Posted: 7 months ago, last updated 5 weeks ago.
Author: Rob Prior, @GeekDadGamer and Jo Robertson.
Overview
You play as a team of ten people who need to escape from the crumbling Island of Atlantis before a volcano explodes. Each turn you can move your figures three spaces across the Island tiles towards boats and then across the sea to safety. However, every turn you must also choose an Island tile to remove, making it smaller and triggering actions that move monsters, destroy things, and throw other players into the sea where whales, sharks and sea monsters await.
All the time you are trying to time your dash through the dangerous waters to avoid the worst hazards. It's a cutthroat game where you're not only mean to enemy figures but also favour your own higher-value characters (indicated under their base). This adds another dimension because if you are too obvious about which are your most valued figures they can target them. The winner is the player with the highest total value of survivors when the island is finally destroyed.
The result is a highly competitive game, where getting your opponent eaten is just as important as moving your figures to safety. It is as much a battle, as it is a race to survive. So, you can expect things to get heated even before the volcano explodes.
Game Details
Release Date: 01/01/1982, updated in 2010
Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds
Players: 2-4
Genres: Race, Traversal (Battle, Push-Your-Luck and Sequencing)
Components: Bag, Board, Dice, Figures and Placeables
Developer: Stronghold Games (@StrongholdGames)
Lists
View our choice of games like Survive: Escape from Atlantis!. This game is good if you want to:
Duration
Before you play the first time it's worth:
- Seeing what the different effect of removing a tile can be.
- Experiment with how you can target other players figures.
- Outline the importance of keeping your figure value secret.
- Highlight how players can bluff by not always preferring their most valuable figures.
Play Time: This game will take between 45 minutes and 1 hour to complete.
Play Style
You can play this game in the following styles:
Age Ratings
Skill Rating
8+ year-olds usually have the required skill to enjoy this game. Younger players need to be resilient enough to cope with losing their figures from the game and being targeted by their opponent's actions. They need to be able to remain calm and treat attacks as part of the game and not allow it to become personal.
Content Rating
We rate this suitable for 3+ years-olds. Players' figures do get eaten by sharks and sea monsters, but this is not depicted graphically.
Costs
This game has a variety of versions and expansions which include:
- Survive! (1982) is the original version published by Parker Brothers.
- Escape from Atlantis (1986) a 3D version published by Waddingtons
- Escape from Atlantis (1996) published by Hasbro with revised rules.
- Survive: Escape from Atlantis! (2010) published by Stronghold Games
- Survive: Escape from Atlantis! (2010) – The Giant Squid Mini Expansion.
- Survive: Escape from Atlantis! (2011) – a 5-6 Player Mini Expansion.
- Survive: Escape from Atlantis! – Dolphins & Dive Dice Mini Expansion (2013)
- Survive: Escape From Atlantis! - 30th Anniversary Edition (2012) published by Stronghold Games with refreshed artwork and a revised theme.
- Survive: Escape from Atlantis! (2013) – Dolphins & Dive Dice Mini Expansion
- Survive: Dolphins & Squids & 5-6 Players...Oh My! (2015)
Accessibility
We haven't documented accessibility features for this game yet. Our Survive: Escape from Atlantis! Accessibility Report details system-wide settings that may help, and suggests similar games with accessibility features. Tweet the developer (@StrongholdGames) to let them know about our Accessibility Questionnaire.
Diversity and Inclusion

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Hand-Picked Games Like Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
Here are our hand-picked short list of similar games; the perfect thing to play next if you enjoyed Survive: Escape from Atlantis!. We also have a long list of games similar to Survive: Escape from Atlantis!.
