Discover: Lands Unknown

First, I really don't understand why this game has so many negative reviews on this website, but I am here to give an in-depth and honest review. I want to start by saying I now own THREE copies of this game. TLDR, I love this game and I would highly recommend it if you are looking for something fun, interesting, and engaging that will keep you entertained for a few hours. However, it is a complicated game to set up and learn, so be prepared for that and prepared for long gameplay. Alright, now let's dive into this:Set Up: This is probably the games biggest detractor. Due to every box being unique, most of the game pieces come in cardboard sheets that you have to punch out and organize yourself. The scenario, exploration, enemy, and threat cards also come in packs that you have to manually sort out by number. This is tedious. It will take you about half an hour to an hour to get your game completely set up for the first time. I recommend keeping all of the pieces for each land in one ziploc baggie, and the pieces for universal gameplay in another. I also used small rubber bands to section off the cards, one stack for each terrain and then a stack with the character, scenario, and time of day cards. This makes future set up easier. The game does not come with a concrete organizational system, so you will have to come up with what works for you. I went ahead and attached some photos showing what my box looks like all put away. After your initial set up, it's also pretty lengthy to set up each game. It takes me about five to ten minutes just to get all the pieces laid out. Be prepared for this.Gameplay: This is NOT a short game. Nine times out of ten, the landmarks won't be close to each other and you will hit obstacles on your journey. On average, this game takes me and my sister 1.5 to 2 hours to play. It is a time commitment, but we are not bored at all for those entire two hours. You will go through ups and downs, and sometimes it can be frustrating because you may hit a lot of roadblocks, or get unlucky with the layout of your map. All that being said, I have never run into a situation where a scenario wasn't achievable. I honestly think that unless you're either playing it wrong, or you got a used game with missing cards, there really isn't any way to have an impossible scenario. The organization system of the game ensures that since all the scenarios are connected by a common story line anyway for each terrain. The benefit of purchasing on Amazon is you can just return it. We have three copies of this game, all with different scenarios, and five out of six of the possible terrains and NONE of them have been impossible to complete. This means we have a total of 12 unique scenarios (scenario 5 is universal in all boxes and is a competitive style free for all), and none of them have been impossible. At first, I was a bit worried about the replayability of this game, as I figured it wouldn't be fun if you knew what was coming. I was wrong. Knowing what's coming makes it fun in a completely different way! Now you can use your knowledge to try and uncover more facts, and you start to notice little details that connect the scenarios in interesting ways. There was clearly a lot of thought put into this game. I will say, this takes a while to learn if you are not an experienced strategy board gamer. If you are playing with friends and family who are more casual players, take your time explaining and explain as you go. Read the instructions carefully and keep the instruction booklets with you during gameplay. I still refer to them even now. This is not really the kind of game you play twice in one sitting. I recommend having snacks on hand. If a person dies in the game, it can be a little bit boring for them to wait for the game to finish, so I suggest allowing them to help in strategy even after they die, that way they don't just have to sit there. If you are playing cooperatively, it's easier to avoid someone dying. All in all, the gameplay is interested and there are a lot of unexpected twists and turns that can happen!Some Notes: This game is not for everyone. I find it to be more fun as a cooperative game than competitive, but it is complex so be prepared for thinking and strategy. This is not a game for children. They will not understand it fully and you will get frustrated. I would say the youngest that should play this is maybe 10 if you've got a really smart 10 year old. My sister and I got lucky getting different lands in each box we got, so don't go buying a whole bunch of copies expecting them all to be different. You might end up with one or two things the same and you have to be prepared for that. Worse come worst, open the box, examine it's contents without opening them up, and return it if there are too many duplicates, or gift it to someone else.I really do love this game and honestly don't understand all of the bad reviews here on Amazon. This is a pretty popular game at most of the board gaming cafes in my town, and I've seen lots of great things about it on Reddit, so I'm not sure what's up with the people posting reviews here. When I bought this game first, it was $25, and then the third time I bought it was $20. Those prices were a STEAL for the quality of the game. At the end of the day, do what you will, but I love this game and would HIGHLY recommend it.

This game has problems, but if you get past those, there is a nice little semi-cooperative game here. I got this for about $12 and played 10 times so totally worth it. Overall, I enjoyed my plays but sold it after the 10 plays. So close to being a really great campaign game, just needed more time to hone it.Issues:Only includes 5 (4 really) scenarios to play, and once you've beaten each there is little reason to play again.Holes in the "story" and in some cases missing cards. The gimmick that every box is "unique" has resulted in some games missing essential cards, or stories being loose or hard to follow.

IF you haven't played or heard of Discover: Lands Unknown, I completely understand. I had not heard of it when I found it at an Ollie's in Appalachia. It was $6. I thought it looked decent enough to spend $6. Turns out, it is a great and fun game. I ended up buying a second copy here in order to have two copies. Why? The real treat is that each game purchased is absolutely unique and you can get additional maps. I believe there are more than six available maps, two of which come in a game.The game play itself is a perfect mixture of Ravine, Catan and Descent (or another RPG/battle board game). You move around a board, collect resources, battle monsters and uncover storyline all while trying to stay alive in a primitive survival scenario. What could be more fun than that?!It also has an "exploring aspect" which can be great but frustrating. Why? Well, if you are looking for a gizmo, there might be ten landmarks scattered across the map to search and maybe only one player has the secret to search for it. That takes a lot of time. However, it is also a puzzle to solve - which is fun.

very creative game. I have played through the first scenario a few times at 2 player and part of a game at 4 players until we had to stop for life reasons. I enjoy the novel concept of every game being a unique permutation of terrain and card combinations to give a different experience for each box. That being said the core mechanics are solid and the exploration and survival experience is likely similar for each owner, with the variation giving slightly different elements and quests to find. It is not an easy game and we had a total player kill the first play through, but as expected in a survival, semi-cooperative game. I enjoyed it and recommend the experience. Look forward to many more evenings exploring our box and trying to escape the lands.