Publisher: Osprey Games
Release Date: June 18, 2017
Price: $30.00
Game Designer: Peer Sylvester (designer); Garen Ewing (art)
Format: Card/Board Game
Number of Players: 1-5
Playing Time: 30-50 minutes
Age Rating: 14+
ISBN: 978-1-4728-2416-5
ICv2 Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5
The designer for this game took inspiration from the book The Lost City of Z (also a recent movie). Based on the real-world explorations by a British army officer named Percy Fawcett, this co-operative game has the players facing a wide range of realistic dangers and obstacles as they try to traverse a jungle setting in search of ruined evidence of a lost civilization.
As is true of a good co-op game, there is always tension in this one, and the results are close. Whether you’re playing solo or with up to four others, the group commands the actions of a team of three explorers. Each of the three has a specialty, in terms of general survival, more specific jungle lore, or navigation. The explorers [you have two options for each specialty] are based on real-world historical characters, male and female, and are a good way to get players to look into the history of exploration, just to find out just who some of these explorers really were.
Each turn, players are faced with choices of which cards to play, in order to select the order in which obstacles and hazards are to be overcome, or resources gathered. Each of these cards has actions that can be mandatory, optional, or a blend of the two. As you reach each card, you can acquire resources or gain travel distance toward your goal, or you can spend resources to survive, or both. There are never quite enough resources, so the party’s wits have to substitute for whatever the players don’t have. Sometimes you have to plan to trade bullets, food, or hit points for progress through the jungle, in the hopes of acquiring bullets, food or healing farther along. If you plan correctly, that works and you win. If you plan incorrectly, the poor explorers die a horrible death and everyone loses.
They cards are an unusual size, so players who want to put the cards in sleeves may have to get their local game store to special order the correct size. The game is good enough that this is advisable, because the main deck does get shuffled. The explorer and map cards do not, so those are less of an issue.
The price is reasonable for the quality of the components, and the artwork on the cards includes recognizable representations of the historical explorers. The 30-50 minute length is generous. 50 minutes would include teaching time. The actual play of the game is typically closer to 30 minutes once players become familiar with the symbols.
--Nick Smith: Librarian Technician, Community Services, for the Pasadena Public Library in California.
