A much meatier holiday game than our small card games. Excellent if you want something substantial for an evening and have enough luggage and table space.
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Around 45 minutes
2
5
3
Longer games, evenings, players wanting something more substantial
Requires too much table space to be practical on a plane.
Not suitable for outdoor play because of the number of tiles, cards and components.
22
22
765
Large
Considerably larger and heavier than the card games and requires a small table when playing.
Yes — if you've got the luggage space and want a more substantial game to play in the evenings.
Forbidden Desert is very different from most of our other holiday recommendations. The box is around 22 × 22 cm and weighs 765 g, there are plenty of components, and you need a reasonable amount of table space to play it.
So this isn't something we'd casually throw into an already-full suitcase.
But if we knew we were going to have evenings where we wanted to sit down and play a proper game, we'd happily make room for it.
Forbidden Desert is a cooperative game, so everyone is working together rather than competing against each other.
It's considerably more involved than games such as Dobble, Sushi Go or Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. There are more rules to understand, more decisions to make and much more discussion between players.
We've given it a 3/5 complexity rating.
That still doesn't make it particularly difficult, but it does mean this is something we'd choose when we actually want to sit down and play a game rather than simply fill 15 minutes.
We'd allow around 45 minutes for a game.
For us, that's a nice length for a holiday evening. It's substantial enough to feel like we've played a proper board game without necessarily taking over the entire night.
And we'd happily play a couple of games.
That gives Forbidden Desert a very different role in our suitcase from our smaller card games.
No.
There are too many tiles, cards and other components, and the game needs far more table space than an aircraft tray provides.
Even if you could somehow squeeze everything onto the available space, we don't think it would be an enjoyable way to play.
This is firmly a game for the destination rather than the journey.
We wouldn't.
There are too many loose components for us to feel comfortable playing somewhere windy.
A single gust of wind causing cards or tiles to disappear across the hotel grounds isn't our idea of a relaxing game.
If we wanted to play outside, Hive Pocket would be a much safer choice.
This is Forbidden Desert's biggest disadvantage as a holiday game.
At approximately 22 × 22 cm and 765 g, it requires a meaningful amount of suitcase space and weight allowance.
Unlike Herd Mentality or Exploding Minions, this isn't simply a case of throwing away an unnecessarily large box and taking a deck of cards instead.
There are multiple components that actually form part of the game.
So we'd only take Forbidden Desert when we expected to use it.
Because smallest doesn't always mean best.
If luggage space were our only consideration, we'd take nothing but tiny card games.
But sometimes we want to sit around a table in the evening and play something with a bit more substance.
Forbidden Desert gives us that.
A 15-minute game of Sushi Go and a 45-minute cooperative game of Forbidden Desert serve completely different purposes. There's room for both in a good selection of holiday games.
We'd take it when we're travelling with people who actually enjoy sitting down for a proper game.
It's particularly suitable when we know we'll have access to a table at our accommodation and expect to spend some evenings playing games together.
If we're going somewhere where we'll barely be in the accommodation except to sleep, we'd leave it at home and use the luggage space for something else.
Forbidden Desert is a very good holiday game when you want something more substantial than a small card game.
It isn't particularly light, it isn't compact, you can't realistically play it on a plane and we wouldn't take it outside in the wind.
On paper, that sounds like a terrible travel game.
But that's exactly why those criteria shouldn't be considered in isolation.
If we've got the luggage space and know we're going to spend evenings playing games together, we'd happily take the 765 g hit to have something more substantial available.
For us, the real question isn't simply “How small is it?”
It's “Will we get enough enjoyment from this to justify the space it takes up?”
With Forbidden Desert, the answer can definitely be yes.
Requires too much table space to be practical on a plane.
Not suitable for outdoor play because of the number of tiles, cards and components.
Forbidden Desert
Forbidden Desert
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