Deep Sea Adventure

As you might imagine, we have a ton of games here at Family Game Shelf. Although we love our games, they do take up a lot of space. So when we found the small-boxed Deep Sea Adventure game we knew we could make space for it.

Although it comes in a small box (it fits inside the palm of your hand) the game is full of strategy and decisions. The games Love Letter, Spot It and Saboteur come to mind for their size, game appeal and playability.

In this post we’ll cover the Deep Sea Adventure rules, how to play, how to win and whether we think you should make room for it on your family game shelf.

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The game comes with a fun story. You are part of a group of explores hoping to find treasure. But, as boats and diving equipment are expensive, you’ve partnered with several other explores to share a submarine. You are also all sharing the same air tank. You have to budget your air time with your treasure seeking. Who will take home the most treasure?

Setting Up Deep Sea Adventure

Despite the box size, the game comes with lots of pieces. First, there is the submarine where players will start and finish their turns. It has the air tank count on it. Next, there are three different level of treasure. You set these up in a line coming from the sub with the lightest treasure starting first. There are also blank spaces that start on the side and are used during turns. Last there is the player movers. These are fun diver shapes in different colours. They start on the sub.

Playing Deep Sea Adventure

There are many options on a player’s turn. This is tricky at first but gets easier as you play.

On your turn, you roll the dice. The dice only have 1s, 2s, and 3s on them. You roll and move your diver piece out onto the treasure path the corresponding amount of spaces. If there is already an explore on a treasure space, you hop over that player and do not count the space. When you land, you can choose to pick up the piece of treasure or you can choose to leave it. When you pick up the treasure, you place a blank space in its spot. You add the treasure to a pile in front of you without looking at its value.

The yellow Deep Sea Adventure player has decided to pick up a treasure piece.

On a player’s second turn and all others, you start by moving the oxygen token, one tick for each piece of treasure that they hold. Next, you declare if you are going to continue to explore or turn back to the sub. Once you’ve decided to return you can’t change your mind. Now, you will roll the dice and move your guy the right amount of spaces with one extra rule. You will decrease one space you can move for each piece of treasure you hold. So if you have one piece of treasure and you roll a sum of 3, then you will move 2 spaces. Similarly, if you hold 3 pieces of treasure and roll a sum of 6, you will move 3 spaces.

The yellow player has turned around. He rolled 5 but has 3 pieces of treasure so can only move 2.

When you have landed, you can choose to do nothing. You can also choose to pick up treasure pieces (leaving a place holder as before) or you can choose to place a treasure chip back down. You can only place a chip back if you are on a blank space.

Each turn is played like this until either all the players have returned back to the sub or the air runs out. If you are holding treasure and are not on the sub when the air runs out, then you lose all of the treasure you were carrying on that round. This treasure, with everyone else’s, is stacked three to a pile at the end of the treasure line. If you were on the sub when the air goes out, you get to keep any treasure that you retuned with.

Only the yellow Deep Sea Adventure player will be able to return to the sub — The yellow player will make it back to the sub on this roll and be able to keep his treasure.

The game is played in three rounds. At the start of the second and third rounds, all the blank spaces are removed from the game and the treasure line is tied up. The next round is played as the same as the first.

Deep Sea Players ready for round two. — The players are ready for round two.

Winning Deep Sea Adventure

After the third round is over, all players flip over their kept treasure and counts the amount of points. The player with the most points wins the game.

The player's earned treasure chips at the end of the game. — After three rounds the yellow player has 19 points, the red has 35 points and the purple has none. The red player has won.

What We Like

First, as we mentioned, the box is small. There is no wasted space in this one. Next, we like that the “board” can change shape to fit any playing space you have. We also like the level of strategy in the game. This can change depending on how many players you have in the game and also the playing style of the others.

Overall, the game is cute and well thought out. The quality is great and the theme is on point.

What We Don’t Like

First, keeping track of all the steps to a turn takes a bit of getting used to. We find remembering to move the oxygen tracker hard to remember. This does get easier as you play. Next, although we appreciate the size of the game, the mover pieces are a little hard to handle due to their size.

Should you add Deep Sea Adventure to your Family Game Shelf?

Over all, this is an excellent game. Its small size makes it an easy fit, and makes it easy to take with you when traveling. The theme, quality and different levels of strategy all make this game a good fit for any Family Game Shelf.

You can get your copy here; Canadians here.

For more great games check out Splendor, Forbidden Island and Saboteur. Also, be sure to visit our Family Game Shelf shop for tons of fun with games like Dice Sticks and Whacky Putt.

How to Play the Deep Sea Adventure Game