Sadly the game has shutdown not even a year after release its a shame as it had a lot of potential ill leave my old review here and wrote this in case anyone comes across this until they presumably will take it off steam and all other platforms still...somethings odd about all this they kept saying things like "wolfpack islands not going away anytime soon" yet here we are... there's probably a really good reason (most likely money for keeping the servers up)
-Gameplay
It's a newer take on the virtual world format of games like Club Penguin. Similar to Club Penguin, you can play minigames, chat with others, and collect clothing items, but there are some new things that I have not seen as much in many other Club Penguin-like games. This includes mining, farming, questing, and XP. The Quests are a unique experience and a nice shake up from the normal things you would do on the island while giving you a decent challenge. At the time of writing this review, there aren't that many quests though, and all of them are given to you by the same wolf. Aside from that, though, I love the quest, but with farming as well as mining. It's a different story with farming. You go to your farm, then click on the farm shop, and select the crop you want, each with varying benefits. Some focus on giving you XP. Others give you crystals (the game's main currency) and a few give you a good amount of both XP and crystals. The thing is, once you buy the crops, you just plant them and wait. If you take too long to harvest them after they finish growing, they die, but it would be nice if there was a little more you could do with farming, as it currently feels a little lackluster. The same thing applies to mining. Every now and then, these rocks pop up from the ground in certain areas. You can click on them to start mining and keep clicking until they break. Once broken, they give you a few diamonds, iron, gold, ruby, sapphire, or emerald. There's even a cave room where a giant rock comes out that can give you even more resources than the smaller rocks. Once you get these resources, you can use them to buy or trade stuff from an NPC inside the cave. One of the things you can buy from the NPC is better pickaxes gold, ruby, and sapphire Pickaxes this all seems simple enough, right? Yes, but no. You see, with the default pickaxe, you have to keep and keep and KEEP on clicking. It takes a good while to mine just one small rock, but for the big rock, well, be prepared to just sit there clicking for awhile. I think they expect you to be mining the rocks with other players. This would obviously make the rocks mine faster, and as far as I can tell, you don't get any fewer resources. Aside from that, mining as a whole is just kind of bland and feels super grindy and repetitive. Well, I talked about mining, farming, and questing, but I skipped over the virtual world classics. Clothing and Minigames Lets start with clothing.
So you can decorate your wolf in a few ways. 1. Neckwear 2. Headwear 3. Face Items 4. Back Items You use your crystals to buy clothing, and there's quite a lot of different clothing to buy, but it would be nice to have tail items or something to make your wolf REALLY stand out from everyone else, but I understand why it is currently the way it is. Any way, let's move on to the minigames. I made a list of each minigame, the way they work and how I feel about them. Please remember though, this is just MY opinion.
Fruit Circle(1 Player): In this game, fruit rotate around a sword. You click to make the sword launch forward in an attempt to hit one of the many fruits. Over time, the fruit spins around the sword faster. This game is pretty frustrating, and if you're trying to earn crystals, I would avoid it. It is pretty rewarding when you move on to a new fruit though, I would give it a 7.5/10.
Mine It(1 Player): You need to click on the various resources/items as fast as possible. Each "level" adds more and more resources/items to click on I would give this a 7/10.
Treasure Hunt(1 Player): You must click on squares in the sand. Some spots will give you nothing, and some will give you crystals. It's not much of a mini-game, but they do seem to count it as one. It understandably has a cool down timer a thing that a few of the other games have this games timer is 9 minutes long. Anyway, I give this a 7/10.
Rocket Run(1 Player): You launch a rocket towards a spinning moon. Once it lands, it places an object on the moon. Keep doing this without hitting any of the objects you placed until you run out of space. This one is my favorite out of them all and has me wanting to go for a higher score every time I give this an 8.6/10.
Crystal Crunch(1 Player): It's a simpler version of Candy Crush (Candy Crush Crystal Crunch, yep, even down to the name). I wouldn't say that's a bad thing though. It's my second favorite game I'd give it a 8/10.
Square Stacks(1 Player): You stack moving squares up, collecting gifts along the way. The gifts give you a resource or crystals. You keep going, and as you go on, the squares start to move faster and faster. If you place a square down when it's not above another, you lose. This one is pretty fun, although it does have a timer of 9 minutes. Regardless of that, it still gets a 7.5/10.
Connect Four (2 Player): It's just Connect Four. We all know it. 8.5/10
Tic-tac-toe (2 players): it's Tic-tac-toe. I know you've played it before... 8.5/10
Daily Spin (1 player): Like Treasure Hunt, it's not a mini-game you spin a wheel and get one of the many rewards it has a cooldown timer of around a hour i think. 8/10
Word Search (1 Player): traditional word search 7/10
Knowledge (1 Player): A series of questions Of course, a game like this SHOULD have a cool down timer, and it does, as expected. 8.6/10
Memory Mania (1 Player): Its one of those card matching games simple but its got to be one of my least favorites 6.5/10
While I may have been a bit harsh about some aspects of the game, I LOVE IT and can't wait to see what comes next. From what I heard, houses are coming, and I can't wait to see what this game is going to look like at the end of 2022 compared to now. But wait, the review is not over just yet. I made a list of Pros and Cons right below.
-Pros
-The game pretty much just came out, making now the perfect time to get ahead of everyone.
To say the game is so new, there is already a lot to do around the island, and I can't wait to see what comes in the future.
- it's pretty engaging. Even when I don't go on for long play sessions, I jump on to collect my crops or do the daily spin.
- The people behind it seem to really care about the players
- Cons
-The game as a whole can feel a little grindy sometimes.
-There are not a lot of things to buy with crystals at the moment other than clothing, making collecting them feel a little pointless.
-The timer on some of the minigames can be really annoying. I understand it on games like Square Stacks, Treasure Hunt, or even Mine It, but why does Crystal Crunch have it? (Please, please remove the timer on Crystal Crunch)
Moving on from the cons, were entering the last segment.
-Should you play?
Well, that's a question for you to answer. I would certainly recommend it and see a lot of potential in it. It's not the kind of game everyone would enjoy, but if you like a game like Petpet Park, Club Penguin, Space Heroes, or any type of MMO, then you are sure to like this....END
