Customer Reviews

Survivor The Board Game

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After a failed attempt to order this game on e-bay, I was glad to finally buy it at a local toy store. The game contains a voting box, a pad of paper for voting, several pencils, a paper with the rules on it, a big stack of challenge cards and, of course, a million dollars (kidding). Sorry, there's no immunity idol. The game follows the rules of Survivor: you compete in two challenges (the second of which the winner gets an immunity idol or necklace) and then go to tribal council where you vote one player off the island. I brought it home and gathered my family together to play- that's when the trouble began.
-Rule #1 (the most important one): ONLY play this game with people that have good senses of humor and that will not get mad if they are voted off. My little sister was very upset when she got the boot. You should probably only pull Survivor out of the closet when friends are over.
-Rule #2: Play with a lot of people. This game requires a "host" as well as four or more players, but playing with eight is more fun (I haven't tried it with the max number, 16). Playing with more people allows a lot more challenges and voting. Also, a lot of the challenges are made for two tribes to compete against each other, and are less fun with just a few people.
-Rule #3: Get creative! The challenge cards are extremely diverse, and include challenges such as "make a musical instrument out of things from nature and play a song with it" and "give an ice cube to each tribe, whoever melts it the fastest wins". Don't expect to sit on your butt the entire time you play this game, you are going to have to get up a lot and find materials for the challenges around the house. Because a lot of the challenges have to do with creativity, the judging is very subjective. The host gets to judge the challenges, so make everyone promise before they start to play not to argue with him or her.
-Rule #4: Make up your own rules. If you're a fan of the show, you know that alliances are formed (and broken) while playing the game. Even though it doesn't say it in the rules, I suggest a five minute "common time" after the challenges where people can form alliances. When we were playing, there was only one two person alliance that swayed the vote and ended up in the final two.
This game is very fun if you can meet the requirements of all these rules and really makes you feel like you're on the show. If you don't think you'll be able to get enough people, then you probably shouldn't buy this game (instead check out the computer version, Survivor: The Ultimate Edition). I gave this game 4 stars because of the many requirements for fun, and don't expect any educational value except finding out who's willing to betray the others for a prize. Well, the tribe has spoken!

The actual game is quite boring, to be quite honest. I received the game from a friend in December 2002. I wasn't a huge Survivor fan, so it sat under my bed for about a year and a half. I eventually became a huge fan of Survivor, so I pulled this game out and four of us played it at my sister's graduation party.

Let me just tell you, the actual rules spelled out in the rulebook are soooooooooo boring! The voting/tribal council is probably the funnest part of the game. A lot of the people I've played the game with were fans of Trivia games. So, we just played the Outwit cards and whoever managed to go around the board in a round won immunity. However, it got to the point where we all knew the answers. So, we switched to BLURT cards of all things. I also recall an endurance challenge we held where the final three balanced their playing piece on their hand for as long as possible. I ended up winning that challenge, and, boy, was it a long one. It was, like, 30-minutes long!

Anyway, back on topic. The game I got had this tiny brown marker with little (and I mean little) plastic writing boards in it. These are inefficent. First off, when everyone votes and puts their vote in the pile, the written name tended to erase. So, throw the marker and writing boards away and just use pen and paper. It's easier.

The poster above was right on in the fact that there ARE requirements for this game to be fun. Normally, I don't have parties with more than three people. You at least want to have four people to play this game, but five is probably the best number to have (so that, when it comes time to vote for the final two, there won't be a tie).

Also, you must take into account the type of people you play the game with. If you're playing the game with the same people over and over, alliances will forever be the same and it gets boring. Some players also got really angry about being voted off and left. We also had a player who would constantly write down her own name simply because she didn't care about the game. The most annoying thing is when a person is a juror and they can't pick between two people. So, they either refuse to vote, do eenie-meenie-miny-moe to determine their vote, or just pull a name out of a hat. So, try to get competitive, good sport players in your game if you can.

All in all, this game went from being one where we followed the rules in the rulebook to a game where we just made many improvements to make it more fun. I'll give it a three stars because it allows you to somewhat play Survivor. However, I recommend you working your creativity to make the game a lot better. For example, get candles to represent the torches... but beware: An angry juror might blow your's out, like what happened to me once!!!!

the game is great but needs adult supervision and prep time. Look thru the cards and pick the challenges before you start the game. You will need time to prepare the challenges and gather the items to play and most important read the rules ahead.

My 8-year-old had a survivor party and the kids loved playing.

This game is what you make of it. Some of the challenges are pretty odd and require you to use things that you may not have around the house. Some are pretty messy--- such as an egg toss or running with an egg between your legs--- which also requires it to be nice weather outside and the participants must wear old clothes. Other challenges are just boring, such as "design a welcome mat for the host." It makes you wonder how it relates to the t.v. game show.You also need a lot of people to play.

To make it fun, you have to add your own creativity. We sent people to "exile island," which was really just the kitchen.

I'm not really sure how many more times we will play it. It's pretty boring when you're voted out early on.

fun game. All ages can play. but need one responsible person to be the host to keep things on track and be the ref.