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Jaws – The Game
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Description
Everybody knows the Steven Spielberg movie, Jaws! It’s the tale of a Great White Shark that terrorises the United States coastal town of Amity Island. To begin with, the mayor dismisses the attacks. Finally, police chief Brody, oceanographer Hooper and the eccentric Quint decide to hunt the killer shark.
Ravensburger and Prospero Hall are on a roll at the moment. Alongside Disney (and Marvel) Villainous, they’re releasing all the pop culture hits. Jaws is a one-versus-all kind of game, like Scotland Yard, Whitechapel, or Fury of Dracula. One to three players play as Brody, Quint and Hooper. Meanwhile, one player takes on the role of the villain-of-the-piece shark, itself!
Jaws is a game of two halves. The first ‘act’, the Amity Island phase, mirrors the first half of the movie. The board represents the island itself. The (player playing as the) shark attempts to nibble on tourists. The human characters, meanwhile, try to spot the shark and protect swimmers from attacks in the water.
For the second act, you flip the main board. Now you’re on board The Orca, Quint’s vessel. The ship is sinking, like the latter stages of Jaws. (Spoiler alert! But come on, everyone’s seen Jaws, right?) Now the humans have to battle the shark in a tense, tight stand-off. You’ll have to use action and strategy cards to both defend the poor Orca boat. At the same time, you’ll try to defend yourself from the relentless, hungry shark!
Character and event cards take centre stage, determining player abilities. They also create dramatic in-game actions for both the human characters, and the shark. If humans kill the shark, they take the victory. But if the player portraying the shark manages successful attacks on the Orca, they win! Think it’s safe to go back into the water? Not a chance! All you need is to start humming that famous John Williams soundtrack…
Player Count: 2-4 Players
Time: 60 minutes
Age: 12+
Jaws was not just another cult classic. Through a huge following and excellent reception, it gained its place in film history as a classic. A giant shark with an insatiable appetite terrorises the innocents of Amity Island. What’s not to love? Well, it gets better knowing that a rag-tag team of misfits decide to take the lead on the shark slaying. Between managing the chaos, arguing, and having very questionable style choices, they do manage to beat the shark down. It’s epic, and a film you need to have seen in your lifetime!
Alternatively, if you’re after a more hands-on experience hunting sharks and saving the folk of the ’80s, Jaws the board game, developed by Prospero Hall and published by Ravensburger, is a superb alternative. The game features asymmetrical teams, is for 2-4 players and plays in around 45 minutes!
Gameplay
Jaws (the board game) is asymmetrical, 1-3 of the players play as the heroes of the story, and the other player plays as the shark. The game runs over two phases, Amity island and The Orca. Our heroic human heroes (Hooper, Quint and Brody) must take down the beast to win. The perfect eating machine wins if it kills all three heroes, or destroys the Orca.
The game is asymmetrical from the get-go. Phase One is effectively a game of cat and mouse… or man and shark. Working together, Hooper, Quint and Brody must attach two barrels to the shark.
Phase One
In Jaws, each hero gets a different set of abilities and limitations but with a shared objective, and the shark plays in a completely different way. The heroes need to work as a unit to communicate their plans and abilities. Only one can collect barrels, only one can carry them easily, only one can fire them at the shark. They also have a selection of abilities to coincide with these, but communication is key! The last thing you want is for each beach to become a bikini buffet for the shark!
Speaking of, the shark has an equally tough job. The shark needs to stay hidden from the heroes as best it can, not allowing them to find him, whilst also devouring the poor people of Amity Island. If a swimmer vanishes from the board, you can have a solid guess at where the shark is.
The barrels, iconic of Jaws, aren’t wasted by the humans when spent. They act as beacons to identify when the shark has been in that area and can help identify where the shark is. However, loading them up and collecting them is a hassle, and by the time you’ve loaded every area up the shark may have a belly full of Speedos!
On the flip side of this, the shark isn’t just on a hiding and eating routine. That would eventually be caught up with! To spice things up, and set it aside from the other Great Whites of the ocean, it has a few tricks up its sleeve. From extreme speed to avoiding triggers, the shark can escape the heroes in a pinch! But these abilities only last one turn, so they need to be used sparingly.
The shark must eat as many swimmers as possible to gain strength. When the shark has two barrels, or has eaten so many swimmers, the game moves on to Phase Two.
Phase Two
This is the beginning of Jaws’ best scenes. The Orca. The vessel that could either become the greatest creation in terms of shark hunting or simply shark chow. The boat is split into eight sections on a 2×8 grid, shown through cards. The cards are double-sided to show gradual wear and tear and can be removed to show full destruction.
The heroes now need to kill the shark, like in the Jaws movie. Dependent on how well they did at preventing locals from becoming lunch, they’ll receive item cards to help them. They do a range of things, centred around hindering and slowing the shark. Their goal is to get the shark to zero health.
Each hero gets their own starting items, reflective in some ways of the film. There is no guarantee you’ll get that explosive finale… However, bashing a shark to death with a hammer is acceptable in this scenario. This is the least asymmetrical part of the game for the hero team. You all choose where to stand, how to attack and with what.
For the shark, however, this is another display of how the balance occurs. 3v1 is never a fair fight, but in this game it is. The shark will gain abilities to use dependent on how much it ate, the opposite of the heroes really. They also get a choice of three breaching points around the boat to appear at. If they appear at a specific point, they can attack adjacent parts of the boat and any heroes in the water. The boat can only take so much, as can the heroes.
Victory is sealed when the heroes perish or the boat sinks! These points also have stats for the shark, determining its evasiveness and damage it will do. Sometimes it’s too tempting to not go for the big hits!
During their turn, they secretly choose one of the three spaces available and keep it hidden. Then the players organise and make decisions. The shark breaches, players attack if appropriate, and then the shark attacks. Round done! Of course, it can seem unbalanced at first glance, but the lack of choice for the shark becomes clear as the boat sinks! Eventually, it’s a guarantee that the shark will appear in a specific place to cause damage, otherwise they’re just buying time!
How It Handles
Jaws is one of those games you immediately find yourself knee-deep in. There is little time to joke around or lose track, as your opposition is listening. They’re learning, developing countermeasures and exploiting weakness. Whether you’re the humans or the shark, there is no scope for foolishness. It’s life or death out there!
Humans
The main thing for the human players is co-operation. They must work together in order to prevent people from being eaten. Communication is key. You aren’t able to go rogue, the joint goal doesn’t allow for it at all. There is a responsibility held here, a joint responsibility, to ensure the survival of the inhabitants of the island. The group may be a ragtag bunch, but the cop, the shark expert, and the boat captain are clearly the best men for the job. And even if they’re not, they’re all you’ve got!
Generally, it doesn’t matter too much who you play as. You’ll always be working towards a common goal. The characters have different focuses in Phase One, dependent on their role in the film. You’ll have a job to do, but you’ll work together to do it. The game’s main requirement is cooperative decision making, but it’s not that simple! You’ve got to work together to ensure the shark is always on the run and scared. Without that fear, they won’t see things as risks, and that’s dangerous. Their focus is keeping hidden and taking sly attempts to gain strength. Allowing leeway to do as they please will mean they’ll be using their abilities to eat more rather than escape.
Despite having a cooperative focus, it will never be so simple. As in the film, there will be some disputes. Jaws has a great way of showing that there is a level of responsibility that can’t be held at a joint level. Although you share the goal, when it’s a heads or tails situation, you have to make the call. It’s the balance of roguishness and leadership in your own role that you need to maintain. No one wants to backseat drive another character, but you still need to know what you can do specifically. With such clear roles throughout Phase One, you need to be on it. You do your job and fulfil your role. Phase One will lead to Phase Two no matter how you perform, and a bad performance due to communication issues doesn’t bode well…
In Phase Two, you don’t get the benefit of unique roles or jobs. You get unique items with unique benefits, but that’s all. Everyone sings to the same hymn sheet, and that’s the sheet of shark slaughter. You need to co-operate, but in less of a “do your job” style, but more in the sense of divide and conquer. Having three spots that may reveal a menacing maw means you can’t leave any alone without good cause. The discussion here though can be a lot more open due to the repeated round style. And when the ship inevitably turns to scrap, there will be less area to cover, meaning it may go down to the wire! The shark has to take you all down, and being a martyr is a completely rational thing to do here!
Shark
Jaws himself has a very different play style, but still plays with balance in mind. As stated, it’s going to be 3v1 so you’re automatically outnumbered! They can divide and conquer, ruining your chances of survival and ending the gourmet experience early… Luckily, you have the whole ocean to sneak around in. Your goal is much more streamlined. And, putting it bluntly, it’s because you’re the bad guy. You only need to consume and hide. The collateral doesn’t matter to you. You might be outnumbered, but you have no baggage! All you have to do is build strength and wait until the humans make an error. But don’t forget, time is against you! The longer you wait, the better organised they might be.
During Phase One, you’ll get a few default abilities. These are going to help you take down more swimmers and cause chaos with the human’s plans. That being said, the game is very tense. Playing as the one being pursued, you’ll realise you can’t have a plan, and that’s quite thrilling! But it gets worse! You need a full face mask to avoid smiling or giving clues as the humans don’t miss a trick. You may be the hunter, but you’re being hunted, and you feel it. It demonstrates a terrible feeling of dread and constant panic… However, the game still produces the thrill of narrow escapes, like not being hit by a barrel and tailing your pursuers.
Listening to the opposition’s justifications for their ideas makes you feel like they’d be better sharks at times, but you can’t necessarily guarantee it. Being the shark is a tremendously unique feeling. A mad one. You can’t describe the thrill of being chased by the people around the table without any limitations. Risks are yours to take, and when they pay off it’s a mad feeling. The temptation to add to the madness is incredible when it’s legal, and stirring the pot is crazy fun. There is no expectation of you to speak at all, but any smile, time taken, or flinch sparks outrage.
In Phase Two the tables turn and now you’re the one who is on the attack! You still need to hide and choose a breach point methodically, but fear isn’t the driving factor here. We found going for the opportunity of easy damage wasn’t always wise. The breach cards have your evasion stat on them and the damage you’ll deal.
Choosing a less desirable breaching point for more evasion was wise in our case, as the humans managed some fantastic dice rolls! It doesn’t matter how ripped a shark you become in Phase One, a machete to the head can still cause an awful amount of damage. Inevitably, you’ll have less and less choice as you decimate the boat, and the humans will be more and more cornered. Your shark ability cards will also be very circumstantially used here, but the right one at the right time can give you more of an edge when needed!
Final Thoughts On Jaws
We had high expectations of Jaws, and it still blew us away. It wasn’t just the gameplay, it was the little things too! The artwork, styling, meeples and board were a few of the notable things we looked at and went “oh wow!” The play between both teams is different enough to be interesting, but so intertwined that you’re always watching them. By disregarding the opposition’s actions, you’ll fall behind quickly!
The abilities between the three humans are different enough to feel like valuable contributions but focused enough to not be a one-trick pony. On the other hand, the shark’s abilities were also excellently powerful, but were one-time use, balancing out the not knowing and mystery for the opposition.
For a game that looks to be a cat and mouse-esque film port, this is fantastic. There is no denying it excellently links to the cult classic, with each card containing a quote from the film. It’s impressively designed, and I guarantee your performance in Phase One is not a surefire route to winning.
Jaws looks gorgeous, fits well within its theme with the original content at its heart. And, in all honesty, even if you don’t like the film Jaws – which you do, everyone does – it’s still a solid choice of game for asymmetrical team play! For more on Jaws, check out our unboxing video and Tom’s First Impressions.
Editors note: This blog was originally published on October 14th, 2019. Updated on October 13th, 2021 to improve the information available.
A particular favourite genre of game for me is the hidden movement game. I really enjoy the aspect of both trying to outwit your opponent(s) as well as figuring out the best strategy to achieve victory. One of my favourites of these types of games to play is Jaws, designed by Prospero Hall (a personal fave of mine) & Brian Kirk, and published by Ravensburger.
For those not familiar with the game, one person assumes the role of the shark, and up to three other takes on the roles of Brody, Hooper & Quint from the film. The game takes place over two acts, with the first act set on Amity Island and the ocean surrounding it, and the second act taking place on the Orca (Quint’s boat) in the ocean.
The first act is a game to gain an advantage for the second act, with shark aiming to eat as many swimmers as possible, and the other trying to find and attach two barrels to the shark.
The second act is a game to the death where the shark must either destroy the orca, or kill the other three characters, and the others are trying to kill the shark.
It was when watching the film (for about the 100th time – if you haven’t seen it, go and watch it immediately!) then I started wondering if I can adapt the rules for the game to make it a passable solo game.
As soon as I had watched Bruce (the name given to the animatronic shark used in the film) meet his untimely fate. I got out my notepad and started scribbling down ideas on how I could make it work. Here’s what I came up with.
I decided the best way was to come up with a mechanic that could work for the shark, and play as the trio of heroes, adapting the existing gameplay where I could, and limiting the number of changes. My solution was to introduce a good old D-12 to decide where the shark would appear in Act 1 (there are twelve spaces on the board). That way I could factor in the ‘not knowing’ aspect of a hidden movement game.
With that decided, I then had to remove aspects of the gameplay that would not workmake sense. I removed the fish seeker from Hooper and restricted him to the shallow spaces only. I removed the binoculars from Brody and made it slightly harder to close a beach. I also decided to limit the characters to three actions.
I also decided to add in some rules for the shark, whereby if he rolled a number that matched a beach space with swimmers in, he automatically munched one swimmer, and had the ability through a dice roll to snack on up to two more swimmers. I also removed his four special abilities as they did not make sense with the version I was planning.
In terms of act 2, I decided the changes would be to draw a single resurface card after I had placed my crew and targets to determine where the shark would surface. I also would automatically draw a shark ability card (if any left) as well.
That was that, and with my notes scribbled down, I grabbed the game, and my solo game buddy (my pooch Loki) and set about trying it out.
Act 1 – Brucie Bonuses
The first event card drawn was not too bad, it added five swimmers (not great), but I could pick up barrels for free – extremely helpful with less actions available.
Next up was to roll the d-12 and see where Bruce would be appearing. I rolled a three, which meant he was within range of Quint I could attach a barrel on the first turn, ‘great, I am going to have so much gear to take him on in the Orca!’ I thought to myself. After using that turn to get Brody in place to close a beach on the next turn (You open the beaches on the 4th of July, it’s like ringing the dinner bell!), and trundle about rescuing two swimmers with Hooper. A good start!
The next round saw a card adding five more swimmers again, and boy (or should that be buoy?) did I pay for that! The D12 was rolled and bang, Bruce surfaced in space 12 (west beach) and helped himself to a snack. He then rolled for his Brucie bonus, and sure enough rolled a two, and helped himself to two more swimmers. The fact Hooper was in the same space was irrelevant, as Quint was the only one who could shoot barrels.
The next turn, I was able to close a beach and save three swimmers in one go with Brody, move Hooper around to give Quint an extra Barrel. Brucie decided he was going to surface on the other side of the island, rolling a ten and helping himself to a swimmer and an extra Brucie Bonus because of course he rolled one damage on his other di. I could not reach him with Quint, so he disappeared back into the ocean (farewell and adieu to thee fair Spanish ladies . . .).
It was at this point Loki & I had a sit-rep to see where we were. Bruce had munched five swimmers in three turns – not great, but also not the worst position I had been in playing as the trio before.
The next round turned out to be the last in act 1, as the shark once again roiled a three. This meant no swimmers to munch on, and Brucie was again in range of Quint, So I duly attached the second barrel and that ended the first act.
Act 2 – Boys, oh boys! I think he’s come back for his noon feeding . . .
I was feeling good, I had a lot of gear on which I could equip my guys with, I had drawn two lots of ammo which doubled my rifle (smile you son of a . . .) and pistol usage, and Brucie only had a few shark ability cards.
I placed my figures, and away we went, first card, attacked a boat space I was not targeting, and the role was high enough to destroy that piece . . .
Ok, ok, bad start, but I am still in a good place, next up I played the chum card (which I adapted to make Brucie reveal his next resurface card (which was the space he had just destroyed). With that knowledge I targeted all my guys on that space and rolled for damage. Six di rolls later and we had succeeded in doing a grand total of one damage to old Bruce . . . just seventeen more to go!
Then it was his turn, and of course he rolled a massive five damage (3 di).
I decided the best rule for this eventuality was to choose the space with the highest value to attack, so he did, destroyed another piece of the orca, dropped Hooper in the water and had a free munch on him.
This is not going well is it Loki?
The next few turns went pretty much the same, and before I knew it, I was down to one piece of the Orca, and two of my meeples in the sea. . . My only hope was to target the right place (a 50/50 chance) . . .yep, you guessed, I chose the wrong one, Brucey came in like a hurricane and destroyed the Orca. And that was that!
Conclusion
It was bloody, brutal, and brief – and I really enjoyed it. I think overall the tweaks I made were not well balanced between the two acts. I found the first act too easy for the humans, and the second act too easy for Brucie.
I have therefore tweaked my rules introducing a successfail mechanic for attaching barrels in act 1, and having the three resurface cards visible before drawing at random which one the shark will attack for act 2.
This gives Brucie more of a chance to fill up on swimmers in act 1 and more of chance to actually do any damage to him in act 2.
I also created mock ups of the revised player cards as part of the rules pack, I have created and be interested if anyone gives this a go and let me know what they think?
Overall, there is a good solo game in there, even if I have not landed on it just yet, but I still enjoyed playing it despite the fact I could not play as Brucie – Mike rule 101 – always be the bad guy!
Let me know what you think of this as a concept and of any other games you think I could try and adapt to solo play.
Until next time, show me the way to go home, I’m tired and I want to go to bed…
For an online, in depth copy of the solo play rules, click here!
Zatu Score
You might like
- The asymmetrical style.
- A superb theme. You'll find plenty of links to the original movie.
- The different phase play styles.
Might not like
- A potential win can quickly turn into a loss.
- You must co-operate at all times!