Atlantis Rising Second Edition Review

You’ve grown up together, you’ve broken bread, you’ve bonded, hell, most of you are in the same board game group together. But how reliable are friends, really? Well, today you can find out as you work together to save the sinking city of Atlantis. Good character-building stuff, no? And that newcomer that your buddy brought to the gaming table this week . . . they seem cool, right? Right? They will lend you gold, ore, or even Atlantium if you need it to build a whatzit, doodad, or thingamabob. Right? Of course, they will. Their skin is in this game just as much as yours. You all survive or none of you do. If you’re interested in a fully cooperative experience using advanced technology and culture to save the sinking city of Atlantis from the wrath of the gods, then check out Atlantis Rising Second Edition (2019), designed by Galen Ciscell and Brent Dickman, illustrated by Vincent Dutrait, graphics designed by Peter Gifford, and published by Elf Creek Games.

RickHendricks: Hey Pete, you studied history in undergrad, didn’t you?

PeteSteele: Among other things, why?

RickHendricks: How would you like to write a review about a game depicting the destruction of a technologically advanced and culturally distinguished civilization?

PeteSteele: Which civilization? The Roman Empire?

RickHendricks: No.

PeteSteele: The Mayans? Is there finally a non-culturally appropriative game out about their civilization? That would be awesome.

RickHendricks: No, and I don’t know?

PeteSteele: The Ancient Egyptians? That seems kind of played out right now.

RickHendricks: No, but very true.

PeteSteele: Japan during the Heian period? The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon is a fascinating read!

RickHendricks: No.

PeteSteele: Darn. Okay, then which civilization?

RickHendricks: The Atlanteans.

PeteSteele: Oh. So when you said “history,” you meant fake history.

RickHendricks: What is history but the written record of a real civilization’s legends?

PeteSteele: Well, the answer to that question would be: A lot of other stuff as well. And you are not blowing anyone’s mind with your nonsensical historiographical and epistemological musings.

RickHendricks: Moving on. It’s a cooperative game, 1–7 players, beautiful components, and the rules variations of different game modes are minimal so it’s easy to switch.

PeteSteele: Sounds like you should be writing the review.

RickHendricks: I need a second opinion. Do you think this game can stay afloat on its laurels, or do you think it is doomed to sink into the crushing abyss on the ocean floor despite the best efforts of the design team?

PeteSteele: I see what you did there. Atlantis humor. Let’s get to work.

The story of Atlantis Rising Second Edition begins when Atlantis is almost at its end, depending on the version of Atlantic mythology you subscribe to. It goes like this: 

The people of Atlantis have become so technologically advanced and so culturally sophisticated that they have forsaken their ancient gods in the name of progress. The gods (being all too real, of course) have become so angry with their children that they have decided to submerge the entire island of Atlantis beneath the murky depths of, well, the Atlantic (yet another flood story).

RickHendricks: That’s where we should be looking for the lost city! In the Atlantic!

PeteSteele: Yeah, that’s not an original idea. Also: Atlantis is mythological. 

RickHendricks: Sounds like someone is a non-believer.

PeteSteele: Yes, that’s true. I do not believe the lost city of Atlantis actually existed and sunk as it is described in mythology. Very smart.

Within the context of the game, however, the Atlanteans (the players), realizing their doom is at hand and that there is nothing they can do to save their city, scramble about their island as it floods to gather resources to power their advanced technology and to build a cosmic gate. The cosmic gate consists of nine independent outer ring components and one center ring component and, once it is completely built, will allow all of the Atlanteans a route to escape from the fate of drowning like their island home. 

Atlantis Rising Second Edition is absolutely packed with components, which are absolutely gorgeous to boot. The six-peninsula island artwork on both sides of the tiles, allowing players to flip over tiles to slowly watch the island flood, is at the core of the gaming experience. The full components list is as follows: 37 double-sided island board tiles; 1 cosmic gate; 20 double-sided cosmic gate component tiles; 1 double-sided power core tile; 10 double-sided counselor player boards; 1 wrath-of-the-gods track; 1 wrath counter; 6 mystic barriers with plastic stands; 2 d6 dice; 1 starting player marker; 67 misfortune cards; 33 library cards; 1 leader, 7 followers, and 1 player marker (in red, blue, and yellow); 1 leader, 4 followers, and 1 player marker (in green, orange, purple, and navy blue); 8 gray volunteers; 1 automaton; 1 hologram; 24 mystic energy tokens; 12 crystal tokens; 12 ore tokens; 12 gold tokens; 16 Atlantium tokens; and 1 rulebook.

At its heart, Atlantis Rising Second Edition is a worker placement, resource management, and push-your-luck game. Players place their workers (consisting of leaders and followers) on different peninsula spaces around the island in order to roll dice in an attempt to gain as many resources as possible (i.e., mystic energy, crystal, ore, gold, and Atlantium). These resources can be used to craft various cosmic-gate components, which provide additional abilities and, ultimately, an escape from the sinking island. In addition to resources, one of the peninsulas offers the ability to gain library cards, which provide special powers and abilities. Players may choose to push their luck by placing their workers on peninsula spaces farther out from the center of the island as these spaces offer more lucrative resource rewards, but are more likely to flood, causing players to gain nothing and possibly lose their workers from those spaces on that round. After players place their workers, the entire island suffers misfortunes where cards are drawn from the misfortune deck in a quantity that is dependent on the number of players and the stage of the game. Misfortune cards determine which peninsulas, if any, flood during that round.

Rather than each player having their own turn, all players plan their worker placement together as they take a collective turn. During a given round, the player with the first player token has the final say on worker placement. At the end of the round, the first player token is passed to the next player.

If players can build the cosmic gate (by crafting nine gate components chosen for a given game) and the center gate tile, and then escape the city before it is completely flooded, they all win the game. Players must manage all considerations quite carefully, including various resources, worker allocation, and card play in a race against time. If, however, the entire island sinks beneath the waves (as the last island tile is flipped over to its water side) before the portal is complete, all players lose the game together.

While the components are beautiful, I am torn with this game. Yes, I want to play with the components just to interact with them. And the components are so well integrated into the mechanics of the game itself. However, because Atlantis Rising Second Edition is a purely cooperative game against an automa opponent, the game is either too easy or too difficult, depending on the player count and it does not scale well. Too few players, and the game is almost impossible. Too many players, and the game is too easy and sluggish—even with a collective-turn structure.

The game really feels all about fate . . . which is maybe the point? I don’t know. But it’s simply a luck-of-the-draw and luck-of-the-dice-chucking experience. I didn’t feel that there was very much of an opportunity for players to be clever or brilliant; Only an opportunity to try to address the collective crisis of a particular round. Every round, in the back of my mind, a little voice was saying, “clean up on peninsula four . . . clean up on peninsula two.” Even playing our best, most brilliant two-player game of Atlantis Rising Second Edition, it was still too easy to lose because of the happenstance of deck shuffles and poor dice rolls. Not a horrible experience . . . just not one that entirely engaged us in terms of mechanics.

SarahVasa: Yes! I felt frustrated. Things kept happening to us and at an alarming rate. The desire to rise above and overcome was impossible because of the randomness. I ended up losing sight of the greater goal of creating the cosmic gate. Instead, I felt trapped by the rising water levels and the desire to get more resources in time. Maybe my strategy would change as I played over and over again. But it just felt chaotic.

PeteSteele: Elf Creek Games reports that Atlantis Rising Second Edition has a 1–7 player count range and, while that sort of player count range certainly typically brings up yellow and red flags for me, Atlantis Rising Second Edition, to some extent (minus the scaling issue mentioned above, which is certainly not unique to this game), makes this work. Very often, games with large spans of player counts (more than three or four) need to alter rules to a notable extent in order to balance gameplay. Very often, these rules changes are extensive, which makes it feel like completely different games depending on the number of players. Plus, keeping track of the rules for the different versions is a royal pain. Atlantis Rising Second Edition certainly has some rules variations for their different player counts, but they are quite minimal and can be learned in less than three or four minutes.  

Another issue I have is related to the collective turn structure: at the beginning of the game, while the island is still fully above water, more experienced players may be more inclined to encourage less experienced players to explore and make their own decisions, but as the island begins to submerge, and the ever present possibility of collective loss becomes more and more real, more experienced players may have a difficult time keeping their mouths shut as novice players explore the possibility space. As this happens, novice players will be evermore motivated to simply listen to more experienced players, thus encouraging the quarterbacking.

Elf Creek Games, as well as the individual designers and artists, did a fantastic job depicting a diverse range of characters on the 10 double-sided counselor player boards. Each player board has different powers and the double-sided character artwork not only includes representation of racial and ethnic diversity, but it also depicts male-presenting and female-presenting versions of most characters with one on each side. Some of the characters on the player boards even present as clearly androgynous. All in all, this was very well done.

I would love to play a version of Atlantis Rising Second Edition that was semi-cooperative rather than cooperative. Something that involved having one player win more if they created more components, gathered more resources, lost fewer workers, or were involved in something more nefarious and devious, like being a traitor and helping the gods sink the island. That is, after all, how Hollywood would produce the movie version. I suppose we could create a homebrew version of this game, but it seems difficult given the collective turn structure. I am hoping that the Monstrosities expansion (discussed in more detail below), arriving in 2022, will allow for more complex player-to-player interactions through a semi-cooperative mode or something else. Time will tell.

We are back and forth enough on Atlantis Rising Second Edition that we do want to talk about a few alternatives: If you like the idea of escaping from a sinking island, Atlantis in particular, but want to do so in a competitive format, we recommend Survive Atlantis 30th Anniversary Edition (2020), designed by Julian Courtland-Smith, illustrated by David Ausloos, and published by Stronghold Games. 

If you like the idea of Survive Atlantis 30th Anniversary Edition, but prefer to escape a space station (still named Atlantis, of course) rather than the island of Atlantis, then you are in luck. A design team with overlapping members developed a space version of the game with a few rules variations. The biggest difference is the theme and setting. Check out Survive Space Attack (2015), designed by Julian Courtland-Smith, Geoff Engelstein, Brian Engelstein, and Sydney Engelstein; illustrated by William Bricker; and published by Stronghold Games. 

On the other hand, if you like the fully cooperative, or mostly cooperative, solve-a-crisis-as-the-world-goes-to-ruin-clean-up-on-aisles-1-through-40 variety of games, then we would recommend Defenders of the Realm (2010), designed by Richard Launius and illustrated by Larry Elmore. Defenders of the Realm is an older game, but still readily available and supported through the publisher, Eagle-Griffin Games. Full transparency: yes, it has the exact same mechanical failures of luck-of-the-deck shuffle and luck-of-the-dice rolling as Atlantis Rising Second Edition. The exact . . . same . . . problems. And the only reason I let Defenders of the Realm get away with it (and this is purely my own quite biased opinion—I can’t stress that enough) is because I am a child of the 80s and this game is an aesthetic love letter to 1980s fantasy gaming. That’s it. While I am harsher on 1980s fantasy for all its misogynistic and anti-inclusive nonsense, I am also more forgiving of rules mechanics from that era. Your mileage may vary. If you are interested, you can purchase all things Defenders of the Realm directly from Eagle-Griffin Games. 

Now, let’s get back to the sinking island.

Elf Creek Games does offer several component upgrades for Atlantis Rising Second Edition, such as a dedicated neoprene play mat that depicts the flooded side of Atlantis. Just like the components in the base game, this mat is high quality and beautiful to look at. However, unless you are a dedicated Atlantis Rising Second Edition player, I have to say this playmat is simply superfluous. Elf Creek Games has also put out a set of deluxe resource components, but since the resource tokens in the base game are more than enough, this is, again, superfluous.

Additionally, Elf Creek Games will be releasing a full expansion (Monstrosities) for Atlantis Rising Second Edition . . . sometime in 2022? Monstrosities will offer new challenges including a Medusa that turns Atlanteans to stone, harpies that swoop in from their lair and steal precious resources, and mechanics that use Scylla and Charybdis characters that add even more challenge. Monstrosities will also be sporting allies, magic items, and new locations.

The sheer expanse of Atlantis Rising Second Edition just makes it too darn table hungry to be able to play in any sort of coffee shop or cafe. In addition, it takes a little too long to learn how to go through the first game and play it in order for it to fit into one hour of jolly good fun. As such, we cannot approve it for cafe play. 

We’ve been a little bit back-and-forth in this review. But taking the good with the bad and the bad with the good, we have to admit that we had a fun time with this game. While it certainly wouldn’t be the first game, or even the fifth that I would pull off my shelf, with the right group of people I can absolutely see myself playing Atlantis Rising Second Edition again. And it certainly helps that the components are stunning, high-quality, and abundant. I have to say, while I would not blindly buy the Monstrosities expansion for this game, and personally feel no need to own the playmat or deluxe components, I am excited to see what the Monstrosities brings to the island city. Hopefully, the expansion addresses some of the issues of the base game. With all this in mind, I am glad to say that we award Atlantis Rising Second Edition with the Corax & Coffee Seal of Distinction. The turn structure is unique, it is easy to switch back-and-forth between different player counts with minimal rules variations, and the incorporation of components and mechanics in the game is simply phenomenal.

RickHendricks: So what do you think, Pete? The lost city of Atlantis—fact or fiction?

PeteSteele: . . . 

RickHendricks: I’m just saying that we don’t know for sure.

PeteSteele: . . . 

RickHendricks: It’s important to consider all perspectives.

PeteSteele: Like the existence of Scylla and Charybdis?

RickHendricks: Don’t be silly. Scylla and Charybdis are mythological. But maybe Atlantis did not sink. Maybe it fell off the edge of the Eart—

PeteSteele: Get out.

Atlantis Rising Second Edition (2019) earns Corax & Coffee's Seal of Distinction, but it is not Cafe Approved.