Review: Lost Ruins of Arnak (Czech Games Edition)

The moment you set up this game on your table, you’ll feel teleported into your favorite archaeological adventure movie — most likely that series featuring the guy who runs away from giant boulders and can’t lose his hat no matter how hard he tries.

In Lost Ruins of Arnak from Czech Games Edition, players become explorers uncovering the mysteries of a lost civilization. But there’s more to the game than meets the eye, thanks to an unlikely mix mechanics and multiple paths leading to the win. And the game’s ability to support solo play as well as a great group experience is the golden idol of gaming (just don’t take it off that innocent-looking display pillar).

Grab your backpack and whip as we begin excavating the top five things you need to find — er, know — in Lost Ruins of Arnak.

Starting with the Cards

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There’s a lot happening in Lost Ruins of Arnak, so let’s take the game one step at a time.

First, the game has a basic deck building mechanic. Each player gets an identical starting deck of cards representing their funding, ability to explore, and their inherent fear of the terrors waiting out there.

As you explore the island, you’ll add and remove cards from your deck. Like any good deck builder, those changes alter your available options by granting you extra resources, helping you travel, or making you waste time (and lose victory points) by bulking up your deck with extra fear cards.

Exploring the Board

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Each player gets an individual board for organizing their resources (more about that in a moment), but the real action takes place on the central game board.

The main board represents locations on island you’re exploring plus any guardians that live there. Along the right side of the board is the research track, where you gain bonuses and victory points as you dig deeper into the island’s mysteries.

Along the top of the board are spaces for the artifact deck, item deck, fear deck, and discards. The card market also lives up here. It include a clever integrated turn-tracking feature that elegantly reflects how going deeper into the jungle gives you more possibilities for discovery while simultaneously making supplies harder to get.

Juggling the Resources

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Lost Ruins of Arnak is more than a deck building game, though. It also demands that players gather and balance their use of several unique resources, represented by high-quality plastic pieces and thick, sturdy card stock tokens.

Coin, compasses, and arrow heads are the most common resources. Compasses represent a player’s ability to explore while arrowheads are help them fend off threats. Coins are your expedition’s material support from back home.

As you search the ruins, you also find tablets and jewels. Tablets are ancient texts that help you unlock special abilities and the power of artifacts. Jewels are powerful treasures with mystical powers which can advance your research or help you overcome dangerous guardians in the ruins.

Limited Actions Keep Things Moving

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Each game of Lost Ruins of Arnak lasts exactly five rounds. During a round, each player uses their single main action, supplemented by any free actions available to them.

At the start of each game, this seems like a challenging limitation but as the game continues, players gain bonuses and new cards which give them extra resources and more actions to use them.

Exploring on Your Own

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In addition to being a solid multi-player game, Lost Ruins of Arnak includes robust solo playing options as well.

In the box, you get a solo variant supported by a custom set of tiles which create a “rival action stack.” These tiles direct what your opponent does on their turns. The deck includes two sets of action tiles which let you adjust the game’s difficulty level.

For an even bigger challenge, visit the Czech Games Edition web site and try The Search for Professor Kutil solo campaign game. The site gives you two ways to play, either with downloadable print-and-play rules and accompanying card deck or with a free mobile-friendly web app at https://solo.arnak.game.

Verdict

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At first glance, Lost Ruins of Arnak looks like an overwhelmingly large game with a dizzying array of things happening. But once you learn the game’s handful of icons and make it through a couple of turns, Lost Ruins of Arnak rewards you with an elegant and extremely engaging play experience.

Yes, it’s a big game with a lot going on, but its size gives it room to be amazing. We deeply enjoyed its clever mix of mechanics and multiple paths to victory. The randomness built into game setup creates high replayability while keeping play balanced so you never feel like you’re at the mercy of random elements.

Formalizing different levels of challenge with a double-sided board is a pure win with us, as is the really delightful solo mode options.

We highly recommend this for friends and families looking for something both fun and mentally challenging.