Forbidden Legacy Review - Everything I Should Have Expected, Not What I Wanted

0:00 Hey, I'm Alex Radcliffe from BoardGameCo, and welcome to a spoiler-free review of Forbidden Legacy. Forbidden Legacy by Gamewright, designed by Rob Daviau and Matt Leacock. Forbidden Legacy, I guess at its core, my my ultimate final thoughts, so to speak, although I'll get to actual final thoughts later. My final thoughts are Forbidden Legacy is everything I should have expected it to be, but not everything I wanted it to be. I'll go more into this. I mean, it is a review, after all. I'll try to get into as much as possible. Although, this does present the usual problems that reviewing a Legacy game has, which is I am trying to be spoiler-free. I want you to have an experience that is full of all the things that that happen along the way, the secrets, the uncoverings, the rules changes, the adjustments, all of those things. I want you to be able to explore those and discover those for yourself. And so, I'll talk about my experience, but with loose aspects and vagaries, and not getting into specifics, so that I can give you my thoughts, you can decide if this is a game for you or not, while also not actually changing or spoiling the experience for you. I have a bunch of components set up over here, just general things you can expect to see in your first games, but I can't even open things or look at things or show you cards, lest things change. It's a Legacy game. It's a genuine Legacy game. You'll rip things up, you'll destroy them, you'll alter stuff. You cannot play this again, which actually has some questions for me as well. You can't really play this again. Uh when you dive into it, it's not meant It doesn't even have a forever mode. I guess maybe you can cobble together components to make a forever mode, but I don't think this one I'm pretty sure Let me just double-check over here. But, I'm pretty sure after the campaign, no, you can go ahead and play any of the episodes again.

1:25 Apparently, you could. It's on the back of the rule book. I missed that part. But, uh I don't I don't think you'd necessarily strongly want to. It's It's all has all the same things that any Legacy game has, which is diving into it at the end is not really the experience it's meant to be. With that, let me try to give you a general overview of what the arc of this game is, again, while remaining spoiler-free, and then I'll dive into my thoughts of what I liked and didn't like about the experience. Forbidden Legacy, ultimately, is Forbidden Island with a Legacy game, meaning all the Forbidden games, Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Sky and Forbidden Island. And I think there's one other Forbidden Jungle. Forbidden Jungle, there's also that one. I have not played Forbidden Jungle, I have not played Forbidden Sky. I've played Forbidden Island and Forbidden Desert and at least from those two, this very much feels like Forbidden Island. In the starting setup, you're going to have a bunch of island tiles over here. You have a central island tile you're trying to return back to and you're trying to wander around to accomplish objectives and this is where the rules will differ, but effectively the starting you have this portal you have in the center. None of this is a spoiler, this is all the first episode. Uh you kind of have a bit of a comic kind of situation over here.

2:24 You're going to have that's on those pages, which again, I can't open this because I've altered it so much uh in through the throughout this, but you'll have a story and then the individual episode rules as well as the general structure rules in the rulebook over here. But you are going to be wandering around taking actions. Again, if you've played Forbidden Island, if you've played Pandemic, it has that classic aspect. You're going to have four actions. Your characters have four actions they can take on their turn. You're going to be moving around. You're going to have these element cards. I can show you these, there's no real spoilers to these, but you'll be discarding element cards to try to find and locate certain uh pieces to the starting portal that you have. Then you have to move there and discard the matching element cards, creating sets of element cards to go ahead and retrieve that piece before bringing all four pieces back to the portal. Meanwhile, you're drawing threat cards over here. Let me make sure I can show you these. Yeah, you're drawing threat cards from this deck. We'll go ahead and start flipping flipping over these tiles and if a tile gets flipped over before you can repair it, you'll lose the tile entirely from the board, making it harder to actually accomplish your goals. Meanwhile, you're tracking the threat marker on this track over here. Certain cards in this deck, again, let me see if I can find some over here, but certain cards in this deck are going to have you Nope, not this deck. No, this this deck. I just don't have the cards here. Certain cards Nope, this deck. This deck over here. You'll have certain cards over here that are going to have the time anomaly. You're going to increase the threat level on this track. You're going to shuffle the threat discard pile to put them back on the top, shuffling the things back to the top, meaning things that got hit again are going Things that got hit already are more likely to get hit again. Again, all this is very familiar if you've played Pandemic or any of the Forbidden games, specifically Forbidden Island going to be the most reminiscent.

3:48 You basically are gathering cards. You need to collect sets of cards. You have a deck of cards that gives you those cards, but also increases the threat tracker, making your life harder as you go through it. And slowly but surely across the course of the game, having you draw more cards, so you kind of have to like ramp up and get to the end game because the game is getting harder as you go through it. That's scenario one. If you played Forbidden Island, the first scenario of Forbidden Legacy is maybe 85% similar. Small differences, nothing too crazy. But then you are playing through a seven game arc. The structure of the game specifically, and again, if you've played Forbidden uh if you played Pandemic Legacy, this will be familiar, but the structure is you play an episode. If you win, you move on to the next episode. If you lose, you can play it one more time, and then if you lose again, you still go on to the next episode. Meaning, Forbidden Legacy is between seven and 14 games. It will be as many as seven games or as few as seven games if you won every single game, and it'll be as many as 14 games if you lost every single game, or arguably if you uh al- even alternated lose-win, lose-win, lose-win. Basically, you have a maximum of 14 games and a minimum of seven games. That's the way the structure is. Along those games, the game is going to unlock new elements to the game. Each episode adds new a new mechanics, new things that are happening in the game, and that brings you to eventually the ultimate conclusion of the story arc, where you have a bunch more things tied together, and then you either win or lose and all of that.

5:08 That's kind of the most I can really get into as far as wall before getting into full-on spoilers. So, it's Forbidden Island just with legacy elements being added onto it, which is exactly what I expected so far. I guess we can dive into a review here. I will touch more upon elements to a degree. I'll again, I'm kind of limited to what I can say or do without showing you components, but I can tell you my thoughts on the game and touch a little bit more on different things. Also, I should note, just in case you're looking at this, you'd actually be looking at a 5x5 grid here, not this 3x3. Like I said already, I just have some things that I'm showing you, nothing uh too intense. I'm specifically kind of showing you a a smorgasbord of assorted components without showing you everything, cuz many things do get altered in the game. I was very excited for Forbidden Island. I like legacy games in general. I like Rob Daviau and Matt Leacock. I think they're fantastic designers. And so, I kind of wanted Forbidden Island to be more than it was. Like I said at the beginning of this video, I think Forbidden Island is everything I should have expected to be, not everything I wanted it to be. And I say that because Forbidden Island, I think, is a lighter game. Forbidden Desert actually adds a little meat to it, I believe, but I Forbidden Island is kind of the gateway experience to Pandemic. It kind of has the same core mechanics of the idea that things that got hit get hit again, so you constantly need to be mindful, "Oh, no, these areas are the ones that are are are weak to things." But depending how the deck is structured, you can eventually have other areas open up, some areas completely fall apart. It kind of has that aspect. And Forbidden Island is accessible. And Forbidden Island I believe, in hindsight, is meant to be a legacy game for Forbidden Island fans. I should note that I played this

6:39 with adults as opposed to with my kids. And that was a choice that may have impacted as far as my enjoyment of it. I think my kids do enjoy some legacy experiences. This one I felt it would be more fun to dive into it, which is like being able to charge through it without having to hold hands, playing at a higher difficulty mode. There's different difficulty modes you can start the game on. We played it on a hard higher difficulty. We didn't lose a single game, for the record, so take that into your account as well. That's why I'm wondering, maybe the target audience really is more family friendly, more kids. But we didn't lose a single game. Although I will say hard did feel hard. To their to their credit, it at least felt hard. But I didn't lose a single game along the way. Although I guess I'm happy that I didn't lose a single game. Like I don't like replaying scenarios. Pandemic Legacy did a great job, and when you replay a scenario, at least you feel you made progress even with your the loss. This one is less structured around that. The way this game works, I feel if I had lost a game of Forbidden Island Legacy, I would have just felt like it was homework to do the same thing again, hoping to win. Again, I I can't get too much into mechanics.

7:32 When you play Forbidden Island Legacy and you lose, you still have permanently altered the world around you. And to that end, you can go ahead and feel like you made progress, even though you're replaying the same scenario. There's almost this feeling that well, at least there's something came out of this. And for Imperial Legacy, that's less the case. And so, losing both things are true. I think the game that that might not have been as balanced as I'd like if I won every single scenario. That's a negative. On the plus side, every single scenario playing on hard mode did at least feel hard. Like at no point did I feel oh my what's that true. One episode, one particular episode felt like it was a cakewalk and I don't know if it's a balance issue or just the nature of RNG of with randomness of things that maybe that one episode everything worked together. But I think from a mechanical standpoint, specifically I'll tell you right now I guess uh specifically episode six. So, the second last episode to me felt way too easy. So, if you played this game and you felt that this episode six was the one episode that felt way too easy, then maybe it is a mechanical aspect. Or again, could just be RNG. Could be the randomness of things. Sometimes that can happen. Uh but again, the biggest critique is if I had lost scenarios, it would have felt like homework to play it again. To the point that there was one episode that we almost did lose and I was debating whether we just say we want to move on because I didn't want the grind of having to play it again. Uh cuz it would have felt like grind. There wouldn't have been a progress. It would have been just like well, we're playing it again to make sure that we beat it without anything actually changing.

8:50 My biggest critique though, my biggest critique of the experience and there's things I like about it. I mean, I played all seven games. So, it can't be that bad. Uh but my biggest critique is that I I don't think the legacy added a lot to the game. That's my That's my thing. If it was just about difficulty, I don't have that many complaints with difficulty. Yes, we won everything. Yes, it felt hard. I can take that. I'm fine with that trade-off. That is an okay trade-off for me. But I don't think the legacy elements felt super interesting to me. And again, I'm going to keep this a little vague, but I'll say that the first half of the game, the first like four episodes, didn't feel like anything changed outside of a thematic change to the game. Like I'm not saying there aren't rules additions or changes or things. There were. There certainly were. I've got to catch something around. So, excuse me if I'm distracted. There were definitely rules changes and additions.

9:35 But a lot of them felt like instead of doing X you do Y even though Y is very similar to X and really we're just calling it Y instead of X so that it feels like there's an episodic change. It felt it felt weak, frankly. And that's the part that I was most disappointed about. It didn't feel like there was a real progression. Like I played Ticket to Ride Legacy. I think I believe also Rob Daviau is an awesome out Lee I don't remember. I think I think it's Rob Daviau and Alan Moon, I think. I think but uh I I played a lot of Legacy games with Rob Daviau involved and usually it feels like there is something meaningfully different happening going on as you play through the Legacy arc. And that's the thing that I find compelling. The new rules change, the complete shake-up, the additional mechanics going on. For the first four episodes of Forbidden Legacy, it felt like they subtracted mechanic X and added mechanic Y without meaningfully changing the experience that I had as a player. Did I mind it? No. Like sometimes a flavor change isn't bad.

10:30 Sometimes doing X instead of Y is a good thing but it didn't change up the experience I had. It's just that if I'm going to play episode 1 and then episode 2 and then episode 3 and episode 4, I am at least grateful that something changed even if the change felt more semantic. So I'm still happy there was change. It just didn't feel like the change meaningfully altered the experience. I guess that a similar comparison, not necessarily the best comparison, it would be almost as if you play Ticket to Ride Legacy and then kind of like Ticket to Ride Legacy map one was Ticket to Ride America and Ticket to Ride Legacy map two was, you know, Ticket to Ride Europe. And then the rules might have had the minor differences you expect to see there but ultimately it was the same experience without meaningfully changing it. When you get to later episodes, there is at least something else happening that does change it up a little bit but that's kind of it. It felt to me like there was a three stages to Forbidden Legacy. There's episode 1 through 4 which were basically the same.

11:21 There's episode 5 and 6 that added one new mechanic element that was interesting while again having other things be similar. And then episode 7 that adds one new mechanical element that felt minorly interesting while not really meaningfully changing the experience. And so, for me as a player, it felt more like they strung together a bunch of games of Forbidden Island with minor rules adjustments that barely felt like rules adjustments. So, it depends on what you want out of a legacy experience. If you want to be wowed as you uncover new elements and really feel like that sense of discovery, I don't think this game gives it to you. I think it's fine, but for me, it was like playing Forbidden Legacy Forbidden Island seven times in a row with minor minor changes as opposed to truly feeling like a legacy game. Again, there's a limit to how much I can go into while keeping it spoiler-free, but that's ultimately my kind of conclusion for it.

12:10 Which brings me to I guess final thoughts on this one. Final thoughts and rating on Forbidden Legacy, I'm going to come in at a three out of five. It's not bad. I wouldn't have played and finished all seven games if it was bad. I had fun, but I had fun I I I I I would I would say that my first few games I enjoyed myself. By the time I got to game three, I was feeling it was already a little samey. And then at that point, I was kind of finishing it because it's not the hardest to finish. 45 minutes a game, you can knock it out. It's not too Again, do the math. 7 * 45, what is that? 5 and 1/2 hours? Something like that. I can do 5 and 1/2 hours of Forbidden Island. That's not a bad time. But I do think that by the time I got to the end, again, there was an there was an episode I think episode five perhaps where I almost lost and felt like if I had lost, I would have wanted to just go ahead and skip forward to episode six. And then episode six was really really fast because it was way too easy, and I was happy it was really really fast because at that point, I was just trying to play it to finish the game, not because I wanted to. And episode seven episode seven was a good way to finish. There was that one new element kind of added. It wasn't too fast. It wasn't too hard. It kind of lasted just right about time, and there was definitely the most challenge going on as far as juggling a variety of elements together in that one episode.

13:19 Episode seven was by far the best episode I had of Forbidden Forbidden Legacy as the conclusion episode, which I'm happy it was. But the problem is I think that reason I'm coming in at a three out of five, not even a 3.5, is I got to the point where I was just playing it to finish it and not playing it because I enjoyed it. And I wouldn't go back to this one. As much as I like this, as much as I like the the genre of these Matt Leacock games, I'd rather play so many others. I'd rather play Forbidden Desert if I just want the Forbidden Island experience. I think Forbidden Desert is the best one. I haven't played Forbidden Jungle or Sky, so I guess from the three I guess I've played, Forbidden Desert is the best one. If I want something meatier, I can always go to a legacy game in terms of Ticket to Ride Legacy, Pandemic Legacy, or even playing through you know Fate of the Fellowship, the Lord of the Rings themed Pandemic. I think that's a great game by Matt Leacock, absolutely fantastic. If you want that sense of story, and you can play that one multiple times with a variety of objectives, and that will mix up the experience for you. I guess this is a good time to move to recommendations. If you want recommendations, if you just want a Forbidden Legacy type experience without the legacy elements and what the gameplay brings, Forbidden Desert will give it to you. And if you want to have a a leveled up experience while feeling this way, check out either Pandemic Legacy or just Fate of the Fellowship, because that will give you more change.

14:25 Again, the random objectives you get in Fate of the Fellowship will be more meaningful change to the experience you have than the different episodes of Forbidden Legacy. So, overall again, final thoughts, what I said in the beginning, I think given the weight class of Forbidden Island, perhaps Forbidden Legacy is the game I should have expected it to be. But, in terms of my personal excitement for it, knowing that the the the people behind the game and the the weight that I give to the word legacy, I wanted it to be more and it was just fine. That's my review of Forbidden Legacy. I don't think it's the worst game you can play. I think there are better games you can pick up if you're looking for a legacy experience. In any case, until next time, I'm Alex Radcliffe from Board Game Co. Hope you found this video helpful, and as always, I hope you have a good one.