Survive: Escape from Atlantis! has collapsing Island, Sharks, Seas Monsters and the worst enemy of all…

Having the lead.

Survive is a cut-throat game where players seek to evacuate their pieces from an island that is breaking up, while remembering where their highest-valued pieces are located to maximize their score.

As the name “Survive: Escape from Atlantis!” suggests you’re on Atlantis and it’s collapsing around you. Random tiles are placed in the centre of the board and then everyone takes turns placing their guys.

Your meeples have a number 1-6 on the base which is their value if they escape… But, once you put them on the board, you can’t look at their value again, even if they’re been eaten or escaped.

To be honest, I did it randomly, I doubt I would have remembered and experience has taught me to not give value to something that a Sea Monster will eat anyway 🙂 It’s like naming a bacon pig.

A few boats are added to the outside of the island and play is good to go.

Movement

You start your turn by moving, You can move up to 3 different meeples one space each with the goal of getting them to the corners of the board to safety.

They can move over land by foot, in the sea by swimming or in a boat. When in a boat you move it, and everyone in it one space but to get control of the boat you need to have the majority of people in it. You really don’t want to have the most though ’cause if more players can move it the quicker it’ll go and fewer people will want it destroyed.

After moving you remove a tile in a certain order depending on the terrain type…  Under the tile is an ability that lets you move stuff around or spawn new things.

Then you roll a die that lets you move either a Whale (destroys boats), Shark (Eats People) or Sea Monster (does both).

When the Volcano tile is revealed in a player’s turn the game ends.

Survive: Escape from Atlantis! Summary

Survive: Escape from Atlantis! is OK I guess, just frustrating.

I scored first which was a huge mistake, scoring early gets you nowhere in this game. I had the same issue with Vineta a couple of weeks earlier too.

In Vineta I was 1 point ahead so I was denied a point when 2nd place was in a position to score 4… too focused on hitting the current leader rather than the person doing the best.

Yes, I was ‘winning’ in Survive too and I had two guys safe so when it’s time to move a Shark, kill the leader… that’s fine…

Then move a Sea Monster, kill the leader… Move another Shark… kill the leader…

Again, I wouldn’t mind if other players didn’t have boats queuing up to score in a turn or two.

Been thinking about it since and I just don’t see how I can play it and enjoy it. You can’t score early, you can’t leave guys out at sea and you can’t stand still.

It’s a people issue, not a game issue but still, leaves me not feeling good about this kind of game.

Jesta ThaRogue