Day 19: We’ve been shipwrecked on this island, which apparently isn’t on any map, for almost three weeks now. We renamed it Hellapagos: palm trees, beach and a crystal clear sea make many think of paradise, but for us this tiny piece of land is starting to resemble hell.
The supplies we had on the ship, now a wreck rusting on the rocks, are increasingly scarce. And this jungle offers nothing edible, not even damn coconuts. I suspect that some of my companions have buried supplies that the others don’t know about; Maybe the gun I found on the ship will help me… but not for personal defense.
We manage to collect a few drops of water from the erratic rains, and for now it seems to be enough. But on days without rain, thirst begins to make itself felt.
We have no hope of surviving here for long: the only option we have left is to try our luck at sea with the raft we are building. But the wood on the beach is now finished, and when John went into the jungle to find more, he was bitten by a damned snake; he almost died.
We have to get out of this hell before the rainy season begins. Only a few days left. But in my heart, I don’t think we’ll all make it. We don’t have food for everyone, we don’t have water for everyone. So far we have collaborated, at least in appearance. But soon we’ll be at each other’s throats like a pack of hyenas. Only the strongest will survive, either Hellapagos it will kill us all.
Hellapagos: the board game review
Hellapagos it’s a board game Of Laurence Gamelin And Philippe Gamelinbrought to Italy by Ghenos Games; the original 2017 edition is by Gigamic. It is a party gamebut don’t be fooled by appearance: we are talking about a pretty bad title. And that’s the beauty of it.
Playable from 3 to 12 people, however, it works best with an average number of players: in 3/4 there are too few to appreciate certain dynamics; in 11/12 it risks becoming a bit confusing, and furthermore, although the games are quite quick, there is player elimination.
Contents of the Hellapagos box
- 6 wooden balls
- 1 jute bag
- 12 Raft cards
- 54 Wreck cards
- 12 Weather cards
- Wood, Water and Food Tokens
- The shipwreck-shaped card holder
- 12 Castaway State cards
- 1 First Player card
- 2 foldable card holders
The quality of the materials
The box is compact, but sturdy and decorated inside too. The materials are good qualityAnd some gems strikes favorably leaving its mark. For example, the card holder in the shape of a shipwreck really looks good on the table. The cardboard boxes for cards, on the other hand, are a very welcome find for keeping the game in order when you are not using it. An excellent example of how, with little expense in the production phase, they can be inserted accessories very welcome to players.
The jute bag helps you immerse yourself in the atmosphere even more, and the wooden balls, to be fished out of the bag, are decidedly more pleasant than classic cardboard markers.
The cards are linen and of good quality; you can still choose to protect them with sleeves for large cards (TO THIS ADDRESS) and for small cards (TO THIS ADDRESS).
We can only praise himExcellent quality production from Hellapagosas well as the very good quality/price ratio.
How to play Hellapagos
At the beginning of the game you start with a certain amount of Food and Water supplies based on the number of players. Additionally, each player receives 3 or 4 Wreckage cards. The First Player card is assigned (to the player who most resembles a castaway), who will pass from turn to turn, and a Weather card is revealed.
Hellapagos takes place between 7 and 12 rounds (we don’t know exactly) in which each player, in order of place, carries out an action. There are 4 possible actions:
- Catch 1, 2 or 3 fish
- Collect the water available for that turn
- Draw cards from the wreck
- Collect wood
Catching Fish and Collecting Water are actions to increase the common reserves of these goods. To catch fish, take a ball at random from the bag: you can then add 1, 2 or 3 fish. The available Water is instead indicated by the Weather card for that turn: in case of rainy weather, it will be possible to collect a lot of it; but some days the drought will prevent us from finding any more water at all.
If we choose to draw Wreck cards we take one to add to our hand: in them we can find further supplies, useful objects, weapons but also completely useless cards. Wreck cards can be played at any time to add supplies to the common Food/Water reserves or stored until the best time to use them; they also contain some very useful objects, such as the fishing rod which doubles our ability to fish.
Finally, you can collect some wood useful for building the raft. In this phase, a push-your-luck game mechanic is implemented: a wood resource is always guaranteed. But you can choose to try to collect more by drawing a certain number of balls from the bag. If you draw the black ball (1 out of 6) you are bitten by a snake: the player in question cannot find any more wood, and, in addition to skipping his action in the next turn, he will not be able to participate in the voting in the current turn. Every time you collect six pieces of wood, you add a spot on the Raft.
At the end of each turn, the surviving players must be fed and quenched: one Food/Water resource will be spent each. And it is in this phase that the “drama” occurs, but we will talk about that shortly.
The purpose of the game is to build a Raft that has enough seats for all survivors before the arrival of the Storm Weather card, which is always found in the second half of the Weather deck. Only players who manage to escape from the island before the storm arrives can be considered the winners. To escape from the island it will also be necessary to bring with you an additional food and water each.
In Hellapagos it is also possible to lose everyone, and all together: a small consolation…
“A collaborative game… until there’s no more food!”
You will have already understood that at some point there will be no Food, or Water, or space on the Raft, for everyone. As the tagline of the game states, it is in fact “A collaborative game… until there’s no more food!“.
How to resolve these situations? Well, with a democratic method! Every time you have to decide who to leave to die of hunger, or thirst, or abandon on the island, a vote takes place. After a discussion, each player simultaneously indicates who he thinks should be “sacrificed”.
It’s all up to the players to choose: there are no factions, or teams, or traitors. Everyone makes their own decision according to the criterion they deem most correct. At our table, we usually “sacrificed” those who had behaved more selfishly: for example by looking for Wreck cards (which are personal), instead of Collecting Water or Food for the group.
The player left without Food/Water, at this point, has one last chance: he can play a Food/Water card from his hand and save his skin, thus revealing his treacherous nature. Instead of making the resources available to the group, he chose to keep them for himself. And rest assured that the other survivors will remember this at the next vote.
Finally, there are also some Gun cards: need to explain what they are for?
Conclusions of the review on Hellapagos
To conclude our review, we can say that Hellapagos is not your average party gamefor better or for worse.
The theme is very well expressed and implemented, unlike other similar games that require voting. Examples of this include titles such as The Resistance or Secret Hitler: despite their undoubted mechanical quality, they received many reskins and thematic revisitations, demonstrating how in reality the theme was quite disconnected from the game structures. In Hellapagos, on the contrary, the Game mechanics go very well with the theme.
However it can be a game “difficult” to play: not all gaming groups may in fact like having to vote for the elimination, and therefore defeat, of another player. If this then translates into leaving him to die of hunger or thirst, well, it is more than understandable that this could be unpleasant. Even more so considering that, unless a particularly lucky game flow, it is practically impossible for all the initial survivors to be able to escape from the island. Starting the game knowing with almost mathematical certainty that someone will have to die for the others to survive it can be disturbing.
Even some Wreck cards are a bit strong (in terms of emotional impact), such as the Cannibal Kit (here too any explanation would be superfluous). In any case, remembering that he is “only” playing, and that any conflicts at the table should be left at the table, the experience that Hellapagos offers is fun and uniquewhich is easy to identify with, remembering that if you win together, the better, but sometimes it’s about your mors, my life.
Yes, it’s brutal; yes, luck in cards has a certain weight; and yes, player elimination is foreseen (but a game variant makes it much less annoying); and yes, you need the right group to enjoy the game without ruining friendships.
In any case, if these particularities do not disturb you excessively, know that you are faced with one of the best party games that work on social dynamics published recently. If you are able to meet these “entry requirements”, Hellapagos Island will seem more like a hell than a hell, perhaps not a paradise, but certainly a great place to be.
Hellapagos can be found TO THIS ADDRESS.
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