When you think of Castaways, I want you to think of Arkham Horror. It's cooperative, it's meant to be challenging, and the number of pieces is plain crazy. The biggest difference is the co-op; there is a single game winner! Of the castaways that escape the island (if indeed any of you escape the island), the one with the most 'story points' hoarded is named the actual winner, but you could have used those story points to reroll any bad dice roll; thus, if you have one jerk among your nominal board game group, it could be a very tedious night of not-actually-cooperative play. Interestingly, this makes it somewhat more of a realistic 'marooned on a desert island' situation, don't you think?
If you don't know Arkham Horror, let me just say that there are a lot of pieces to this game. Some that you might not even use. The setup is long (not as long as Arkham Horror) but the variety of outcomes more resembles Betrayal at the House on the Hill, because of the 100+ different plot cards that are randomly summoned throughout the game. And though I'm referencing several dark-genre games, let me be clear that this game is 100% island castaway adventure themed. No otherworldly portals or demonic creatures to eat your sanity.
Your commodity to burn is energy. Energy to attempt campfires, energy to build shelters, energy to explore the island wilderness. All players choose what they want to do (or attempt to do) by placing their tokens on the board in the appropriate slots. Energy is paid, and off we go: to forage for food, salvage some of the shipwreck, or just get miserably lost in the jungle. All things have a consequence, and many decisions have to be made, either individually or as a group.
I think this game isn't for everyone, obviously. A lot of folks who checked it out over the GGC weekend took one disdainful look and said "too many rules". But, like Arkham Horror, it runs fairly smoothly once you establish what goes where. And Rob may not like how it's not quite 'co-operative' since there is a competitive aspect. I think I like that, too. It dispels the "do whatever the veteran says to do" quality that ruins games like Pandemic and Arkham Horror. I have yet to play it with a real troll, though, and my opinion could easily change. For right now, at least, Castaways is inheriting the best qualities from Betrayal at the House on the Hill and Arkham Horror in a more positive setting, and keeping the balance between teamwork and every-man-for-himself.
