Amber Isle

I enjoyed Amber Isle! The gameplay is pretty nice and the story is extremely endearing. While it is rough around the edges in some aspects, it’s definitely a worthwhile playthrough. [h3] THE GOOD [/h3] - The character design is absolutely adorable. There’s a lot of nice representation of interesting prehistoric animals that you don’t typically see in media. - Almost every paleofolk has a lovable personality. - The story is fun! - The character creator has a lot of variety. (I hope they will continue to add more dinos in the future!) - Environments are detailed and every biome has good art direction. - I found myself enjoying a lot of songs from the OST! Whether it’s chill or upbeat, it always fits the prehistoric atmosphere. - Exploring the world and unlocking new biomes is very fun. - Gathering resources is satisfying. - Quests are usually pretty easy and every quest unlocks more of a paleofolk’s story. [h3] THE BAD [/h3] - Gameplay is repetitive after a while. - There are too many craftable items that have almost identical attributes. - There’s not really any reason to craft the higher tier items to sell. I ended up just selling some of the early game items that I leveled up and easily completed the game with more than enough money. - Inventory management is not bad, but gets annoying. - The camera is absolutely [b] HORRIFIC. [/b] - There is not a lot of variety in decor when you need to decorate a biome. I found that I actually used a majority of the items within the first biome I decorated. You unlock a few more over time, but not nearly enough. - Not optimized well. - A lot of running back and forth between different places. - The game doesn’t tell you why some paleofolk are angry at the stores layout. - Repetitive character dialogue. - The shop part of the game becomes obsolete pretty quickly. - And of course, the bugs… Overall, I’d say give it a shot! It’s very easy to tell that there was a lot of love put into this game. If you’re a dino fan or a cozy game enthusiast, you might enjoy it!

I love the amount of characters there are to meet and the character customization, but that camera is downright awful. If you're going to have us move around outside, your camera needs to be WAY further back from the character and/or able to move 360 degrees. As it stands, I can hardly move south without bumping into something when I'm out gathering resources. There are multiple moments where the game takes the camera and points it away in directions you don't see when playing normally. Clearly you have nothing to hide. I should not have to rely on the mini-map for navigation when the art looks as good as it does.

got softlocked last year and still after the update i was still softlocked so i had to restart my entire game, lol

[H1]Amber Isle[/h1][hr][/hr] 35-50+ hours to complete, Amber Isle is a shopkeeping management and Island restoration sim in which your character arrives on the island in search of earning their “Sarname,” a name only earned from doing a great accomplishment or inherited from your family. After finding and taking over an abandoned store, craft and carve items by collecting local materials to draw other potential residents to the Isle, and with your new friends Adi, Maple, and Old Mayor Clawsworth, restore the Isle back to it’s former glory! https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3770920433 I love this game to bits but wow, does it have it’s bugs! None are gamebreaking or even able to softlock you, but the camera angles can get a bit annoying, and your store can be a mess at times, especially after a shop upgrade and I’d honestly consider the economy to be in shambles. (Granted, that one might be lore-accurate given there are only three Paleofolk, four including you, on the island at start.) but I really like the gameplay loop of collecting materials, crafting a fun and rather large variety of items, selling them, haggling, and then picking a section of an Island to restore. The initial thing that sold me was the character customization options as well as the large availability of what species you even wanted to play as, and Amber Island is just, a really charming game! Just… one that needs a bit more work. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3760893512 [code]If you liked this review and want to read about similar games or just support me on my journey of playing my entire Steam backlog, you can join my curator group, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39675075/] Rune's Reviews![/url] Have a nice day! [/code]

After over 60h I can't play anymore, the game became too laggy. Also tried another computer, still fps issues.

I can [b]ONLY[/b] recommend this game on sale. It's fun, cute, and cozy, but it's definitely NOT worth the full price. [b]What I enjoyed:[/b] - I genuinely love the artstyle direction. I like the environment a lot, and the design of biomes is rly nice. - I really like character customization, and I think the Paleofolk designs are really cute. Most of their personalities are also fine, although some dialogues felt a little off/over the top (where I can't imagine anyone talking like this). - I enjoy gathering! It's genuinely enjoyable and easy enough to not feel like a chore. - My fav part of the game is probably sound design. I love gathering sound effects and the music. - Game is repetitive - but it's something I personally enjoy. [b]Why I can't recommend it for full price:[/b] The game feels more like early access than finished product. - The camera is [b]really[/b] bad. To me its just very inconvenient, but I can see why it would cause motion sickness to others too. Multiple times I missed areas too far south with tiny paths (like with the first forest area you unlock, I didn't realize you could go there until I got a quest to repair the bridge). Why not just let us rotate the camera like we can in the shop? It feels way too zoomed in. - [b]The tutorial is WAY TOO LONG,[/b] and the dialogues during it are unnecessarily making it even longer. I'd be more than capable of learning the mechanics without needing to be taught every single one of them in-depth. Combined with having to go between your bedroom, the shop, the meadow, back to the shop just to finish the tutorial and be able to play. - I keep getting stuck on paths where I absolutely shouldn't be getting stuck on. Game also just runs poorly overall. - The haggling mechanic is fun in concept, but feels obsolete. Most of the time you won't even need to get that 10-20 extra ambers since you can sell basic items for a lot more. Also I had a bug where I was offering a lower price, and the client kept getting upset with me saying "they can't afford that" and then offering a higher price...? - Buying/purchasing items off clients also doesn't feel worth it after like a few ingame days either. I just end up declining everything because its much more worth it for me to craft the item with 3 leaves than buy it back off someone else for 600 amber. - Steam achievements seem bugged as well, because I only get them whenever the game feels like. I definitely should have gotten more achievements than the two (which also were granted to me super late and only after a full restart). - Sometimes, when suggesting items, items "on display" and "in pockets" bug out where I can't access them at all. The game would be really good if it was like 1/4th of its current price. I recommend purchasing on sale, as it IS a charming game. Otherwise, probably sit it out on full price. Def don't get it if you get motion sickness easily.

If you want this game, BUY IT ON SALE. Here's what I think: Pros: -Cute Half-Baked Dinosaurs -Great Character Customization -Crafting Cons: -EXTREMELY LONG TUTORIAL!!! -Extremely Buggy -Horrible Camera Mechanics -Extremely Buggy Shop Keeping Customization -Half Baked Story Feeling (this is based off of 3 hours of gameplay) I definitely wouldn't buy it for 24.99. If you want it, wait for a Steam sale.

Fine for an on-sale game, not sure if it's worth 25 dollars. The tutorial is AN HOUR and 15 minutes long. It made me feel sorta stupid and you CAN'T do anything else, you are forced to learn things you could've already known by playing other games or small splashes of text. If Adi were going to tell me everything, it should've been in a single day- I really think it could've been. On lowest settings, there's still some jitter and lag and I could tell from the opening scene that this game could use some optimizing. That and the camera controls are odd and I don't know why the open world has a more locked view than the shop. The tutorial length is insulting, and my other gripes be lived with. To give the game its merit, I do indeed love some of the graphics. The lighting is pretty even on low settings, I adore the 2D artwork that goes with each character and the customizer is quite fun. The models of each of the characters are also pretty good. My favorite part has to be the choppy little sound bites each character has. It's incredibly satisfying to my ears. I just wish I was able to enjoy any of what I was doing. I messed up my customization a little and had been wanting to change it the entire time, unable to focus or enjoy any of the actual game and quit once the tutorial was done, just too fed up.