Treasure Island

I have a lot of fun with this game whenever it comes out. The logical deduction is great, and the mis-direction by the Long John Silver character is delightful. It's also stressful to be LJS. Love the tools and and the artwork is GORGEOUS. Highly recommended for families or for a nice lighter game.

My kids love this game. It’s more of a fun activity game than a real competitive affair though. Especially as the Long John player you’re more there to provide a fun challenge for the other players than you are to win, because the odds are heavily stacked against you.

Considering the numerous complaints about the markers, I thought I better test mine out before trying to play my copy of the game with someone. Well, the complaints are justified for sure. My black marker came dried out and was entirely unusable. The other colours don’t show up that great on the board. I had to shell out some additional cash on new markers just to play this.

There is a washed out sepia side of the map which makes it easier to see the markings and after a couple games on the colourful side I’ll be using the sepia side. It’s just too difficult to see some of the markings otherwise. The sepia side is, unfortunately, a lot less attractive. Entirely different and simpler artwork on the sepia side would have helped a lot.

The pace of the game is great as Long John and you have lots of decisions and moves to make. The game is unbalanced against you as Long John - in our games the LJS player has lost every time. So if you don’t mind having the odds against you, being Long John is a lot of fun. Being a pirate is fine too, but there can be a bit of down time.

We played Treasure Island for the first time and I was really impressed. This is a one-versus-many game where pirates are racing to decypher the clues and find the treasure before Long John Silver gets out of prison and recovers the treasure himself. This game feels like Letters from Whitechapel meets Captain Sonar. During the game you will write and draw all over the main game board showing where you searched and where the clues are. It's all done with dry erase markers and resets for the next game. Very fun!