Horizons of Spirit Island Review: A New Beginning?

Camilla Cleghorn takes a look at Horizons of Spirit Island.

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[Bleuchz]

I do think this product is greater than the sum of its parts.

The new spirits are EXCELLENT to learn the game with. They do a good job of showing off what the system is capable of while clearly being designed around the strategies and tactics a new player would naturally employ. I've had huge success with this product by moving a bunch of my other spirits into this box and taking it with me to game night as a compact version of Spirit Island.

[RemcoHaarlem]

My biggest complaint is that we can't take the island boards apart and use/mix them with the base game + Jagged Earth.

My favourite Spirit from these five is Eyes Watch From the Trees.

[Jonathan-eivp]

As someone new to the game I'm interested in how approachable the spirits are and how useful the quick start guide is. I don't care much about the extensive component comparisons.

[julianh.]

You could stack the invadertokens and presences?!

[rosbrughj]

I was already an experienced player who owned the base game and at least one expansion when I bought Horizons, so I cannot really give a fair assessment whether this is a good first purchase for those getting into the Sprit Island world. I agree with Camilla that the larger tokens make the game board more difficult to manage. However, the five new spirits and additional color tokens integrate beautifully into the base game and any expansions. Their low complexity makes them easier to learn and teach, yet they are still powerful in their own way. I would recommend Horizons as an expansion that adds variety without the complexity of Branch & Claw or Jagged Earth.

[greglevy]

Great review and fair from your point of view as an original Spirit Island fan. Before picking up Horizons, I'd never played Spirit Island before, but had heard good things about it and it's highly rated. The Target entry price point was attractive, especially when I combined the low MSRP with some discounts (promo 15% off, 5% Red Card (which stacks with the other discount), and a $5 gift card from previous purchases) to make the initial purchase under $20. After watching a couple of playthrough videos, I was hooked upon my first play. While I completely agree with the assessment of the components (functional, but fiddly and not elegant), I suspect this was necessary to provide the low cost, mass market (big box store) appeal. I desired more and have since added all the currently available content (less deluxe component packs) and I have traded out the cardboard dahan, town, and city tokens for those in the base game. I think it does make a great entry level product for the franchise - again from my original non-experienced perspective. Cheers!!

[JimmySquiky]

I haven't even punched out the card board tokens but I've put everything else into my spirit island box like if it was an expansion.

[billstrohler]

We were frustrated at first. The rules were not super clear and the initial playthrough was pretty bad. That being said, once we figured it out, we LOVE it. One of our favorites. Did not play the original game.

[RynoKenny]

Sacred sites should be two presence stacked, but those cardboard pieces look far too large. Why couldn't they be half as large?

[rodneydunn]

As a new player, I think your assessment is spot on. I was curious to try this game solely due the hype of the original. The price point of this game made it low risk. I have only played it solo, trying to get a feel for it and an understanding of the mechanisms before trying to teach it to my wife. After a couple play throughs, I really don't care to play it again. I found the how to play guide to be OK, but not great. The idea of playing a bigger, more complicated, version does not appeal to me at all. So, in my case, their strategy had the opposite effect if they were trying to bring in new players.

[JonTripp]

I haven't played Horizons yet, but almost everything I've seen basically says, This is a good expansion if you already have Spirit Island, but if this is your first exposure to the game it is not going to encourage most people to go any further, for all the reasons you cite in your "5".

[kennychan]

This is a very good review! Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was hoping to see zee and Tom and mikes feedback on the game but I have to say this review is even better than the one they did on the base game

[irvinrules]

This is the kind of review I wanted for this game. The point of view of someone who already loves the game, like I do. 👍🏽
Looking forward to try these new spirits

[SanjuroSan]

Jeez Camilla, when you do a review you truly leave no stone unturned. Insanely impressive.

[Septembersmith]

The seal of excellence is really becoming the biggest punchline on this channel...