Really well priced. Too well priced to convince me to request a refund and not give it another chance. I'm still within the request window at the moment, and the game has glaring issues, it does, but I don't want to. Overall, the things that intrigue me about it outweigh the problems.
It's hard to explain this game. It's a third-person, first-person action shooter with RPG-esque stat increases that you gain naturally as you play, alongside the collecting of crystals and downing enemies. The shooting is honestly fine; given the other problems, I was worried about the combat, but I have no issue with it. Combat is simple but fun.
Graphically, the environments are nice. I suppose I would've been alright with them looking less nice if it meant I didn't have to wait two-to-three minutes in load times, but once you're in, yeah, it makes exploration fun. Character models, on the other hand, are merely serviceable. They're not terrible, not bad, but they're not anything great, either.
Story-wise, it's insane, and a mess, and really fun. The best part of Island of the Ancients, so far, has been its story. I have absolutely no idea what the hell is happening, and as a fan of B and Z-grade schlock, this hits a sweet spot for me. Every character speaks in text-to-speech, which only heightens the surreal oddity of playing Island of the Ancients, so I can't complain about that either. From what I can gather, your daughter is a budding medium, or has psychic powers, and she's having nightmares about ghosts in the attic of your home. So you (you, by the way, are BOTH of the parents; you can switch between them, as well as customize the racial makeup and genders and clothing of all four family members) gather up your family and head out on vacation. Unfortunately, the plane crash-lands on a mysterious island, which brings your daughters powers to full bear.
The problems I have are with the jank, mostly. This is an indie (what, two people? One?) development, and one of the most ambitious I've ever seen of its kind, AND it's finished! No languishing forever in Early Access, this is released as a complete product. So with that needs to be an understanding that this is not going to have some of the quality of life elements or sophistication of larger games, and there must be a degree of leniency with the jank.
You will, for instance, get stuck on terrain. This is such a persistent probability that there is an Unstuck command taught to you at the beginning of the game. Furthermore, I have not been able to get the companion system to work. At all. This Wolf Pup is just stuck to my side, indefinitely, and the controls recommended to switch out companions or send them away simply don't work for me. At one point I was magically transported to some other spot on the map (no, I did not enter a teleporter; I was standing on the beach, and then suddenly I wasn't; I was up on a high cliff, next to a giant crystal I needed to be near in order to get the story to progress).
To make short 90 minutes of game time (well, maybe 60 minutes; there has been a LOT of loading and restarting as I tried to make things work) sometimes I was enjoying myself, and a fair amount of time I've just been frustrated trying to figure out how to get the game's systems of play to work.
I'm recommending this to people who understand what they're getting into. It's bizarre, it's funny, it is NOT a cheap, weekend project asset flip. There is genuine work put into this, and the developer clearly wanted your money to be well spent. But it's also flawed and janky and, at times, frustrating. If you're willing to take the risk, Island of the Ancients offers a unique and ambitious experience. I'm going to continue giving it a chance.
