LogFAQs > #934839229

I have a love/hate relationship with Spirit Island. I appreciate the design of it. You give it a Rules Complexity '7', though honestly, the rules themselves aren't that complicated. What gets complicated is the intricate board states that arise, that sometimes completely fry your brain when looking at all the planning involved and how overwhelming it can seem. The game does have a very cool design, and it can be fun to play it out, and it's certainly satisfying when winning (though I have to admit, I think the game is scaled in a way where it's meant to feel overwhelming before getting to the third Fear phase where it just becomes a simple pushover), but at the same time, the game absolutely feels like work, which is where the rub lies for me. Games are fun as games, but Spirit Island often just feels like such a brain killer at times that I stop having fun with it; it almost feels like I should be getting paid to play it. For a purely co-op game, I have to say it does avoid the quarterbacking aspect, largely in part to how much you have to think about just your own stuff, that trying to plan what your allies should do would make games take over an hour. The closest thing to quarterbacking in this game (if you want to finish in a reasonable time) is just saying "anyone able to take care of this area?" "yes" "ok good". I've done 2 player and 3 player versions, and 2 player was by far the best. 3 player was so bloated, and I can't even imagine what 4 player would be like.

But yeah, Spirit Island is very cool, but also, it's hard for me to really love it like other high profile games.

---

Bells, bells, bells!