- 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 10/Sep 04:50

Islanders: New Shores – Review

Islanders: New Shores is a minimalist city-building game with some strategic elements, but mostly the vibes are extremely casual. A successor to the original Islanders that came out in 2019, indie developer The Station took over the game for this renewed interpretation. Though overall, not a lot changed. You don’t mess with a winning formula, and we appreciate a game that can deliver exactly what it says on the tin. Story There isn’t really a plot to Islanders: New Shores. Not even a barebones one, such as some other city-building games have, where you get a sense of who the citizens are and why they are colonizing a new area. In Islanders, your role is closer to that of a god, plopping down buildings willy-nilly depending on a handful of factors. Personally, we didn’t mind the lack of a narrative frame, since it allows us to jump straight into the fun. Graphics Islanders: New Shores looks great, with the graphics being extremely similar to the first game, aside from the general enhancements that come with time. The islands and buildings have a very minimalist look to them, while at the same time providing enough detail to have your final city look nice. A lot of buildings have different variants, so not every house or mansion looks exactly the same, even if you put a bunch of them close together. Combine this with the decorations, and you can easily give your own visual touch to whatever you built. The game offers multiple different biomes that are distinct not only in color but also in the style of the buildings that can spawn there. Our only minor complaint is that we would have loved to see some more movement in or around the buildings. Small things like people walking around could have made your city feel more lived in, while currently, a lot of the buildings feel very static. Sound What we really love about the soundtrack of Islanders: New Shores is that it perfectly encapsulates the more laid-back atmosphere of the game. The game has cozy music that we enjoyed having in the background as we did our city-building thing. There are an impressive number of tracks too, over 75, which is great since we often feel like music can get a bit repetitive in this genre. We might have enjoyed just a touch more sound effects to really liven up the mood, since your towns can feel kind of hollow without them, especially when combined with the above-mentioned note on the graphics. Gameplay Islanders: New Shores is a classic city builder with a few strategic elements, but no resource management or anything like that. As a result, it honestly feels more like a puzzler at times. You start out with an empty island and a choice between two types of building packs. Types can be such things as a brewery, residential area, fishery, or farms. Once you’ve picked a pack, your inventory fills with a collection of buildings you have to put down. Hover over them to learn more about the point system. Every building is influenced by several factors, for example, what type of terrain it has to be built on and what other things are nearby. You need to use this to determine the ideal placement. Dragging a building onto the map also shows you exactly how many points you’ll get for putting it there and its radius of influence. A bar in the bottom left corner shows you how many points you need to earn to unlock another pack of buildings. This way, you gradually fill up your island. If you earn enough points, you can proceed to the next island. Later on, some extra mechanics get introduced. For example, you can assign traits to your island that change how the point system works or how buildings interact with each other. The goal is to get a high score on each island. If you want, you can also play sandbox mode, where you simply build whatever you want, however you want it. All in all, the game isn’t super difficult, but it’s the kind of easy fun that will keep you entertained for a few hours and is overall very relaxing. Patches are still being added with new content too, such as new biomes and buildings. Conclusion Islanders: New Shores shines in its simplicity, though this is also its downfall. For a relaxed city builder with minimal difficulty, you’re in the right place. We appreciated the game’s cute graphics and relaxed atmosphere, and thought it was fun. But it never goes beyond what it first appears like, and thus fails to capture our interest for super long. If you know what you’re getting into, though, you can have a good time on your island of choice.