Stats:
No. of players: 2-4
Amount of time to play: 60 min
Age requirements: 10+
Set-up time: minimal

La Isla is an imaginary island filled with extinct animals. You must capture the animals and study them to score points.

La Isla Rules Description:

In La Isla is played in four rounds, A, B, C and D. Rounds A, B, and D use cards to determine their outcome. Round C uses resource cubes to add explorers to the board.

Every round you get three cards and will have to use each one for either phase A, B or D. Each card has three parts that corresponds to these three phases. The card played in phase A gives you a special ability. Special abilities can score you extra VPs, let you place explorers for one cube instead of two, or research an animal of your choice. You may only have a maximum of three special abilities so eventually you need to replace one each turn.

The card you use for phase B gets you one resource cube in one of five colors. These five colors relate to the spaces you place your explorers on. In phase C in player order you discard two cubes of one color to place an explorer on a space matching the cubes’ color. If you have surrounded an animal you capture it. Then you score VPs equal to the number of explorers required to surround it (from 2-4).

Phase D uses your third card. The lower right corner shows one of the five animals. You research the animal shown and you (and only you) score one VP for each animal or that type you have captured. Researching an animal also moves its marker up the research track. This increases its VP value at the end of the game and triggers the end game once the markers are high enough.

At the end of the game you score one VP for every two resource cubes you possess, 10 VPs for each set of the five animals you have and the research value of each animal you captured (from 0-5 VPs).

Quick Review of La Isla:

La Isla is a lighter Feld game that is fun for families and very accessible. This card driven game can be random be forces you to make the best of the cards you are dealt.

The components for this game are very good. The art and board are bright and well done. The cards are small but work well with the innovative paper cardholder. The rules are well written and easy to follow. My only small complaint is the colors of the regions to place in are a bit close. The tan, brown and gray are hard to tell apart at first.

It is fun when your special abilities have synergies that aid you in the other phases of the game. For example you can have a special ability that lets you draw an extra green resource cube and another that scores you 2 VPs each time you get a green cube.

La Isla is a fun game, but getting the right cards and special abilities can really impact who wins the game. It is family-friendly and non-gamers can pick it up quickly making it a pretty good gateway game. If you are looking for a game to fill this niche in your collection check La Isla out.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 2 out of 6
Replay Value 4 out of 6
Complexity 2 out of 6
Fun 4 out of 6
Overall 4 out of 6