Board Game: Jaws

Beware the lurking cello.

The Game: Jaws
The Publisher: Ravensburger
Time: 45 minutes or so
Players: Me, Michelle, Cael, Aaron

Game Play: Jaws is a hidden-movement game involving a shark, so what's not to love? One player controls Bruce, the shark, and the other(s) control Hooper, Brody, and Quint, the trio of shark-hunters who go out on a not-big-enough boat to hunt the hungry fish. The game proceeds in two acts.

In Act I, the board shows Amity Island. Brody is stuck on land, but can rescue swimmers at the beach, and bring barrels from a shop in town to docks where Hooper and Quint can pick them up. Hooper can zip around the water faster than Quint, but he can't launch barrels. Quint, then, can fire a barrel into the water.

Bruce, meanwhile, swims around eating swimmers and trying to remain hidden. You get noticed if you bump a barrel and of course if you eat a swimmer, but those things only tell the players that you've been in an area. If Quint hits you with a barrel or Hooper uses his fish-finder on the right area, though, you're made. Act I goes until Bruce has two barrels on him or until he eats a certain number of swimmers, and then we progress to Act II.

Pictured: A shark.

In Act II, the action is set aboard the Orca, Quint's boat, and the shark is trying to destroy the boat and/or eat the people, while the people are trying to kill the shark with whatever's to hand. The hunters get more or less gear based on how many swimmers the shark eats in Act I, and likewise, the shark gets Shark Ability (or, as we kept saying, sharkability) cards the more people it nommed.

The odds are pretty much on the shark's side, here. Most gear is disposable and it goes fast. Melee weapons, of course, don't usually go away, but the shark can pop up in one of three zones, so you need to guess where he's coming, and even then he gets an "evade" rating (which subtracts from damage).

Aaron and Michelle face the prospect of being lunch.

In the end, we managed to kill the shark while literally clinging to one section of damaged boat, but it came down to one roll. Hard Aaron failed it, the shark would have destroyed the boat, no problem.

The boat at full health.

Opinions: I like pretty much everything about this game. Jaws is one of my favorite movies, I love sharks, and I love hidden-movement games. I was gracious enough to let Cael play the shark because he was enthused about it and I love my kiddos, but also I wanted to see how complicated it was, and the answer is "not very." Compare/contrast to Fury of Dracula or Letters from Whitechapel, which are much bigger spaces and have a lot more going on.

I think the game captures the feel of the movie pretty well, too, by splitting the action between Amity and the deep blue sea. The style of play changes between acts, but retains enough of a throughline that it doesn't feel like you're playing two separate games (though you pretty much are). All in all, I like this one a lot.

Keep? Yep.