There’s a satisfying parallel to be drawn by the fact that Survive, a game about escaping the destruction of Atlantis, has spent more than 30 years bobbing around in safe gaming waters while so many of its cardboard comrades have disappeared into obscurity. Do it! DRAW THE PARALLEL OR SO HELP ME.
We sung the praises of Survive’s most recent incarnation in our Easter board game special, and with good reason – it’s a belter of a gateway game which marries a bit of light strategy and co-operation with crushing your mates’ boats with whales and using a sea monster to eat their tiny plastic people. The 2011 Stronghold Games reprint tweaks the rules ever so slightly from the original 1982 version, creating a pacey, pitch-perfect game which you can play with basically anyone.
Stronghold rightly know they’re onto a winner, and announced today they’ve brought in Space Cadets designers the Englesteins to whizz up a new space-themed version called Survive: Space Attack! and a bunch of expansions. Can you attack space? I mean, isn’t the point that it’s not… OH RIGHT attacking IN space. Stand down everyone.
We were pretty disappointed by Space Cadets, but it sounds like Stronghold aren’t straying too far from the tried and tested Survive formula in the new game. The publisher reckons it’ll take the base mechanic and add in a double-sided game board offering new setups, fighter ships to let players capture and redeploy aliens (the base game’s sharks and whales and sea monsters I guess?), and laser turrets to defend the space station (island) against those aliens. There’s also something about the aliens evolving into more powerful creatures, which sounds pretty delicious.
Sounds like it’s different enough that Survive fans might consider picking it up, but just in case Stronghold have also announced a pair of mini expansions. Hurrah! The Crew Strikes Back introduces crew members with unique powers, while the second expansion bumps up the game to five or six players. All three are “tentatively” due out in September.
So is this finally the end for Survive: Escape from Atlantis? As IF. Stronghold’s also pumping out the catchy-sounding Survive: Dolphins & Squids & 5-6 Players… Oh My! box, which holds all three previous expansions for the base game:
• Dolphins & Dive Dice adds the chaos of ‘Dive Dice’, but also helpful dolphins to ward off creatures
• The Giant Squid adds the Giant Squid creature, which can attack the explorers on land or in boats.
• 5-6 Players: enables players to enjoy the original game with up to six players.
All those will be on pre-order two months before they hit the streets. We’ll keep our eyes peeled and let you know when they show up.
