If you are into board games and haven't heard of Spirit Island, then you must have been living under a rock over the last couple of years. It has been making a lot of buzz, especially in the solo community, as one of the best games around. Do I agree with that assessment?
TOTAL PLAYS: 10 solo, 5 co-operative
COMPONENTS
There is nothing to complain about here. The art is beautiful, evocative, colourful, fun! The one major complaint I have about the artwork is that the boards have two sides. One is colourful and easy to use, but not very thematic and realistic. They have a more realistic side, but it's impossible to tell which areas are which. Not very usable.
All the components are great quality - the cards, chits, miniatures, board, everything. No, the miniatures are not CMON quality, but they're perfect for the job. For a game with this many moving pieces and with this type of theme, I would have expected just cardboard or plastic discs, so getting miniatures was a welcome surprise. The insert for the box is really nice too - you can pop some of it out to put on the table and hold your pieces for you. Wow! Why can't more games do that? 4/5
RULES
For a game with so much going on, I actually found the rulebook pretty easy to navigate. You will need to open it up pretty regularly in your first few games, but there aren't really that many crazy/unique situations where you need to get back into it later on. Once you've got the rules, you've kind of got them. If you're at a place where you need to add more difficulty, the scenarios/invaders all have the extra rules printed right on them and are on the table in front of you. It's a very complex-to-play game, but not complex-to-learn. What I mean by that is that you have a lot to think through and a lot of decisions to make on a given turn, but those decisions are easy to understand (even if they're not easy to make). 5/5
GAMEPLAY
I love games with boards that utilize cards for the actions. There are many things to praise about Spirit Island, but it's in the cards where the rubber meets the road. There are so many cards and they are so different. Some are played fast (before the invaders) and some slow (after the invaders). Some defend, some attack, some move invaders, some move Dahan, some make Dahan attack, some destroy buildings, some create fear, some move presence, some add presence, some give you more energy, some let you replay cards, and then some. There are so many different ways to win, so many different actions to take, it really feels limitless. You truly feel like you can shape your spirit the way you want by the cards you add to your deck. The cards are very thematic and make a lot of sense between the name, artwork, and actions.
The invaders' AI system is brilliant as well. It lets you prepare for some of their actions (ravaging and building) while only guessing at others (exploring). The way that fear builds up and gives you extra bonuses is really cool, as are the inherent powers you can activate based on the symbols on the cards. I really can't think of another game that has so much stuff but is so streamlined and thematic. 5/5
REPLAYABILITY
Uh, heck yes. In the base game alone there are eight, extremely varied spirits to choose from and they all interact together in different ways. You can play against a generic enemy or there are three adversaries you can choose from with six different levels of difficulty each. There are also different scenarios you can choose to play through, adding more variety to the gameplay. In total there are 11 different levels of difficulty (0-10), so even if you think the game has gotten too easy, you can ramp things up. Add to this the fact that you won't see every invader card and usually less than half of the fear cards in a single game and you've got a recipe for a very replayable game. Oh, did I mention there are expansions? 5/5
FUN
There are different kinds of fun to be had in the world of board games. Some games are "fun" fun - you enjoy playing it, you might even laugh or smile sometimes. There's a good chance you feel powerful/strong/amazing while playing.
Other games are what I might call "challenging" fun. The fun you have in these games is the satisfaction of outsmarting the game or other opponents. The satisfaction of playing the perfect card combination after spending five straight minutes trying to decide what the heck you're going to do.
Spirit Island fits in the second category. This is not usually my favourite kind of fun, but it's just done so well here. This game feels the right amount of brain burn-y to me. You really do spend a lot of time trying to maximize what you can do with your cards. That can take you out of the theme and experience a little bit, but it's worth it for when things really fall into place. 9/10
TOTAL SCORE - 28/30
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Spirit Island is the best made game I've played. No other game comes close to it in terms of varying difficulty levels, breadth of choices to be made, components, player interaction, and the satisfaction of winning a hard fought battle. Ok, maybe Gloomhaven can match it, but the big difference there would be set up and tear down. Spirit Island sets up in less than half the time it takes to get a game of Gloomhaven going.
The only game I have ranked higher on my top solo list is Clank! and that's for the pure, unadulterated fun of it. Spirit Island is a better made game and you should buy it. Right now. Seriously. You won't regret it.
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