Lost Ruins of Arnak combines your Indiana Jones fantasy with your Monster Hunter fantasy. Players expedition across an uninhabited island, searching for treasures and challenging guardians, while exploring a lost temple. With a wide range of options, players can choose which adventures will lead them to glory.

From a visual design standpoint, Lost Ruins of Arnak delivers an impressive package. From its unique game tokens to its beautiful illustrations, this is a game you’re unlikely to forget. The large sprawling board sets the standard for immersion. Every detail was carefully thought out and for a game with plenty of iconography, there is rarely any confusion when reading the cards, tiles or board.

Lost Ruins of Arnak is a worker-placement game with deck-building elements. Players begin with the same 10-card deck and 2 archaeologists. There are 5 rounds of play. Players take turns performing actions such as buying a card, digging at a site, researching, etc. Play continues until each player has passed. At the end of each round, players discard their remaining hands, refresh their assistants, refresh the card row and return their archaeologists.

In order to move archaeologists to a site, players must discard cards matching the travel icons at the targeted site. This gives all cards two use-cases. If a card is used for travel, it cannot be used for its effect. When a player discovers a new site, a guardian will spawn and challenge the players. If left unattended, players will receive negative Fear cards as a penalty. Researching will reward players with valuable treasures and assistants, while progressing towards locating the lost temple. At the end of 5 rounds players tally up their final score. The player with the highest score is declared the winner!

Let’s first address the common comparison between Lost Ruins of Arnak and Dune Imperium. Yes both games are pseudo worker placement, deck-builders with similar card mechanics. That being said, both games play very differently and both deserve a spot on any tabletop enthusiasts shelf. With that out of the way, Lost Ruins of Arnak is one of the most exciting games I’ve played in recent memory. It fulfills your deepest desires of exploring, spelunking and adventuring. And it does all of this while maintaining a level of balance and tension to keep each game exciting and new.

With all of its components and iconography, Lost Ruins of Arnak may seem like a difficult game to learn and play. But at its core the game remains very beginner-friendly. Sure it may take a few plays to understand the strategies, but just about any level of gamer can jump in and have fun. And that may be the greatest strength of a game like Lost Ruins of Arnak. Accessibility is the gateway to great tabletop experiences, and I imagine Lost Ruins of Arnak will be that gateway for many new gamers!