Ravine: A Crafty and Cooperative Card Game

Family loved it, its probably geared towards older people but our 12 and 13 year olds loved it. Easy to learn and play in minutes. Its a fast pace game that is more based on luck than skill but has different playing styles to change difficulty. (i.e. you die later than sooner :) )

I bought it for a friends birthday and when we opened it we noticed that 5 of the wooden hearts were missing :( I am going to give it a 1 star until someone messages me back and resolved this. Then I will leave my full review Edit: Matt responses to me and I got the missing pieces delivered without any troubles. Changing this to a 5 star review because the game is really fun, more the merrier I say. I think that it will get stale Soon though as my friends and I have almost memorized all the insanity cards due to over playing. But a great buy, super fun party game. Not recommended for younger players, they seem to be really confused with the insanity cards and how to play them.

Playing most games with the kids has been a bit of a mixed bag. With two loud and fiercely competitive boys pretty much any board or card game can quickly turn into a bloodbath. Ravine has proved to be a success so far though. The game itself is a hoot particularly when players start to go mad (much amusement to be had by all when I had to sing my way through most of the game). Even negotiating cooperation can prove hilarious with the youngest scoffing all the food - life imitating art! The rules are very easy to learn and the game challenge can gradually be increased as you grow in confidence. The game box is very compact so Ravine is ideal for taking away on holiday and the cards and game pieces are simple and nicely made. The number and variety of cards available means that the game doesn't get repetitive. Probably the only unavoidable issue is trying to adequately shuffle the large number of forage cards but that has more to do with my lousy shuffling skills than any issue with the game. At last count we have something like forty odd games but I can see us coming back to this one over and over. Give it a try - it's a real laugh.

To keep it short and simple (like the game itself): You read the manual in 2 minutes, spend 5 minutes playing your first game, then 15 more minutes playing three more games until you finally win one. Then you browse through the manual again seeing if there is anything more to do/experience in this game. No? Okay... Then you spend another 15 minutes going back go Amazon, request refund and another 15 to print the label and send it back. That's around one hour of your life wasted. If you are looking for a good survival game with replayability character and a great story, have a look at Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island.

Really nice game and it's easy to play. Fun for the family!