Lost Cities: No Need for a Whip, Indy

The Review Crew's Take on
LOST CITIES

# Players . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

Game time . . . . . . . . 45-75 minutes

Set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 minutes

Luck . . . . . . 5. . . . . .Strategy

*Interplay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Visual Appeal . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Component Quality . .. . . . . 8

*Replayability . . . . . . . . . . . 9



*See "How we Rate" for a definition.

You might want to don your khakis and fedora for the game of Lost Cities. Your inner Indiana Jones will be making an appearance. No need for the whip, though. There aren't any bad guys in this game, just other adventurer archeologists vying for the same treasures and seeking the same Lost Cities as you.

Five different destinations are nicely illustrated on the game board, some of them modeled after real ancient ruins. At least one is legend only (or is it?) The goal of all players is to mount an expedition to one or all of these lost cities, but the first few steps of your journey will be in the red. (Expeditions are expensive, don't you know?) You advance along the track to your destination by playing cards in the appropriate color, and each card has to be higher than the last. Along the way, you can gain bonuses and the highly sought-after artifacts.

It's a simple concept and easy to learn, but managing the expeditions is challenge enough to bring you back often. Also adding to replayability is the changeable game board--the artifacts, bonuses and ladders are randomly moved to different places every time you play. Interplay is on the low side because there's not much you can do to affect the play of other adventurers except get to the artifacts first, which makes for a non-confrontational--just plain fun--game. Indiana Jones might even put his whip away for this one.

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