Isle Of Spirits

**OK, so I played for about 35 minutes, so I can't really comment on the long-tail of the game, but I can give some notes. That also goes without saying that maybe this suddenly changes and blossoms into an amazing game at some point, but I don't see evidence of that and from what I've played, I don't think it's likely. ** This looks & feels like someone's first game, so I don't want to be too hard on anyone, I'll do my best to phrase this as constructively as I can, but if anything comes across as mean/sarcastic, please know it's not meant that way. If I'd come across this on itchio for free and saw it was the dev's first game, I'd be pleasantly surprised. The basic mechanics work(outside a confusing cooking mini-game), there's something of a core loop, there's a vague goal. It's all more or less passable, for a free game. The look of things are off though, the sort of soft 3D-chibi protagonist doesn't belong in the blocky world, and the blocky world implies the ability to deform the terrain(since that's the entire point of building a big world out of cubes) but I could not figure out any way to do so, and it appears there just isn't a way to deform the world. The game is advertised as having sort of weather events and tornadoes and things like that. It's possible I didn't play long enough but outside of a sort of rumbling earthquake (I 100% thought it was just a camera glitch) I didn't encounter anything like significant weather. I did encounter what seem to be the titular spirits, but the encounter was simply that I took damage if I let my torch go out. The actual game-play loop is dictated by your stat-meters. Eat, sleep, drink, pretty standard stuff. It works, but unfortunately the resource collection to keep these bars full is about as simple as it gets. Hold E to cut the tree, tap E to gather wood, tap E to gather grass, tap E to gather apples, tap E to gather loose stones, Hold E to mine stones from an outcrop. There's nothing endangering you or giving you a tangible sense of progression or satisfaction. Many games are saved from boring mechanics by a story or world that engages the player, but the world here is entirely free of context, character, narrative, or anything else to elevate the mechanics. This is, to me at least, a good example of where publishing as a "Hey this is my first game, check it out!" on itchio or newgrounds or something would have improved the experience. However, coming across this on Steam for $14.99 is setting up a comparison to other games in the same price range and Genre (Terraria, Raft, The Forest, The Isle are all within $5 of the current price) which leaves this feeling like a loss. I feel it is absolutely not worth the asking price in it's current state. I hope the dev takes something helpful away from this, and continues to make new and better games than this.

[h1]PLOUF[/h1] C'est ce qu'a fait mon personnage, juste avant de couler à pic. Première partie, tout juste arrivé sur l'île, je commence l'exploration et voulant traverser un bras de mer à la nage au lieu de faire le tour, feignant que je suis, je saute à l'eau. Voilà. Game Over. Ma première partie aura duré moins d'une minute. Note à moi-même : le personnage ne sait pas nager. Je relance, je commence à récolter, à me faire au système de craft, à essayer les différentes possibilités, à voir l'objectif principal. Je passe la première nuit du premier coup. Et puis je meurs. Note à moi-même : le brouillard est mortel. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2121503298 Et ainsi de suite. Ce jeu est une suite d'apprentissage et d'échecs. Échecs fatals d’ailleurs. La mort permanente t'oblige à recommencer à zéro à chaque fois. Frustrant. Et pourtant gratifiant : à chaque partie, tu sens une progression. Chaque partie, tu en apprends un peu plus. Chaque partie dure un peu plus longtemps que la précédente. Sauf en cas d'événement aléatoire mortel venant stopper net ton avancée. Car oui, il faut garder en tête que c'est avant tout un jeu de survie. Débarquant seul sur une île déserte, ton personnage devra réussir à s'en échapper, tout en évitant les différents dangers, car le jeu porte bien son nom. L'île n'est pas si déserte : des esprits la peuplent, et ils ne nous veulent pas que du bien. Tout comme le brouillard, la nuit est mortelle. Et si seulement c'était les seuls dangers, des événements climatiques aléatoires viendront également gâcher tes efforts. Il faudra en plus faire attention à la fatigue, la température corporelle et le plus dur à gérer : la faim. Si l'un de ces trois paramètres tombe à zéro, c'est la santé qui diminue progressivement, jusqu'à la mort. C'est là que l'apprentissage entre en jeu. Même si la chance reste toujours un facteur présent, à force, tu sais comment éviter les dangers, comment t'en protéger, comment progresser, comment gérer tes ressources, lesquelles prioriser, quels crafts faire, bref : comment survivre. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2121502427 [b]Silver Bullet Game[/b], petit studio indépendant français, signe là son tout premier jeu sous [b]Unity[/b] et reste dans la simplicité. Des graphismes sobres, dont les paysages, composés de blocs ne sont pas sans rappeler ceux de [b]Minecraft[/b]. On y retrouve les blocs les plus fréquents : le sable, la terre (la bouse pour les intimes de MC), l'herbe et la pierre, sur lesquels se trouvent divers éléments vous aidant à votre survie. Une interface simple, peu d'éléments à l'écran, peu d'objets, on garde le principal, pas besoin d'encombrer. Un gameplay sans combat, de la survie pure, et un seul objectif : construire un radeau pour quitter l'île. Des musiques agréables, mais surtout, l’ambiance qu’elles dégagent est assez important. Le fait que certains bruits ou changement de musique indiquent des dangers qu’on ne voit pas encore, c’est super bien pensé pour un jeu de ce calibre. Ça rajoute un effet des plus plaisants et jouer sans son peut s’avérer dangereux. Cependant, un rythme un peu lent s'installe parfois, surtout la nuit ou durant le brouillard (sauf quand il s'agit de courir pour y échapper), mais on fait avec. Et si je dois faire un petit reproche, c'est vis-à-vis du relief de l'île, un peu trop abrupt. Il peut être difficile de trouver un terrain suffisamment plat, tout en étant joli, pour y poser la maison ou le site de fabrication du radeau. Même s'il est permis qu'une partie soit au-dessus du vide. Mais c'est surtout notre personnage qui doit en avoir marre de sauter continuellement pour explorer l'île, le pauvre, pire que [b]Mario[/b]. Un peu plus de terrains plats pourrait être souhaitable, mais ce ne doit pas être simple vu que l'île est générée procéduralement. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2121503946 Ô toi, cher lecteur, si tu es encore là, sache que j'ai écrit ces lignes deux jours avant la sortie. À ce moment, j'avais une seule appréhension : le prix du jeu. Ce n’est jamais facile de décider du prix d’un jeu, surtout quand c’est sa première oeuvre. Un peu élevé ici au vu de la durée de vie, mais malgré tout, soldé le jour de la sortie. J’imagine qu’une petite étude a été faite à ce niveau, qui suis-je pour juger ? Car oui, une durée de vie assez courte : 6h annoncées. Pour ma part, j'ai réussi ma première échappée en un peu moins de 4h après 5 ou 6 essais. Un peu plus d'une heure supplémentaire pour obtenir le dernier succès manquant. M'amenant à environ 5h, une heure de moins que le temps prévu … serais-je doué ? [Spoiler](NON !)[/spoiler] Même terminé, il se relance à l'occasion, le temps d'une partie. Car même en connaissant les différentes mécaniques, tu ne seras jamais à l'abri d'un petit aléa mortel, ou d'un excès de confiance pouvant s'avérer fatal. Frustrant à chaque mort, on relance pourtant dans la foulée. Ce jeu tout simple, a ce petit quelque chose qui aura réussi à me faire dire : "[i]Aller ! Cette fois, c'est la bonne ![/i]" [i]Le jeu est désormais disponible gratuitement sur IOS et Androïd.[/i] [code]Produit obtenu gratuitement grâce au [b]Curator Connect[/b]. Vous avez aimé cette évaluation? Retrouvez-en d'autres en rejoignant notre groupe de rédaction: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/9753228/][u]On les préfère froids[/u][/url]. Vous pouvez également consulter ce groupe pour savoir quoi ne [u]pas[/u] acheter: [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/18976233/][u]La Purge[/u][/url].[/code]

Pros -interesting graphics style -proceduarally generated islands Cons -expensive for almost no content (all you can do is collect resources and craft a few items) -no story line or lore around the spirits -spend most of your time trying not to starve and chopping trees -your bed, chests, and house get destroyed by tornadoes almost daily -you will run out of food within a day and spend the rest of your game trying to not starve instead of being able to progress -meals and cooked foods give almost no food so you will always be hungry -not much to do except run around and chop trees -permadeath -weird camera angle (you can't look up very far) -buggy - sometimes will not chop trees or get stuck on edges, fires go out for no reason in the middle of the night and you have no way of knowing when or if it will happen -no guides or instructions (this is not a feature, this is a problematic thing to put into a game)

Un Super Jeu, ni trop casual, ni trop difficile, le juste équilibre pour se lancer dans un grand défi, s'échapper de l'île. Crafting, Cassage de cailloux et coupe de bois, Récolte, Jardinage, tout ce qu'il faut pour un bon jeu de survie. En plus de ça, un Développeur à l'écoute, et super sympathique. Alors, faites comme moi, tentez de vous échapper de l'île aux multiples intempéries et autres curiosités démoniaques.

[b]Isle of Spirits[/b] is a pretty hardcore survival game that's set on a remote island. The goal here, in addition to surviving from day to day, is to craft a raft and escape from said remote island. The game has no wildlife to speak of, but if you're caught in the dark at night, then you'll be attacked by some invisible force. In some ways, this aspect of the game is similar to Don't Starve. ----------------------- [h1]Watch me play![/h1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aGgFPxUTH0 Died twice here - once because I wanted to "gather water" from the pool and apparently, water insta-killed my character; and second, I ran out of food. ----------------------- The challenging/hardcore part of the game is reflected in the game's hunger and sleep meters. Like most survival games, you'll need to find and consume food, as well as to have enough rest. The thing is food is moderately hard to come by and it restores only a small portion of your hunger meter. Basically, you'll need more food than you can find and gather in this game, even if you have a few farms going. This, in turn, means that you'll really need to make full use of the first few days you have (so far, I've managed to make it to Day 3) and to craft the escape raft asap. The sleep meter is also rather difficult to restore, mainly because - and this is merely a suspicion on my end - the hunger meter seems to go down a lot faster than your sleep meter going up. There are some features that would have been nice to have, such as the ability to destroy items to reclaim them. The movement could have been a bit smoother; sprint could be a toggle-on feature rather than having you to press Shift all the time (there's no stamina meter in this game); and my character seem to get stuck in midair while jumping from time to time. The building part of the game seems rather rudimentary if compared to say Don't Starve. I'm not a fan of the camera angle as well. It restricts my view by quite a bit. [h1]Pros[/h1] + Procedurally-generated islands, so every playthrough will feel slightly different. + Hardcore gameplay. I'm not sure if the game's even possible to complete but I assume that it is and that it's simply difficult to do so. + No hand-holding - you're expected to figure things out yourself... which isn't very hard to do. [h1]Cons[/h1] - A pretty sparse and lonely island to play in. - Awkward movement controls and camera angle - Expensive price tag. The game has little content, despite being able to offer the playtime needed for you to complete the game. - Permadeath - not a fan of this but this is completely a personal preference. - The game is not at all chill or casual as advertised. Trying to keep the hunger and sleep meter filled isn't as easy. - Not sure why but the inventory and the crafting menu glitched out on stream. [h1]Overall[/h1] Isle of Spirit isn't a terrible game by definition - I've played much worse - but it isn't very good. The game world is too plain and boring; and the gameplay itself is too hardcore for a midcore gamer like me. Of course, there are also plenty of other issues that I think the game could do well to improve on, as well as the need to lower the price by quite a bit. Due to all of this, I won't recommend buying this game unless 1. you're a hardcore player who loves tough survival games, and 2. you can buy this game at a steep discount. [h1]Side Note[/h1] [quote]If you like this review and would like to follow me for more, please feel free to drop by my curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33780629-The-Midcore-Gamer/[/quote]

Isle of Spirits is a selection of Unity Asset Store assets (like the Hand Painted Pine Pack by Zugzug Art) slapped together to make a rudimentary, but very low quality Minecraft ripoff that's worse than Minecraft in every respect. Putting aside the fact that the game assets are all flipped, at least the developer tried to make some kind of game out of this instead of taking someone else's game pack and selling it as if they wrote it themselves. Unfortunately, the resultant product is still just about as bad. Touching water instakills you, there's only a few things you can craft, there's no point to the game. The quality here is very poor, I can't see why gamers should give this any more consideration than any other Unity asset flip.

Really really nice looking game but there's just not much to do.

A small survival game you will finish in about 30 minutes. I think this might actually have a potential to be "alright" if the devs expanded the gameplay, added more islands, visible enemies, weapons and more craftables. Youre stranded on a (not so big) island and you have to gather resources to craft a raft. You will probably die once or twice before you learn the game mechanics, water insta kills you, there are invisible mobs in the dark and cooking food could be explained better. All in all there isnt much to do, you walk around gathering resources while cursing the tiny inventory. For your own sanity you're probably better off not wondering "why do i have 15 wood pieces filling up my whole inventory, when they could just be stacked together like in any other game". Other than random events that kill you, the game is actually supposed to be pretty relaxing however I found gathering wood/stone via tools so slow that it actually gave me stress. I havent found any settings to fiddle with so youre stuck with a pretty annoying camera view and slightly too loud music. 4 eur for about 1h of gameplay is a bit of an overkill in my opinion.