Survive Escape From Atlantis is a truly awesome game. Survive was first published in the United States in 1982. It has gone through many re-releases with some slight changes to the rules and sea creatures but the basic game is still the basic game! Survive is destined to become a classic of board games.
If a game is going to be a board game the board should play a role and it definitely does in Survive. The board is created fresh each game by creating an island using forest, sand and mountain tiles. This allows the game to be different each game. Around the edges of the sea are some areas of dry land that the islanders try to escape to. Each turn of the game the island slowly sinks into the ocean by removing tiles until the game ends with a volcano erupting to obliterate any islanders left.
Tribes of islanders start on the island and can either swim or use boats and dolphins to escape their sinking home. Of course it is never quite that easy because the waters around their island have hungry sharks, giant squids, sea monsters and whales that like to capsize boats.
Game play is quick and simple:
Move islanders
Sink an island tile
Roll die to move sea predators
Each islander has a number on the bottom of its base ranging from 1 to 6. Players can look at the bottom of their ten islanders as they place them initially on the island during setup. After that they can’t look at the numbers. Adds a memory and prioritization component to the game. At the end of the game those numbers are totaled up by team for the islanders that escaped Atlantis.
The player who has the highest value of islanders that successfully escaped wins!
The Good: A great game of initial placement, faints, dodges and strategy.
The Bad: They are going to need a bigger boat!
The Dastardly: Especially fun to play during Shark Week!