A mysterious land is calling our name, pulling us back to its shores with only a vague memory having been there before. The 7th Continent is a vast sprawling game of adventure. Victorian explorers awaken on a mysterious island populated largely by crabs and seagulls but hiding a mystery at its heart. With nothing more than a hand drawn map you must learn how to survive and escape the continent.
We began our adventure with the Voracious Goddess Curse. This curse starts you in small area of the map known popularly as tutorial island and eventually leads you across the continent as you explore the various regions of the map. Tonight we just explored tutorial island. The rulebook for 7th Continent doesn’t really explain everything, in fact the game is kinda like the video games it draws inspiration from, you learn the game by playing the game.
For example you begin the game with a fire token but with no method of making fire. You earn experience point but with no understanding as to how to spend them. Over time these things reveal themselves as you explore the island of the 7th Continent.
As a cooperative game you must work together with your fellow adventurers to explore the various things the island has to offer. The game employs another popular video game trope, the fog. The island is shrouded in a fog, which obscures the map, only becoming revealed as you travel from place to place. The fog also acts as a random encounter deck giving the players a different experience each time they return to an area.
Our party consists of Keelan McCluskey the botanist who is not only highly skilled at identifying flora but can be very useful at finding out other secrets the island has hidden away. Ferdinand Lachapelliére an adventurer and survivor of many doomed expeditions he’s also a gourmet cook. Finally we have Eliot Pendleton, son of a coal miner, Eliot is a doctor of great renown and a highly useful fellow to have on an expedition.
Between us we climbed high rocks, feasted on seagull and crab sticks and even found an old submarine however we accidentally jammed the mechanism that lowered it and ended up swimming with the sharks. We still have many hours of exploring to do and secrets to uncover.
The 7th Continent is a wonderful choose your own adventure style board game that is beautifully illustrated. The mechanics of the game are simple, but allow for lots of decisions and choices as you explore. The game is punishing too, it is a fight for survival as the continent itself is trying to kill you. Death is the likely outcome of your expedition, but with death comes experience and you will return to the continent with a little more knowledge and perhaps this time you wont put your hand in the ******** (Censored for spoilers)
I highly recommend the 7th Continent to anyone who loved point and click adventures or Fighting Fantasy books growing up and for any gamer with a sense of adventure.