Review.

You’re gonna need a bigger boat/table (delete appropriately) Jaws: the board game is the latest semi co-op game from Ravensberger and fair warning this isn’t an entirely unbiased review, I’m an enormous fan of the movie so naturally I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this game and boy was it worth the wait.

Basic overview.

Jaws: The board game is a game of two halves, Act 1 takes place on Amity Island where each player takes on the roles of Quint, Brody and Hooper and work together to track down the shark player before they get a belly full of swimmers and attack the Orca.

During Act 1, players take on the roles of Quint, Brody and Hooper using various actions to attempt to track the shark down before he/she eats too many swimmers (9 to be exact) there are two ways which Act 1 will end. Either, the players attach 2 barrels to the shark or the shark eats 9 swimmers. If any of these conditions are met then Act 2 immediately begins.

The game starts with the shark player secretly writing down their starting location on their shark tracker and revealing the first “amity event” card, swimmers are then placed as instructed by the amity event card and then the shark player secretly takes their turn.

Shark turn.

The Shark player has up to 3 actions to use each turn and 4 secret powers to help outsmart the human players, the shark can move and eat swimmers and at the end of the turn announce if any swimmers have been eaten or if any trackers (barrels) in the water were set off but not in any particular order, just that these things happened during their turn. The ultimate goal of the shark is to eat 9 swimmers and avoid being hit by barrels.

Player turns.

As previously mentioned each player takes control of a character from the movie, Quint who’s ability is to launch barrels at the shark or into the water, Hooper who can move 2 spaces per 1 action and use his fish-finder, which forces the shark player to announce if they are in the same location as Hooper or nearby (adjacent) and finally Chief Brody who can close down beaches, starving the shark of fresh swimmers and use his binoculars to try to spot the shark at the beaches. If Brody uses his binoculars and the shark is at his location the shark player must reveal their location to the other players. All players must work together to try and track the shark, predict their movements and rescue the foolish swimmers.

Depending on how either side did in Act 1 the shark player will have a full belly of swimmers and ready to unleash hell on the Orca or, the human players will have tracked the shark down and be fully prepared for the big fight.

If the human players attached 2 barrels to the shark before the shark player managed to eat their quota of swimmers then they will be more prepared for Act 2 with access to extra gear which will help them defeat the Shark. On the other hand…if the the shark player managed to eat 9 swimmers then the shark most definitely has the upper hand with powerful shark abilities to help them chomp through the Orca and its doomed crew “farewell adieu to you fair Spanish laddies…” in short, the earlier the players track the shark the better.

Play a round.

The rounds are broke down in the following way:

Shark Chooses. the shark player chooses a location to resurface from the available relocation cards. the location cards supply information for the shark player and human players, depicting the location the shark will appear, how many dice the shark can attack with and its evade value which acts as a detractor to players attack rolls (Eg. player rolls 3 but the shark has an evade of 2 on his chosen resurface card so the attack does one damage). Once the shark player has chosen they secretly place their resurface token which matches the card (A,B or C ) they wish to use face down in front of them along with any shark ability cards they wish to use, these cards can often be devastating and really help win the game.

Crew Chooses. Human players can then move up to 2 spaces along The Orca or in the water (to transition from the water to the boat it requires the full 2 points of movement). once players have moved they can then select the space to attack by placing their target token on the space they want to attack and the weapon they wish to use keeping in mind that melee or attachable weapons must target an adjacent space to the controlling player but ranged weapons have the freedom of targeting any water space.

Shark Reveals. Shark player reveals their location and places their shark mover (meeple) in their chosen water space.

Crew Attacks. The crew now get to attack the shark with their chosen weapon(s)

Shark Attacks. Now the shark attacks the boat space its in or adjacent to using the dice depicted on the chosen location card. If the shark scores the white number on the boat space the that space is damaged and flipped over but if the shark player rolls enough to score the black number then the boat space is destroyed and removed from play. If there is a crew member on the space the shark player damages or destroys then they fall in the water allowing the shark player a free bonus attack (1 Dice) against the crew member(s).

Cleanup. Finally discard the location cards an reveal new ones ready for the next round. The game ends in the event of the following: The shark player destroys the Orca or kills all crew members (shark wins) or the shark is defeated (crew wins).

Components.

I found the components to be of high quality the cards have a smooth matte texture too them and are all depicted with 1970’s style artwork and lettering keeping to the theme and classic nature of the movie. The cards themselves have quotes from the movie and the Amity event cards cleverly use events from the movie whilst keeping relevance to the game play. The reversible player boards are of a good quality again with stylised artwork reminiscent of those old ladybird books with easy to read/follow turn references. The board itself is without doubt the best quality reversible board I have ever owned/played on, a simple bi-fold without and messy creases or overlapping and with the same matte finish on the cards.

Conclusion.

Jaws: The board game is a simple yet highly engaging and strategic game if your a fan of the movie then I absolutely recommend you get this game. its a paint your own Jaws in a similar way that Rebellion is to Star Wars. What if the shark went on a mass feeding spree and ate 9 people instead of the 5 (and I assume a dog) in the movie and it ends with a frantic Hooper wailing the shark in the head with a hammer whilst he is casually being devoured. The game captures the suspense of the movie and sparks debate amongst players arguing amongst themselves where the shark might be (it makes for great entertainment for the shark player I can tell you now). The Amity event cards and various gear make for interesting replay-ability (I’m still yet to see that famous canister appear in a game). Im honestly hard pressed to find any real issues with this game the only thing I’ve noticed is that the game does tend to favour the shark player more but that in itself I feel adds to the suspense of the game in the way that theres a real sense of urgency and if the players don’t catch the shark quick the fight on the Orca is going to be much tougher than it needs to be.

Final Word.

Jaws: The board game, is already becoming one of the most requested games I own and its barley a month old in my collection. I’ve yet to play it with a group and it not be a hit. There’s nothing more fun than watching people debate their next move and knowing full well they’re not even close to catching you the look of horror on a groups face that realise you’ve just cleared an entire beach of swimmers with one of your power tokens or watch everybody scramble on the Orca to desperately survive and defeat the shark before it chomps through the entire boat. Jaws takes the gold on its thematic development alone and its 2 part gameplay is like 2 games in one and with its current price tag being less than £30 its worth every penny.

If you enjoy deduction and invisible player games such as Scotland yard, letters from Whitechapel or Fury of Dracula you will love this. If you’re a fan of the movie you will love this game and enjoy throwing quotes at each other whilst you play. for me it ticks all the boxes and if I rated games on a 1 to 10 basis (which I have the inability to do) this would come in at a strong 9.

Show me the way to go home…