Islanders: New Shores - Review
From when I first picked up Islanders: New Shores, even having not played the first one, I was taken in by the pleasing aesthetic and by the sound of coins being dropped into a coin bag, as the building you just placed brings in those sweet points. After a few rounds I was completely dragged under and gunning for the top of the leaderboard (as of writing this review, I can happily say that I made it to the top). I think that it also is a great handheld game, as you can quickly pick it up and enjoy planning and exploring a new island or two, or sitting in bed for hours just needing that one last perfectly placed and planned temple that you've been building towards for the entire game.
Islanders: New Shores is the follow up to Islanders, with the same studio behind it and The Station have clearly evolved the formula here. Much like the first game, it is a combination of minimalist visuals and stylistic city building, but with the series unique puzzle approach. Much of the gameplay on offer here carries across from the first game, so those who have played that game will enjoy the same gameplay, but there are some new additions like boons, which will surely make it even more addictive. I myself, did not play the first game, but upon picking up the sequel I didn’t feel like I was missing anything there and I still had a great time. The more you build and move through the different islands, the more you understand just how difficult it can be to hit those point targets as you get five, six, or even seven islands in.
New Shores is split between two game modes, one for high scores with global leaderboards and the second is a free play sandbox, where you are tasked to make the prettiest island you can imagine. This second mode is great as you are given unlimited access to all the games assets and the ability to custom generate your ideal island. High scores let you pick between two options every time (unless certain boons have been used, but I’ll get back to those later). Your goal is fairly simple, you place down various buildings and each time you do, you earn points. These are added to your total, seen in the bottom right of the screen, and alongside the number of points you need to earn still. Once you have hit the target, you can move onto the next island and begin the process all over again. But where it gets interesting is each island provides new landscapes and challenges for you to build around, from small remote islands to a lava lake. This is where pre-planning (lots of pre-planning) and understanding each building's bonus and negative scoring options, in relation to every other building comes in handy, as one wrong building placement can lead to an early end of a run.
Placing these buildings in the exact spot to get all the bonus points, while narrowly missing that one building you placed at random and forgot about it, is possible with the precision mode. Thankfully, on the Switch it was a lot less painful than I initially thought it was going to be, the use of the Y button to switch from camera movement into precision mode (also called I just need to nudge this building one pixel to the left mode), made the experience so much better. Yes, playing this on a PC with a mouse and keyboard would be a lot easier for those pixel accurate movements, but the JoyCons handle it well enough, even though at times it was a bit finicky, and I had to swivel the stick around to get it at the right angle to set in place.
New Shores takes the minimalist low poly design from the first game and adds touches of enhancement to everything, whilst keeping things distinct enough that you won’t confuse two buildings. This is made all the more impressive when you play the game on Switch in handheld mode, as the limited screen size can often force things to blend together unintentionally in other games. Credit is due to the aesthetic of this game, as it still managed to make my complete mess of an island look like a tranquil getaway. I talked about the coin sounds before when placing a building and I'm going to mention it again, because it's just so satisfying. The combination of picking a new building pack, setting down the building on the island and then those coins being deposited into your bag is a satisfying loop; all together, these sounds and visuals, combined with the calming gameplay makes this game very hard to put down.
I mentioned earlier that one of the new additions to the game are boons, something I consider to be one of my favourite features. These can either save you or completely change your current strategy. You get these one-time power ups as you increase your island score on the bottom right, these can range from special buildings to shrinking the size of a chosen building, to more game changing and strategic options (I won't spoil any others, you have to find them on your own). Another feature that caught me off guard was when another island rose up out of the sea half-way through my run, I just sat there for a second not knowing what just happened, but (thankfully) it gave me so much more space to work with, because it was getting very cramped on my small starting island and I would have lost that run without my new island that rose from the deep below.
Islanders: New Shores is a great minimalist strategy game that is easy to pick up, but hard to put down. This is thanks to those addictive sounds, fun gameplay and the leaderboard that I didn’t think I’d care so much about. But during my time playing I had such a need to complete every island to its fullest and get to the next one just to see what new fun challenges awaited me on my climb to the top. I will be coming back to this game when I either want to chill with the game's music and build my picturesque island or need to climb back up the leaderboard when I start to slip down after the game release. Fans of the original game will like what is on offer here and those coming in new, like me, will enjoy that new island life.
The Score
8.5
Review code provided by Coatsink
The Pros
Easy to pick up, difficult to master
Minimalist aesthetic and design of both the new islands and buildings
New Boon feature adding different twists to each run
The Cons
Switch controls being a little weird at times
