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Do you remember when someone first taught you solitaire (patience)? I do. It was at a family gathering and I was bored beyond belief, luckily my grandad was on hand to keep me entertained and he decided to show me solitaire. I was immediately hooked and played it over and over again until I ‘beat’ the game and then I shuffled the cards and went again.
Solitaire still makes appearances in my life if I have a spare 10 minutes on a journey or I am pretending to work at a computer. Then I heard that Bruno Cathala & Ludovic Maublanc had designed a game about rescuing passengers from the ill-fated Titanic using the solitaire mechanism.
So does SOS Titanic from Matagot sink beneath the iceberg or cling on to that large floating piece of wood screaming ‘I’m king of the world’? Read on to find out.
A Ship Built For Kings
This is how you do components for a card game. A beautifully illustrated box, a well written rule book, great quality cards and the grandest playing book you have ever seen.
The playing book is definitely the selling point here. You open the book to find the titanic at the point it strikes the iceberg then as each page is turned you witness it sinking further and further into the icy sea until finally it is no more. It is designed this way to restrict your playing space as you progress through the game. The artwork and quality of this book are absolute top notch and really help with the immersion into the game.
I See No Iceburgs
Let’s get some negatives out of the way though, this is not a multiplayer game for me. The instructions say 1 to 5 players can play cooperatively but the game is hard enough already without adding 4 other people’s opinions on what should be done next.
This brings me nicely onto my next negative which is the difficulty and luck element. You must be aware that this game will smash into you like an iceberg a few times before you get some luck and do well. But that is to be expected from a game based around the solitaire mechanism.
Finally some of the iconography is a little obtuse and referral to the back of the rules will be required to understand what some of the player powers and action cards do.
Women & Children First
Taking all of that into account I absolutely love this game. It is essentially solitaire on steroids.
There are only two suits but as they are 1st class (purple) and 2nd class (green) they cannot be mixed. The aim of the game is to rescue as many passenger as possible with the ultimate aim of rescuing all of them (something I have not yet achieved). Each suit has a ‘king’ which ideally you want to place at the top of the pile and then you have to place other passengers below this in descending order of the same colour. The number one card (or Ace) is represented by a lifeboat which when revealed can be placed away from the book and then you can start to load this with cards in ascending order starting from the two onwards (still keeping the classes separate).
On your turn you have the option of firstly moving any passengers to another pile of cards (called changing lines) if they follow the placement rules, or onto a lifeboat if one is available. Then you have to take one action. This could either be to play an action card (if you have one) or to set up a passenger rescue.
There are many different types of action cards most of which allow you to bend the rules slightly such as looking through the passenger deck of cards to find one to play immediately.
If you choose to set up the passengers rescue you must turn over a certain amount of passenger cards from the deck (the maximum number is dependent on your chosen player power) and from these you must be able to place one card only somewhere on the passenger lines or in a lifeboat.
If you are unable to satisfy an action card or passenger rescue you must turn to the next page in the book which shows the ship sinking a little bit further. If ever you get to the stage where you have sunk the ship to the extent that the current deck is completely flooded any passengers currently standing on that line rush to the next line. You then shuffle all of these cards and lay them face down with only the last card face up. This means the more you make mistakes (or luck is not on your side) the harder the game becomes.
The game finishes when you have either rescued all of the passengers or, much more likely, the titanic has sunk. You then score the highest numbered passenger on each of your lifeboats (you have four lifeboats, two are 2nd class and two are 1st), the number of the book page when you end the game (more than likely zero as the ship has sunk) and then bonus points depending on how many anchors were shown consecutively on rescued passengers cards (per class) if all passengers survived.
Final Voyage (Thoughts)
I really like this game a lot. It is the solo game I always wanted but didn’t know could exist. It takes one of my earliest memories of games and fills it with excitement, drama and fun.
The individual player powers and actions cards are super important to use at the right time and it is fun playing around with the different combinations. I will say that some of the player powers are easier than others but as always with a solitaire game luck really does feature very heavily in your final outcome.
I have mentioned some of the negatives earlier in my review but they are very inconsequential compared with the sheer joy of having a great round and rescuing lots of passengers.
If you like solitaire or solo games and are looking for something new (with amazing components) then SOS Titanic is the game for you.
Sorry I will say this one last time ‘I’m King of the World’.
That concludes our thoughts on SOS Titanic. Do you agree? Let us know your thoughts and tag us on social media @zatugames. To buy SOS Titanic today click here!
