Spirit Island (board game)

Spirit Island is a euro-style co-operative strategy board game designed by Eric Reuss and published by Greater Than Games in 2017. In the game, players take the role of spirits on an island and win by driving off invading explorers.

History

Reuss designed Spirit Island in response to other board games in which players take the role of colonizers. The invader game pieces were made white deliberately in Spirit Island to highlight that light colors don't always imply 'good'.[1]

The game has two expansions, Branch & Claw and Jagged Earth.[2] Both the base game and its expansions were funded via Kickstarter.[2][3][4] A digital version of the game, first announced in 2018, was released in 2020.[5]

Gameplay

In Spirit Island, players take the role of spirits on an island. They must drive off explorers, who grow their presence on the island, including founding towns and cities, over the course of a game.[2] The game can be played by 1-4 players.[6] Over the course of the game players unlock more abilities for their spirit and additional power cards, making them stronger and more capable of pushing back the invaders.[6] The invaders actions are controlled by a deck of cards which dictates the areas of the board they explore, build, and "ravage". Any tiles that the players aren't able to protect against the "ravage" action results in a blight token being added to it.[7]

To win the game, players must use their spirit's powers to clear out the invaders and their towns, while also generating fear, which lowers the criteria to win. The players lose if the explorers add too many blight tokens to the board, if one of the spirits has all its presence removed from the board, or if the deck of invader actions runs out.[7]

The game contains an array of spirits - 8 in the base game - for players to choose from. Players can select any combination of spirits, and each has unique abilities and ways of being played.[7]

Reception

Ars Technica included the game in their list of best board games of 2017.[6] In their full review they described the game as complex and deep, calling the array of choices a "wonderfully thinky puzzle", though highlighting the potential for analysis paralysis. They praised the progression of the spirits' abilities over the game, and concluded that it was an "easy recommendation".[7] Kotaku commented positively on the game's complexity and ability to build tension, but found the game was hard to start, requiring patience to fully understand.[8]

In their list of best fantasy board games in 2020, CNET named Spirit Island the best complex cooperative game of the year, and PC Gamer lists it in their best cooperative board games.[9][10]

In August 2020 the game was ranked 13 on BoardGameGeek's list of highest rated games.[5]

References
  1. Draper, Kevin (1 August 2019). "Should Board Gamers Play the Roles of Racists, Slavers and Nazis?". New York Times. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  2. Hoffer, Christian (21 August 2018). "Spirit Island's Upcoming Expansion Will Be Huge". Comicbook. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  3. "Spirit Island by GreaterThanGames - Kickstarter". Kickstarter. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  4. "Spirit Island: Jagged Earth by GreaterThanGames - Kickstarter". Kickstarter. 1 September 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  5. Bolding, Jonathan (1 August 2020). "Co-op board game Spirit Island now has a nice digital edition". PC Gamer. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  6. Zimmerman, Aaron (22 December 2017). "The best board games of 2017". Ars Technica. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  7. Zimmerman, Aaron (24 March 2018). "Spirit Island review: Finally, an anti-colonialist board game". Ars Technica. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  8. Walker, Alex (16 September 2019). "Spirit Island Is Brilliant Once You Get Used To It". Kotaku AU. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  9. "Best fantasy board games for 2020". CNET. 23 May 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  10. "The best cooperative board games". PC Gamer. 26 February 2020. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
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