The Island: Into The Mist

To start off, I first purchased this game just as a way to practice and improve my Korean. But after playing the game now for over 26 hours, and getting 100% completion with every ending, I have to say that it was also an extremely enjoyable ride. Throughout the game and its many story lines I feel like I became good friends with every character in this game (except 배일수. I hate you, 배일수.) There are plenty of twists and turns that will keep you interested, even after you've already completed one or more of the endings. Even the bad endings were entertaining to complete, at least just to see how the characters reacted to new situations. I'm a bit sad now that I won't be able to hang out with my friends anymore. I'm also a bit sad that the endings were explained only in text (I would've liked to have seen visuals for some of those). Overall, it was a fun game that I'd recommend to anyone, whether you're trying to improve your Korean or not. Also, if the game company were to release 세한's indestructible phone case (which he dropped at least over 9,000 times), I would buy that in a second. As for the artwork, some of the scenes felt like they were really rushed, while others were cleaner. I suppose there was a deadline and some of the drafts were just left unfinished. It didn't ruin the game, but that's my only big complaint. As for the voice acting, I really liked it. Everyone did a great job, and you could easily tell what the characters were thinking just by listening to and reading what they said. My only complaint is that I couldn't put my fist through my computer screen and punch 배일수 in the face. Besides that, great game. Oh! Also I really want to know what's behind the bookshelf in the 진찰실. There were even scratches on the floor. Please send me an email, and tell me what's back there. Dead bodies? Is that 배일수's Choco pie storage room? I won't tell anyone else. If there's ever a sequel, I'll be first in line. Oh yeah, and it's definitely a great game for practicing Korean if you're at least an intermediate level or higher.

At first, yeah...nah...it's just one of those low-class adventure clicking games... ... After 2 hrs, I'm like, yeah...nah... just one more ending... The voice talents have done a pretty good job as well :-)

This game has currently mixed reviews on steam and that is exactly how I feel about it. But if I am asked if i would recommend this game, then no, I wouldn't. So this is Korean game, and it also started in Korean and I had to blindly click thru menus to find settings and change language to English. The translation is rough, it is readable but its not the silky smooth translation I am used to from Japanese VNs. On top of it, there are even typos in names of locations sometimes. So this is story about group of university students, who end up on wrong island and their fun trip goes horribly wrong. The story is good and exciting, it is the game play that is bringing this game down. At first it is purely visual novel with some investigation scenes that are easy to solve. But later the investigation scenes turns into pure pixel hunting where you literally have to keep clicking everything and everywhere because the solution is shadow under cupboard and similar stuff. Also the game will start giving you bad ends for choices you made like halfway thru the game. In the end I gave up when the game gave me bad end for something I did so far back that I didn't even have save that old. The fact that there is total absence of English written guides on the internet doesn't improve the situation at all. This is not bad game and if you have enough patience to deal with game's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ you might enjoy this. But there are better games out there that have better translation and are less annoying.

[b] Personal thoughts[/b]: Good game, very satisfied with the full voice acting and character design, potential gameplay to explore, yet at the same time there's a tid bit features that can really be improved to make this game more worth it. The premise is more to survival than it is to mystery, so don't expect to find an epic plot twist here, they're all pretty linear.[spoiler] No battle royale, no big discoveries such as human or government experiment either.[/spoiler] [b] PROS[/b]: + Using comic format to tell a prologue. + Full voice acting, which actually match their characters. + Beautifully-drawn character sprites, despite in black-and-white + Interactive gameplay which affects storyline: [i]Investigation & Tuning In[/i] + Quite a few endings to hunt, which means different variations of the story. + Paying around $5 here and finished the game with a good ending in 2-3 hours. At first I was surprised with how short it ended, but I decided to replay, and am now on hour 6th and still looking for the endings. I guess it's a so-so between the price and playtime. + Flowchart system which allows you to jump into scene without having to replay everything, BUT... (see last point of - feedbacks) [b] THINGS TO IMPROVE[/b]: - The overall story is complete, but some parts feel very rushed and unexplained, as if they're just recycling and recombining all the possible plots. - The distinction between character and background are clearly visible. Background definitely have weird perspective and looks like a messy doodle sketch. - I don't really focus on the BGM. - Some visible typos, but tolerable. - Might as well make some [i]Investigation[/i] into a puzzle room. I can totally see some potential there with some room [spoiler] like how Seul is using a paperclip instead of hammer to open a locked door [/spoiler], but was quite disappointed to find it nothing special [spoiler]like, the buttons at communication tower, or when looking for ship parts in the warehouse.[/spoiler] - Same goes with [i]Character's Perspective[/i] feature. Other than for [i]Tuning In[/i] maybe it can be used for something more. Also need to fix the typewriting-thingy when changing scenes. Long letters required longer typing and cannot be skipped. - It's a bit difficult to know if there's actually a "timer" or not in each [i]Investigation[/i].[spoiler] There's one time where we just need to leave the scene as it is without clicking on anything to progress to the story. Another time, I'm waiting for a few minutes at another scene in hope something might happen, yet nothing happened.[/spoiler] - That said, if "timer" can be applied to [i]Investigation[/i] in order to create another branchlines, it would be interesting. - Make use of the UI/UX properly. It would definitely be more interesting if player can actually be able to open the voice chat, text message, use that foxzilla, access GPS location, use their default item, etc. At the end of the day, we're left with just [i]Inventory [/i],[i]Save/Load[/i], and [i]Settings[/i]? When characters are supposed to receive text messages, it was only explained in the story, while it looks better if we can actually open the our [i]Mail Inbox[/i]. Developers, if you have the time to invest on that UI, might as well make it useful to the game. - Speaking of UI, I don't really get the purpose off having different "placeholders" for the character's name (e.g. Dambi's a flower, Jo's a megaphone). It destroys the visual harmony because they're too randomised. - Need to control SKIP READ via Settings. - Need to zoom in/out at the [i]Flowchart[/i]. It's quite hard to follow the branch because player can't see the bigger picture. - Access to replay ending/important scenes via [i]Collection[/i] instead of just showing the thumbnails of what we've collected. - More extras in [i]Collection[/i] as a mean to appreciate the hours player spent or this game. Can even put the character profile, re-read the prologue, etc. Especially when this game doesn't offer any CGs. - Most triggered part for me personally: Some system text are still in Korean (the Flowchart, some settings, sometimes the sign in game). Minor thing, fine, but if the system text are still in Korean and I need to pick [Yes/No], then I'm doomed. [b] Conclusion [/b]: Is this game recommended? I would say [u]yes[/u], despite all those (-) points I wrote above which seems to overwhelm the (+) points. When I play the game, I do feel thrilled and enjoy it till the end. The story ain't boring (although the writing is not that out of league either), it was enough to keep me entertained and retain its repeating value. [u]Not recommended for those who can't tolerate the lack of features written above.[/u]

평이 안좋았지만 저는 즐겁게 했습니다. 더빙도 어색하지만 풀 더빙이라는점에서 마음에들었고, 스토리도 꽤 괜찮았다고 생각합니다.

Great music and very interesting plot! Characters are drawn pretty well, each with a unique personality, and I also feel like I've learnt some Korean from the Korean dub!

https://blog.naver.com/jampuri/223053943640 <- 장문의 리뷰는 이쪽. 한국산 텍스트 어드벤처 게임. 인신매매가 벌어지는 외딴 섬에서 고립된 대학생 주인공 일행이 탈출을 감행한다는 내용 자체는 나쁘지 않은데. 인게임에서 말이 좋아 쫓기는 거지 텅 빈 마을을 유유히 돌아다녀서 긴장감이 전혀 없고, 주인공 일행의 대사, 행동에 상식이 결여되어 있는 것과 의리라고는 눈꼽만큼도 없어서 서로 간의 유대 관계가 느껴지지 않는데 그걸 자기들끼리 합리화시키는 태도 등이 위화감을 주어 스토리의 몰입을 방해한다. 본작의 핵심적인 게임 시스템이라는 '동조하기'는 시스템을 이론적으로 보면 그럴듯하지만 인게임에서 동조하기에 따른 캐릭터 간의 관계 및 감정 변화가 없어서 단순히 A, B, C 선택지를 선택 UI만 바꾼 수준이고. 탐색 모드는 마우스 커서를 움직여 배경에 상호 작용 가능한 오브젝트를 활성화시키는 것인데, 아무런 힌트도 없이 배경 전체를 싹 훑어내듯 클릭해야 되는 게 피곤하다. 풀 더빙은 국산 어드벤처 게임 기준으로 보기 드문 것인데, 비전문 성우의 발연기로 몰입을 방해해 음성을 안 넣은 것만 못한 수준이고. 멀티 엔딩으로 생존 엔딩 7개, 데드 엔딩 15개나 되지만 이게 각각의 엔딩 루트에 돌입했을 때 독립적인 스토리로 진행되는 게 아니라. 메인 스토리 80~90% 진행하다가 마지막에 10% 남기고 멀티 엔딩으로 가지치기 해서 급조된 티가 많이 난다. 웹툰 컷으로 구성한 오프닝 괜찮고, 캐릭터 일러스트가 준수한 점이 몇 안 되는 장점이지만. 그에 비해 게임 내 배경 퀼리티가 너무 낮아서 싼티 난다.

The Island: Into The Mist is not a game, it's a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure e-book that's been dumped on Steam masquerading as a game. As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay, it's just a lot of clicking through badly written dialogue that would never have been accepted or published in print, which poses the question, "How did something this badly written end up on Steam?". Although in fairness there's a few small "point and click" adventure sections... which are much, much worse than the E-book part, and make the whole experience terrible. So there's that. To answer that question: When someone hoping to become an author is unable to get published in print, they spend $100 and dump their high school fan-fiction onto Steam, under the guise of a game. This E-book features Choose-Your-Own-Adventure elements where you make some decisions that don't do anything to change the fact this is just an E-Book. Nobody finished reading a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book and said "Boy, what a great game I just played!". Because E-books aren't games. And neither is this. This Choose-Your-Own-Adventure E-book is extremely badly translated from Korean, in fact the translation is so bad it makes me think it might be a North Korean psyop to try harm western gamers. That aside, it's about a bunch of students who plan to go on a holiday but end up on the wrong island. The island they land on is bad and evil, it's so bad the students are chained to chairs and forced to read the "The Island: Into the Mist" Choose-Your-Own-Adventure E-book. That's how bad it is. So we can all hope they escape. Visual novels/e-books are tedious at best... imagine the best novel you ever read, be that Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or 2001: A Space Odyssey or Twilight (if you have terrible taste in literature), but then translate that to a format where the words dribble out and you have to click your mouse every time you wanted to read the next sentence, instead of just turning the pages. You'd think it was garbage. Now imagine that experience, but with much worse writing (because if these guys could write professionally, they'd be published authors and this would be on shelves in bookstores, and they wouldn't have to pay Valve $100 to self-publish this on Steam), and you have your average Steam e-book. You can get better quality books and comics for free online or from public libraries, or from bookstores for a fraction of the price of this "game". Steam isn't a comic book store, neither is it Netflix, it's for games. Your gaming rig is not a Kindle. It's impossible for me to recommend things to PC gamers that aren't really games. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. Some of the defects in the E-Book can be attributed to the choice of using the GameMaker Studio construction kit/toolset. This is a very poor quality toolset favoured by amateur developers as it's cheap and requires little in the way of development skill, but unfortunately has very limited capabilities. Just as you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear, you can't make a great video game if you use a terrible engine. GameMaker Studio is most commonly used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs. A strong argument can be made that construction kits like GameMaker Studio should never be used to make games for profit, as the "developer", SUPER WAVE Studio has done here. These construction kits are intended to teach people some of the basic principles of game development, and to make small demos to pass around with friends. They're not intended to replace to actual work of real, professional game developers. So it's inappropriate when amateurs try to use these for profit, without any actual, real game development effort taking place. This doesn't result in products that have any real meaningful value for gamers. These technical defects push this game below acceptable standards for any modern PC game. Reviewing SteamDB to check how popular this E-Book was with players reveals a surprise... there's a very healthy spike in player counts for the E-Book. But this only appears around the same time that trading cards were applied to the E-Book... so this is just card idlers getting their cards and moving on. A closer look at the numbers shows the E-Book just has a couple of players every week running up the E-Book and idling it for cards, then deleting it. We must ask how it benefits gamers for there to be so many games like this, with no merit as a serious game, that only generate sales from people idling and selling the trading cards. The Island: Into The Mist has the laughable price of $10 USD, for which you could easily get any number of older AAA games. Real games, not E-books. This is also competing with over 9,000 free games available on Steam, many of them far better than this paid product. Given the defects and quality issues with the E-Book, coupled with the unrealistic price, this is impossible to recommend.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=yEH5jReEkSk&pp=ygUSVGhlIGhhbmdpbmcgZ2FyZGVu

Great music, amazing story, fun cast of characters. Few grammar and spelling mistakes, however, definitely doesn't hinder gameplay.