Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
This is one board game that you’ve got to see the video review of to see what’s involved and how cool it is. Take it away Jaden…
Can the whole family enjoy Survive: Escape from Atlantis!?
But as far as understanding how to play the game, it’s very simple and young kids can pick it up without a problem.
How much variety is there in Survive: Escape from Atlantis!?
The first is the variable board set up. With the beach, forest, and mountain tiles, you set up the board differently every time you play. Then you take turns placing your people (with their hidden number) on the tiles one at a time. This again let’s you add variety to your strategy each time.
And of course, the role of the flip of each tile and the roll of the dice adds a big element of variety to the game. Just like in the video, you may think that you’re going to send an opponent swimming and instead, they land in a boat. Or you may think your crew in a boat has safe passage to the side island and your opponents rolls a whale and all of a sudden your boat is destroyed.
And if that isn’t enough, there are also additional rules you can throw into the game. You may decide to play with the dolphins – that help swimmers. Or you may decide to ignore the numbers on the bottom of the people and just say that whoever can get the most people tokens to safety is the winner. Or you could get the mini-expansion and throw giant squid into the foray.
Any way you slice it, there’s a lot to keep your interest and keep it fun.
Great game components add to the fun.
Survive: Escape from Atlantis! is full of great pieces that add a lot to the fun of the game. All of the wooden pieces are great to play with – seeing the large sea serpents looming over the waters creates a great setting. The box and the board are nice and sturdy too. But what’s really cool is how thick the mountain tiles are. They’re the thickest board tiles we’ve ever seen. We’re sure the game would have been just as fun without the different depths of the beach, forest, and mountain tiles, but it’s that added element that really shows that Stronghold Games cares about making great games. 
How does Survive: Escape from Atlantis! score on the “Let’s Play Again” meter?
Survive scores very high on our “Let’s Play Again” meter. Because of the variety described above and because you don’t always know who’s ahead until the end, there are always calls to play it again. And I’ll add that of the games we got for Christmas this year, Survive has the most plays so far because of how much everyone enjoys the game.
Stronghold Games has made a terrific board game that we recommend everyone add to their family game shelf.
| The Board Game Family Game Ratings | |
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Caleb |
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Brooke |
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Jaden |
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Trevor |
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Mom |
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Dad |
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Average |
| Pick up a copy! |
Interested in what others think of Survive: Escape from Atlantis! ?
Check out these other opinions:
* Games With Two Survive: Escape from Atlantis! review
This is one that’s been on my radar for some time, now — it seems to share some elements with both Forbidden Island and The Downfall of Pompeii, two games that my wife and I really enjoy (though I realize this game predates those two by quite a margin).
One thing that concerns me, though, is the level of randomness. I’m not allergic to random elements by any means, but I greatly prefer it when it’s possible to mitigate the effects of a bad roll or two by making choices that are strategically sound.
On a scale of 1 to 10, where Fluxx is a 1 and Chess is a 10, how random would you say this game is?
I actually like a bit of luck in my games (I love Hearts and Backgammon, for example), but too much and I start to disengage.
While there is randomness involved, there are ways to mitigate it. The first step is in the placement of your people. While you don’t know if they may be placed on a shark tile, you also get to place 2 boats before the game starts. So a lot of times the first moves are to get a couple of your people on the edge into a boat and sailing away (first ones off the island are the most likely to make it safely to shore). And because some tiles you get to keep in your hand, you can make plans on movement (whether that be moving a sea monster, whale, or shark away from your vicinity) or getting extra swimmer or boat moves. Knowing that whales can move up to 3 spots, sharks up to 2, and sea serpents up to one if the dice roll falls there way, you can also plan your people and boat moves to stay away. But it’s still true that by the time it comes around to your turn again the landscape will have changed. But we think that’s also what brings us back to the game. We think it’s a good mix.
We also have Fluxx and that is complete randomness (and Killer Bunnies falls in there somewhere too). But Survive does have more random than pure strategy, so we think it will fall below 5 on your scale and will rest around 4.
Just wondering which, if any, of the variant rules does your family typically play by? Have you played with any of the expansions? Especially with such a range in age of everyone playing, does one variant make things more fair or more fun for everyone? Thanks!
DavidRY – we typically just play with the standard rules. One of the Challenge Rules that we play from time to time is “Everyone is Equal” where the number on the bottom of the People token is ignore and the person who simply rescues the most of their people wins. Our daughter also likes to play with the Dolphin tokens – since they’re nice to protect swimmers.
Just wondering which, if any, of the variant rules does your family typically play by? Have you played with any of the expansions? Especially with such a range in age of everyone playing, does one variant make things more fair or more fun for everyone? Thanks!
This may be obvious, but if everyone’s meeples are either safe on an isle or are dead, is the game over or do you keep going with tiles and creatures until the volcano?
If all the meeples are in their final positions – safe island or deceased, then yes you can just add up points from those that survived.