Shark Island - GenCon 2016 Pre-Sale Game Review
Two-Gun Pixie Presents:
LEGENDARY
GAMING
009 – BLOOD
IN THE
WATER
Head's Up Nerd Herd! This special Gen Con 2016 edition of Two-Gun Pixie Presents: Legendary Gaming is proud to bring you our Very First PDF Print-and-Play game review...
Join us in a dystopian future of government-toppling big business corporate law.
In 2046 those unhappy with this future are rounded up and sent to a very special island prison off the shores of New York City. For those imprisoned souls who are clever - and lucky enough - to escape from this prison there is still no hope. The waters around the island prison have become the hunting grounds of huge, genetically modified sharks! Do You have what it takes to escape from...
SHARK ISLAND!
And Expansion Pack 1
• Designers: Mark Wright, Hunter Wright • Game Editor: Krist Wright • Publisher: Lunch Break RPG • Year Published: 2016 • Player Age: 10+ • Number of Players: 2 ("As Many As You Like" - Expansion 1) • Game Time: 10-15 minutes (Scale-able) • MSRP: $1.99 Each for the game and expansion.
The Box
We usually begin each review with coverage of the game box because that is the first thing you see of a game in most cases. Well, as stated above, this is a review for a downloadable PDF Print-and-Play game.
Therefore there is no box to review. ;-)
The Components
Print Outs. The game is comprised of a 4 page print out of rules. These 4 pages are written with large, easy-to-read fonts. The first printout you get is the rules, these are written straight-forward and are easy to follow. Because these rules are printable you can easily print out two copies so each player at the table has their own.
Obviously you only get the rules for the specific packs you buy; the base game and/or the expansion pack. The other print out you get is the Shark Island Game Grid (and the Expansion Pack 1 Game Grid if you purchase that as well). This chart keeps track of each of the players’ Life Points and Turn Life Points for each round. It also has a chart for your Conflict Point Die and your Strength Point Die (more on these in our Game Play section next). Print out many so you can always have some on hand for whenever you wish to play. You will also need to supply your own pencils and 2 Six-sided Dice (2d6). To play the expansion pack you will need 2 Eight-Sided Dice (2d8). In fact, Lunch Break RPG gives access to a digital dice site in case you don't own or can't find your own dice. That's it.
Game Play
The length of the game scales interestingly. At the beginning of each game the players decide how many grids they will play to. This is decided in 5 grid increments; 5, 10, 15, or 20 (20 being the max AND HARDEST TO WIN, no... really.) Next, both players roll a Six-sided die (1d6 or simply a "d6") and the total of the two die rolls determines the hit points For BOTH Players. This way both players start with the same randomly generated number of hit points. Why the randomness of hit points from game to game, use your imagination. I like to think the escapees have gotten hurt on their escape so far. Now, for each grid increment past the base 5 you multiply for Hit Points accordingly; x2 for a 10 grid game, x3 for a 15 grid game, and x4 for a 20 grid game. Now you're ready to SWIM FOR YOUR FREAKIN' LIVES! Let's start. Decide who goes first... we used a die roll, highest jumped in the water first. On their turn each player rolls a single d6. This is called your "Conflict Die". What you roll determines what happens to you in the water for that grid space; Nothing, strong currents, tangling seaweed, paralyzing hypothermia, bullets raining down at you from the guard towers, or a Shark Attack! Each of these situations have from a Zero to a -6 modifier. Next the same player rolls another single d6. This is known as the Strength Die. It tracks your current strength and endurance and adds from a +1 to a +6 modifier. You add the result of both the "Conflict Die" roll and the "Strength Die" roll not letting the sum to be greater than Zero, which will be called the "Turn Life Points". The last thing the current active player does before ending their turn is to add together their "Turn Life Points" and "Life Points. This ends their turn with their "Current Hit Points" being recorded. IF the players survive until the very last grid they need to climb up from the water onto sharp, dangerous shore. This imposes an automatic -6 for your "Conflict Die", no roll. The winner is the player who finishes the last grid with at least 1 "Current Hit Point". If both players finish together the one with the most "Current Hit Points" is the winner. If it's still a tie then both win, OR like us, you can both roll a d6 and the highest roller pushes the other player back into the water to be eaten by the sharks! LOL!
EXPANSION PACK 1
For the first Shark Island expansion Lunch Break RPG upped the stakes by making Shark Island a game for 2 - ? (any) number of players. They also upped the dangers by changing the "Conflict Die" to a d8 opposed to the d6 from the base game. This time to determine Life Points ALL the players roll a d8 and the two highest rolls are added together. Again, as in the base game all players start the game with the same amount of Hit Points. Generally gameplay is otherwise similar to the base game. However there are two standout features exclusive to this first expansion pack... The Conflicts are still the same but now instead of a general "shark attack" you might be specifically chomped on by an Oceanic White-Tip, a Tiger Shark, a Bull Shark, or even the dreaded Great White Shark! The other adage this expansion brings is that one of your three d8s is known as a "Found Item Die". Yes, finally you can have shit! But just because you find a gun doesn't mean you'll get bullets right away. Hell, if you're lucky you might even find a grenade! Again, the scoring from grid-to-grid as well as the winning conditions concerning the final grid remain the same as the base game.
Final Thoughts
I actually highly recommend that if you buy Shark Island you should buy both the basic/starter version of the game as well as the expansion. Honestly, I strongly feel that these two PDFs should have just been sold as “Shark Island” instead of being sold separately as “Shark Island" and "Shark Island Expansion”.
I do appreciate the fact that simply being a downloadable PDF this game can be sold so cheap but it bothers me that they are not sold together.
For what it is the game is a mass-chunk of chaotic fun devoid of any tactics. The expansion adds a bit of a deeper level with the chance to get items to help you taking the basic game to a slightly deeper level of fun but even with the found items there really is no strategy. Actually, chaos is all the game is. "Shark Island" is just a series of random rolls. Everyone starts out with the same life points and everyone makes the same number of random rolls for hazards then makes a random roll to see if they are strong enough to fight off the hazard. Keep in mind, this game may make for a decent gateway game because it does balance a sense of simplicity in its rules with the chaos of the random roll - and it plays fast enough.
Overall I don’t think, especially for the target price, that you’ll be let down with this game. However, it's not really for the more seasoned or experienced gamer in our opinion which accounts for our low Pixie Rating. If you have children, or are looking for a cheap gateway game to add to your shelf then you will want to boost the Pixie Ranking by one or two.
"Shark Island" feels like a beta version of a better game to come down the road by these designers in the near future.
What I would like to see is this game evolve past this PDF phase of its incarnation and develop into a full-on board game. I can easily see this as a sort-of reverse version of "Castle Panic". Instead of the threats coming at you from the outside rings trying to get to the center of the board you would have to survive making it from the center out through a series of danger zones in order to escape and win the game... just thinking out loud in case you read this Mark and Hunter. ;-D
TWO-GUN PIXIE RATING
0 Pixies = I Want My Money Back
1 Pixie = Not Planning To Play Again
2 Pixies = Might Play Again If Asked
3 Pixies = Will Play Again
4 Pixies = Common Game Day Request
5 Pixies = Can’t Get It Off The Table!
Shark Island
1 PIXIE
