Pandemic vs Forbidden Island: Which Co-op to Buy First

Pandemic vs Forbidden Island is a fair fight because the two games share a designer, Matt Leacock, and a core idea: the board is falling apart faster than the players can fix it, and the only way to win is to talk. One is the smaller, lighter, cheaper version of the other. Which you should buy first depends on who you are buying it for.

The quick answer: Forbidden Island for families, younger kids, or a group that has never played a cooperative game. Pandemic for adults, teenagers, and anyone who wants a game they will still be losing to in a year. For more picks for a mixed-age table, see our best family board games.

How do the two games work?

Forbidden Island lays out 24 tiles as an island. Players move around it collecting four treasures, each of which requires a set of four matching cards and a trip to a specific tile. At the end of each turn, you draw flood cards. Flooded tiles flip over; flooded again, they sink and are gone. Waters Rise cards raise the flood rate and reshuffle the danger back on top. Everyone escapes by helicopter with all four treasures, or the island takes you with it. Publisher specs list 2 to 4 players, ages 10 and up, about 30 minutes (Gamewright).

Pandemic puts four diseases on a world map of 48 cities. Players take four actions a turn: move, treat disease cubes, build research stations, share cards, or cure a disease by turning in five cards of one color at a station. Then you draw cards, and then you infect cities. Epidemic cards accelerate the infection rate and, like Waters Rise, reshuffle the already-infected cities back on top of the deck so they hit again. Cure all four diseases to win. Lose to outbreaks, running out of cubes, or running out of cards. Publisher specs list 2 to 4 players, ages 8 and up, about 45 minutes (Z-Man Games).

The family resemblance is obvious once you have played both. Forbidden Island is Pandemic with the world shrunk to an island and the diseases replaced by water.

Pandemic vs Forbidden Island: the side-by-side

Note that the box ages run against intuition: Pandemic says 8 and Forbidden Island says 10. In practice most families find Forbidden Island the easier game for younger children, because the board is smaller and the goal is concrete. Treat box ages as a floor.

Which is easier to learn?

Forbidden Island. The whole teach is: take three actions, draw two treasure cards, draw flood cards. The tiles tell you where to go. A child who can match pictures can follow it. The one subtle rule is Waters Rise, and even that is simple to show once.

Pandemic adds more moving parts: the five kinds of action, the difference between treating and curing, how research stations work, the hand limit, and the Epidemic sequence (increase, infect, intensify). It is still a light game by hobby standards, but the first explanation takes ten minutes and the first play usually includes a mid-game “wait, can I do that?”

If the goal is to get a new group through a complete game without frustration, Forbidden Island wins. If the goal is to give an experienced group something to chew on, the extra rules in Pandemic are exactly where the chewing happens.

Which is harder to beat?

Pandemic, and it stays hard.

Forbidden Island on the easiest water level is very winnable, which is the point for a first co-op. Turn the dial up and it gets tense, especially at four players when the island floods faster relative to your actions. But experienced groups beat it most of the time at every level, and the ceiling arrives within a dozen plays.

Pandemic with four Epidemics is a fair fight for a new group. Five is hard. Six is a serious problem that experienced players lose regularly. The map is big enough that you cannot be everywhere, the Epidemic reshuffle makes recently hit cities hit again, and an outbreak chain can end a game in one card flip. The Pandemic strategy guide exists because people need one.

If this is useful, the newsletter sends more comparisons like it.

Which one has the quarterbacking problem?

Both, because every cooperative game with open information does. One confident player can start telling everyone what to do, and the quieter players stop thinking.

Forbidden Island suffers less from it, mostly because the game is short and the decisions are smaller. There is less for a quarterback to optimize, and a child can hold their own plan in their head.

Pandemic’s bigger map and longer chains of logic make quarterbacking more tempting. A good host handles it with a house rule: each player announces their own turn before anyone comments. If your group has a strong personality in it, that is worth saying out loud before the first game.

Which one is better for families with kids?

Forbidden Island, for three reasons.

1. The goal is tangible. “Grab the four treasures and get to the helicopter” is a story a six-year-old understands. “Discover cures for four diseases” is abstract.
2. The components invite play. The treasures are chunky plastic figures. The island tiles are illustrated. Kids like holding the pieces.
3. The game is short. Thirty minutes fits an attention span. A lost game stings less when you can reset and go again before bed.

Pandemic works well with kids around ten and up, especially ones who already like games. The theme can land oddly for some families, and that is a legitimate reason to pick the island instead.

Which one lasts longer on the shelf?

Pandemic. The base game alone has enough variety in role combinations and difficulty settings for many months of play. The expansion line (On the Brink, In the Lab, State of Emergency) adds more. And Pandemic Legacy, a campaign version that permanently changes the board over a dozen or more sessions, is one of the most praised board games ever made. It is its own purchase, but the base game is the on-ramp.

Forbidden Island has no expansions. Its sequels, Forbidden Desert and Forbidden Sky, are separate games with their own rules, and Forbidden Desert is a strong next step. But the island itself will get solved by a group that plays it often. That is fine. It costs less, and it has done its job by then.

Verdict: which co-op should you buy first?

Buy Forbidden Island if:

• You are buying for a family, especially with children under ten.
• Nobody at the table has played a cooperative game before.
• You want the teach under five minutes and the game under thirty.
• You want to spend as little as possible to find out whether co-op games are for you.

Buy Pandemic if:

• The table is adults or teenagers who already enjoy games.
• You want a game you can lose, repeatedly, and want to come back to.
• You are curious about Pandemic Legacy and want to learn the system first.
• You want something with real expansion depth.

Buy both if you can. They do not compete for the same evening. Forbidden Island is the one that goes to grandma’s house, the beach rental, and the kids’ game afternoon. Pandemic is the one that comes out when the kids are asleep. Together they cost less than many single hobby games.

FAQ

Is Forbidden Island just a simpler Pandemic?

Essentially yes. Same designer, same structure of actions, card draws, and an escalating threat deck. Forbidden Island has fewer rules, a smaller board, and a shorter runtime, with a treasure-hunt theme instead of disease.

Is Pandemic good with 2 players?

Yes. Two players each take two roles’ worth of work and the game is tighter, but it is fully playable and many couples play it that way. Forbidden Island also plays well at two.

Which is better, Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert?

Forbidden Desert is a little heavier and more varied, and most experienced players prefer it. Forbidden Island is the easier teach. If you already own Island and want more, Desert is the natural next buy.

How long does Pandemic take to learn?

About ten minutes to explain and one game to understand. Most groups feel comfortable by their second play and start experimenting with difficulty by the third.

More cooperative ideas

The game is the reason. The people are the point. Both of these boxes work because they make four people lean in over the same problem and talk it through. If you want more games that do that, subscribe to The Ludarium newsletter: new pieces on playing together, with news from the Indianapolis lounge as it opens.