The Island of El Dorado
2-4
10+
25+
In The Island of El Dorado, each player is the leader of a civilization seeking to explore the island to control the four ancient shrines. You’ll discover resources, bodies of water, and the shrines themselves in a landscape which is different every single time you play. Build farmhouses and create villagers to gather resources and grow your economy. Occupy strategic locations on the map using forts to defend against the other explorers who seek to control the island before you do. Legend has it the most powerful shrine is hidden inside a cave, but be wary as you enter. The cave is the most dangerous part of the island.
Civilizations will rise and fall as each player explores, gathers, and fights to control the four shrines of El Dorado. The first player to control all four shrines wins the game. They will rule over the island forever and become richer than a king.User Reviews (1)
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A gorgeous game packaged with care that is a sight to look at from opning to playing it, unfortunately it falls shhort when the playing actually takes place
Gameplay/replay
El Dorado is a race to make 4 offerings at 4 temples, it is played over 2 different areas, the island which houses 3 temples, and the cave which houoses the last one. The play itself is rather simple in nature. Roll 2 dice, one is gathering power, one is number of actions. You decide which is which. So far so good. Get those offeings made, get those farms built, win fights. Sounds fun right? Well….
The Bad
The longer I played this, the less enamored I was. While it sounded good on paper, it fell short in execution. Most of the game seems to end up being you and your opponents throwing haymakers at each other where one side loses everything and has to start from scratch. Farms burned, villagers slaughtered, fortresses destroyed, which makes the exploring aspect often get forgotten as you rebuild and counterattack… over and over and over. Then there’s the cave itself, a nonstop series of fights against cave dwellers all in the hopes of finding the last temple. The game wore out its welcome very quickly once we saw how combat seems to be the be all end all of this game.
In conclusion
A good 4x can be a masterpiece. The other side of the coin however is that a bad 4x can be a chore. El Dorado looks spectacular, it really does, but it is style over substance in the end for me. Hopefully the person who buys my copy will enjoy it more than I did.