Greater Than Games | Spirit Island: Base Game | Cooperative Strategy Board Game | 1 to 4 Players | 90+ Minutes | Ages 14+

I’ve owned Spirit Island for seven years and only recently started playing it with others. Until then, it was my main solo game, usually with three spirits at once. I’ve never won against an adversary or a scenario, but I always enjoy the challenge. Components: Beautiful art, solid pieces, and spirit boards that feel alive. The production quality matches the depth of the game. Set up time: Long, especially with expansions and multiple spirits. It takes a while, but the table presence makes it worth it. Ease of teaching: Not simple, but learnable with patience. My roommates were better at keeping track of everything than I am, though they’re used to long D&D campaigns and complex games. What I find great: It’s endlessly replayable. Every spirit, power card, and combination changes the experience. The strategy runs deep and always feels fresh, even after years. What I like less: Bookkeeping can get heavy, especially when managing multiple spirits solo. I often switch to the Steam version for convenience, but I still prefer the physical game when I have the time. If I were stranded on an island or stuck in a zombie apocalypse, this is the one game I’d pack in my bunker.

Pros: 1. Excellent physical product QUALITY. The game boards, cards, pieces, etc, are sturdy and feel quite solid. The craftsmanship that went into this game is at a much higher level than what I anticipated. 2. FUN game. The game has entertained me for hours on end by now. 3. Can be played by a SINGLE PLAYER. No one I know has time or desire to play a board game with me, or anything else really, so having a game that can be played by oneself is quite nice. Cons: 1. COMPLICATED rules. It will take you ~2.5hrs of reading the manual and inspecting all of the game components, to learn how to play. 2. Each game seems far too LONG. Maybe I just need to get better at the game, but It seems to take far too long to reach a conclusion (1hr for 1 player; 2.75hrs for 2 players; 4 hrs for 3 players) Why?? 3. HIGH PRICE may be off-putting to some people. I assure you all, the game is worth the price. Once you hold the silky smooth manual, the hefty boards, and the solid spirit boards, you will understand where the money went in the manufacturing process. Overall: An EXCELLENT albeit COMPLICATED game that may be enjoyed by a single person (or a group) with an interesting premise and a seemingly rare co-op mechanic. Rating: 9/10

Spirit Island is one of those board games that will never leave the table once you get a consistent group going. It is a co-op game in which players each assume the role of a nature spirit defending an island against an invading force (which can either be nameless or customized to represent various historical empires). Every game follows a similar pattern of feeling hopelessly outmatched at the beginning, slowly growing in power, and finally turning the tide, and that power fantasy feels great every time. You will not win every game of Spirit Island, but you will always have edge-of-your-seat fun. And since the game is co-op, you can share that thrill with your friends. Though many factors help the game's replayability, including randomized board layouts, invasion patterns, and card draws, what I love most about the game is the selection of spirits to play as. The base game comes with 8, and it can be expanded even further with the two expansions. Each spirit has a completely different playstyle, especially when working in tandem with different teammates. As a result, spirit island will feel very different every time you play it. But if that variety still isn't enough customization for you, you can also play against different enemies or even custom scenarios included in the game that modify the rules. The only major downside to spirit island is the complexity of the rules, which makes it quite heavy for anyone unaccustomed to the "crunch" of heavy board games. I would not recommend it as your first game, or for someone looking for quick, light fun. But for anyone who loves strategy, customization, and amazing game design, spirit island is an unparalleled experience.

I don't write a ton of reviews here, but this is one I felt like I had to write and add to the push. I bought this on a spur of the moment purchase based largely on it appearing highly in a random "top coop" game list and hearing about the theme intrigued me. I didn't think much of it at the time it was mostly an impulse purchase. 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.

From Settlers of Catan to Puerto Rico, there are tons of prominent board games that feature an island being civilized by invading forces. Greater Than Games wanted to ask the question, “What if the island fought back?” To answer that question, let’s get to the review! 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!

• We just finished our first play-through of this game. It’s 11:19 PM and we began at 6pm. Cracking open the box and watching videos on set-up, play through, reading the instructions (WITH AN INDEX) took about 1.5 hours of that time. (As a couple we seek almost ALL 2 player games - we have a board game room dedicated, so we are avid players. Our favorite right now is Viticulture/ and we do use the Tuscany (Complexity 3.32) addition sometimes in that game. This game, unlike that, is cooperative which is what attracted us to this one. We had read just about every review we could on this and it was mixed- like anything polled by the public it will be smash-up of reviews and opinions, so we just went for it and bought the game. This was a kickstarter and we support that site / and cause, you give money to the smaller companies to support them, so that too was a deciding factor for us. Somehow we won our first game and there are special rules for first play through so I think we got a boost from those. We had to take breaks here and there and we pretty much thought we were getting smashed and would lose the whole time we played UNTIL- we began causing fear and the terror level rose for the invaders (you’ll understand if you buy the game) Meaning : The game isn’t OP and beginners can win- it is balanced and very interactive between game players (again we only play 2). HOWEVER (again) It is NOT a walk in the park - rather a jog through a rain storm and should come with a blanket and pillow due to needed a mental nap after playing. (To be fair it was our first time) It is complex but not complicated - strategy is required for both current play and future play- So thinking, overthinking, projection and guessing are all required. It rates a 3.97 as complexity and Idk about that rating but I’d say I doubt I’d be very interested in many over 4 if that is accurate. Together we played season one legacy Pandemic (Complexity 2.83) and had a blast, we have played Bioshock - Siege of Columbia (Complexity 2.9) and this is the most complex we have played until this. We will play again and it seems enjoyable- maybe ask me again after my mental nap. I’d say take an afternoon / and play , make sure you have the time to afford the game out of respect and learn it properly before placing it on your game shelf or repurposing it. Other info : The game is built well- nice art- nice pieces and plenty of little bags to hold all the things trying to invade your spirit land ! The shipping seems to be an issue with everyone ( damage) we too had a semi-warped board and a crunched insert - Also you can flip the board over - for playing campaign mode. More defined and meant for more experienced players. More lands, more staring invaders etc.... Can be played solo vs islanders (Good luck with that one) Make sure your mind is well rested ! Enjoy gamers !! GAME ON and GOOD LUCK !

Spirit Island has several things in common with other cooperative games with role-specializations. What sets it above and apart for me is the way in which you manage your own player board to increase the power and presence of your spirit. As the game progresses, managing the island becomes more challenging, but your spirits become more effective at handling whatever the settlers throw at you. Each spirit has its own special ability and innate power, in addition to a hand of cards that provide other powers. This will feel familiar if you've played Sentinels of the Multiverse. A key difference is that the heroes of Sentinels draw powers from a personal deck containing multiple copies of several cards. In Spirit Island, every card is unique, and new ones come from decks shared among all players. Cards also provide elements that might activate innate powers in addition to the effect of the card itself. Spirit Island uses a rondel mechanic similar to Concordia or Century: Spice Road, in which played cards are discarded from your hand, but all cards can be retrieved anytime the player chooses (in lieu of other options). Some spirits play best by putting out many cards at once with low energy costs that consistently activate their innate powers. Other spirits take advantage of their boundless energy by quickly cycling through a smaller hand of devastating power cards. Even though the game is fully cooperative, I never get the feeling that the spirits are supposed to like each other. They exist only to protect the island, and will work together toward that end, but managing your own player board and building a unique personal hand of cards creates a sort of thematic aloofness befitting a game about ancient spirits. There's no social deduction or secret individual objectives. Just destroy the cities and help the native inhabitants preserve the status quo of their island. It's complex, challenging, lengthy, and brilliant.

Spirit Island lives up to its incredibly high hype and I wish I was not so late to the party. Every aspect of this game is incredibly thoughtful (well designed), fun, and offers so much variety. The replay value is insane. Typically, I'm one of those people who believes that a board game should never take more than 1 hour of time otherwise it turns into more of a stressful experience. Spirit Island completely proves me wrong . . . even with the 2+ hour play times (including set up and play through) I can't get enough and never feel board. I also love how all of the game mechanics make sense and feel completely natural to the story of the game itself. Nothing feels like a mechanic that was just added to "fix" some issue. I've also read that the makers of this game go through years of game testing to make sure they get everything right: it really shows. My only word of warning is that this game does take at least one or two play-throughs before you get your bearings and you should sit down with it for the first time on a day when you are not tired from work, but the instruction booklet is very well written and that helps a lot. If you are on the fence after hearing good things about this game, just get it. You won't be disappointed.