my seven year old son, picked it up. The game play is actually very simple with players competing against the storm that moves around the board burying locations deeper under the sand. All players win or lose as a team, with the team losing if the storm becomes too ferocious, the board gets buried in sand or any of the team dies of thirst. Each player has different abilities to help them discover pieces of the flying machine you need to escape. Combining this with the desert constantly shifting and items in random locations, each game feels different to keep it fresh each time. What has impressed me most is how well balanced the game is. The difficulty level of the game can be varied nicely, by simply changing the strength that the storm starts at. All the different characters feel nicely balanced too, with distinct strengths, none of which are too insignificant or too powerful. Most importantly, they are sufficiently different to encourage the players to adopt unique roles within the team. The game is driven by collaboration, with the storm taking a go for every player's. If players don't work together, the team will fail quickly due to dying of thirst. If they don't utilise their unique individual strengths for the benefit of everyone, the storm will usually overwhelm them before they escape. If you've not tried a collaborative game before, this is a great one to start with. I can thoroughly recommend it for younger players too. The fundamentals of the rules are easy to grasp. The instructions are well-written and most eventualities are covered. But there will never be an argument as everyone is on the same side. And when someone loses a game, there is no-one who has won to wind them up. Perfect for competitive siblings!

Such a fun and immersive game! Originally played Forbidden Island game by Gamewright with a couple of friends and loved it, intended on purchasing it ourselves but saw this game, Forbidden Desert, and thought the 1st one was so good that we would try this and both myself and girlfriend love this! It's a game you can play with just 2 people and thoroughly enjoy it or play it with up to 5 peoples and still have a good time. This game is a bit more challenging than the first one due to having a few more additional features that can challenge the individual playing as well as the group. Unlike some board games, this game you play as a team with individual characters, such as a climber or explorer, working together to build a flying machine to escape the desert before you get buried and lost forever (or at least until the end of the game!) in the sand. To do so you all take turns in playing by picking action cards and moving your counter accordingly. The aim is locating the parts to the machine which the locations change as you play due to sandstorms that sweep in, moving the eye of the storm around the 'board'. When the eye of the storm moves, the tiles are moved as per the card's instruction and 'sand' is added to those moved tiles covering any parts or players found on it. When it comes around to your turn, you take actions such as player specific actions (defined on the player's card), excavate lost cities, clear sand, rescue other players or locations, collect parts, move around the board and take a drink. However whilst playing you must ensure your thirst meter doesn't get too low otherwise you will die of thirst. This is affected every time the 'Sun rises' card is picked and you aren't in shelter or have the appropriate 'protection'. Another factor you are playing against it the sand storm. The storm gradually gets worse throughout play as the 'Storm picks up' card is picked throughout play, causing the storm meter to rise. Each time this rises game play gets a bit more difficult with another action card being picked per player. Once the storm meter hits the top, your team has been buried and you have lost the game so you must get out of there before you get stuck! Once you have all parts of the machine you must all make your way to the take off location to fly out of there safe and sound. Once you've done so, you can safely say you've won the game and made it out alive! Thoroughly enjoy the game, and it's predecessor and would recommend to anyone looking for a game for a quiet afternoon/evening, to take camping or to bring out after a dinner with guests. Another game we enjoy and would recommend from Gamewright is Sushi Go. Yet to try other ones of their games but please let me know of any recommendations that won't break the bank!

My wife got tired of losing at board games so we decided to bump up our cooperative games collection. We took a chance on this and boy are we glad we did! We never played the precursor Forbidden Island before this, but you don't really need to. It has all the elements and mechanics from a cooperative game you would expect: characters with abilities, fighting the spread of something (in this case, sand) whilst also trying to complete a quest (collect all items required to power your escape vehicle). They work very well in this game, especially with the randomised 'board'. Unlike Forbidden Island where the tiles are placed face up, they're placed face down in this game so you have to discover the board as you go along. And this has the added dimension of characters having water levels to maintain so they don't die of thirst. This along with trying to fight a sandstorm, collect items to power your ship (which is a pretty cute little thing) and having a board you have to discover (so you don't know where everything is) make for a very challenging game. Some of the rules are not made clear, eg: the use of the Sun Shield is a point of contention. We play it such that you can use it when the sun starts to beat down, in the same way you would use an umbrella when it starts to rain not in case it will rain! On the whole though, it's an absolutely brilliant game that's very difficult to beat. It's one where you really can benefit from selecting the right characters and using their abilities. It's a pretty difficult game to beat which makes it so much more satisfying when you do. Amazingly, it's a very easy game to pick up and play with the rules being very simple. A must have for any board game collection and a fantastic variance on cooperative play.

Tres bon jeu pour toute la famille. Plus facile à jouer que L'Ile Intedite (mails ils sont les 2 sont tres sympa)

I have Forbidden Island already and I liked it. I was looking forward to trying Forbidden Desert, but when I played Forbidden Desert, I was amazed at how much they fixed the game and made this amazing. The new mechanics really complete the core idea and while I still like Forbidden Island, it now feels incomplete compared with Forbidden Desert.

I'm a big fan of the "Pandemic Light" game of Forbidden Island. It's a beautiful game that fun to play and helps people like how cooperative board games are played. Coming off my high from Forbidden Island I snatched up the sequel game Forbidden Desert. After purchasing it I realized it might be a mistake. Why have two slightly different versions of the same game? It sat on my shelf for a long time. I kept meaning to play it but never got around to it. Until now. This game may be similar to Forbidden Island, but it is not the same game. Forbidden Island had one thing out out to kill you (the slowly sinking island). Forbidden Island required you to collect and exchange cards in order to get the artifacts needed to win the game. Forbidden Island have a couple of "powers" to use to prevent disaster or press your advantage. This game on the other hand, has TWO things trying to kill you (you're slowly being buried in sand, and you're quickly dying of thirst). Forbidden Desert does away with card collecting and exchanging for artifacts and instead gives you mission to hunt for coordinates for said artifacts, shelters from the sun, precious water, and gear that again gives you powers to help keep you alive and win the game. All of this means... A Worthy Sequel When I finally got to play this game with just one other player, I enjoyed it very much. The artwork is fantastic. The gameplay is actually much simpler than it sounds, and its easy to get going right away. The "treasure hunting" mechanic works extremely well and makes the game exciting, as does the moving storm and draining water levels. I actually like this game better than Forbidden Island, because it seems to be more "action" oriented as you are dune-blasting, jet-packing, and digging for treasure, water, and clues, rather than just collecting cards and passing them around most of the time. This game is an outstanding value and whole lot of fun. If you enjoyed Forbidden Desert and want to try something new I highly recommend it. It's similar enough to feel familiar, and different enough to feel fresh and fun. Highly recommended to fan of Forbidden Island and Newcomers alike! Here's hoping for a sequel called (wait for it) Forbidden Planet! :)

Chegou tudo certo.

Tiene muchas variables para diferentes niveles de juego, tal vez no es tan complejo como esperábamos (pero a hay más experiencia en diferentes juegos de mesa cooperativos) si puedes ganar incluso entre 2 personas en el ajuste más difícil, pero está muy divertido y vale la pena.