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The Isle

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The Isle is an open-world, multiplayer game that offers a wide array of options on how to play. It's sandbox-style nature, ability to play alone or on teams and varying objectives provide a wide-open feel which allows for creativity, teamwork and destruction.

The Isle is a survival game. It takes...[read more below]

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The Isle Review

Introduction

The Isle is an open-world, multiplayer game that offers a wide array of options on how to play. It's sandbox-style nature, ability to play alone or on teams and varying objectives provide a wide-open feel which allows for creativity, teamwork and destruction.

Concept

The Isle is a survival game. It takes place on one of the multiple isolated islands after an experiment goes wrong. In the game, you can play as either a dinosaur (plant-eating herbivores or meat-eating carnivores) or as humans trying to survive. Playing as human also allows for a range of activity: You can team up with others to fight back against the dinosaurs, or you can play as a solo player whose objective is to destroy as many of the enemy bases as possible.

Rating: 4

Graphics & Audio

The graphics of the game are sharp, and according to reviews, being ambushed by a dinosaur is a terrifying experience, helped in no small part by the game's attention to detail and immersive sound effects.

However, the game is four and a half years old, and it's age shows. That's not to say that it looks or sounds terrible - it doesn't - it's just that it would look better if it were just coming out now. Rating: 4

Gameplay

The game finely incorporates many genres. It is an open-world with elements of stealth, survival and sci-fi incorporated.

If you play as a dinosaur, there are multiple types you can select. Interestingly, the game offers stealth options, allowing you to hide in bushes or behind other obstacles, jumping out and taking your human enemies by surprise. Furthermore, each dinosaur has a different strain (or class), allowing for various abilities. The same applies to humans, which have multiple factions. You can also play as a cannibal, a fearless option which will enable you to attack and eat...well, everyone. Cannibals can also re-purpose their victims' various body parts into weapons.

Like many games of this style, you can play in the first or third person.

There is no question that The Isle was designed as a multiplayer game to get the best experience out of it. While there are single-player options (you can play as someone who runs around, sabotaging everyone else's bases and taking down dinosaurs), even those require an online connection. Furthermore, you won't truly get the most out of the game by playing yourself. While it can be a welcome distraction on a day where you want to play without actually talking to anyone, you absolutely will not get the most out of the game if this is the version you choose to enjoy.

Rating: 5

Conclusion

The game has a fascinating development history. It was first uploaded to Steam, where it was greenlit in a mere five days, making it one of the fastest games to be greenlit at the time. However, it is still listed in Early Access, as its developers feel that the main gameplay has not yet been "polished" to the standards they are seeking to meet. It has been in Early Access for four and a half years.

The game is available for download on Steam. There is not a console version.

One of the biggest positives about this game is its replayability. Thanks to being a multiplayer game, you can't run out of ways to play or new experiences to be had. Furthermore, the variety of playing options give you a slew of styles to choose to play.

Replayability Rating: 5

TL/DR

The Isle is a fun (if slightly dated) game with plenty of options that successfully incorporates numerous genres for a unique experience.

Professional Critic Profile

26 reviews on GameSnort

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From the Developers

What follows is the official description of The Isle, from the developers.


DISCLAIMER: THIS GAME IS IN EARLY ACCESS. PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE IT UNLESS YOU WANT TO ACTIVELY SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GAME AND ARE PREPARED TO HANDLE SERIOUS ISSUES AND POSSIBLE INTERRUPTIONS OF INTENDED GAMEPLAY FUNCTIONALITY.

A note from the developer:

Firstly, thank you for looking at our game. Despite the fact we aspire to create a fun game approachable by many, we feel the need to caution any potential users. We are undergoing experimental updates of the game's design and roll out patches daily, sometimes several times. This results in a lot of updates that some people find distasteful. As this occurs, user experience may drastically change. Features may be added, removed, or wiped entirely. More importantly, difficulty will gradually become more brutal as chances of survival become less likely. We, the developers, are actively going to design the future game islands and creatures to counteract known player tactics of survival. Your mistakes will be punished. Expect no survivors.

The Isle: A World Designed to Kill You

The Isle is a realistic, gritty, open-world survival horror game. There is only one goal in mind: Survive. The islands and its inhabitants will radically change, ever-evolving as players themselves learn how to grow, flourish, and thrive. There are no waypoints, tutorials, or ulterior precepts in mind to alter play styles or purpose. In the end, the only person you can trust is yourself.

KEY FEATURES IN EARLY ACCESS

These features are currently in the game and though they are listed, may have bugs that have not been discovered or addressed.

  • The Island: A vast landscape of dense forestand open plains, hidden within are various ruins and expanses that hold insight as to what was here...

  • Up to 100 players per server based on server hardware and bandwidth.

  • Sandbox System - Play as any of the dinosaurs (or humans!) added to the game, with no penalties or consequence to dying. Sometimes we don't want to struggle to survive, and that's okay.

  • Basic Dinosaur Simulation - Basic needs such as thirst and hunger are present. Start as a juvenile, grow to adulthood, mate, and raise young. Stalk your prey and avoid your predators among the dense forests and swamps.

  • Playable Dinosaurs - Choose between featured animals in the official survival mode, or join customized sandbox experiences with 30 playable dinosaurs such as Triceratops, Carnotaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Gallimimus, Utahraptor, Acrocanthosaurus and Allosaurus, with even more planned ahead.

  • Dedicated Server Binaries with Steam integration

  • Basic Dinosaur AI

  • An expansive island stretching across 16x16km

Planning Ahead: The Future Development Goals

We realize that there is a long road ahead and a lot of work to be done in order to turn this into the dinosaur game we want it to be. Throughout development, we will be adding a lot more to the Isle based off of current planning and user feedback Some of these features are as follows:

  • Full Mod Support - Skins, additional dinosaurs, and various gamemodes such as deathmatch and a tycoon sim

  • Achievements, Trading Cards, Emotes, etc.

  • Localization of all Game UI

  • Realistic Dinosaur AI with complex ecosystems

  • 20+ Playable Dinosaurs

  • Indigenous Faction implementation

  • Survivor Faction implementation

  • Player Crafting System implementation

  • Base Capturing

  • Dynamic Aerial Drop-In Spawn System

  • Human/Dinosaur Body Painting

  • Dinosaur Capturing and Enslaving

  • Advanced Vehicle System

  • Improved Sound FX, including regional sound localization

  • Steam economy

  • "The Escape" global in-game world quest

Aside from the necessity of community feedback finds for bug fixes, content suggestion, and creative feedback, the Isle will have a post-release content structure after Early Access has been polished to the best of our ability.

Unique Triple-Faction Gameplay

Choose between three playable factions and find yourself stranded on a merciless island of harsh wildernesses, cunning dinosaurs, ruthless indigenous, fierce survivors, and rival players. Explore dark and foreboding forests, unforgiving caves, and beautiful but deadly mountain vistas for the supplies you will ultimately need to survive. As you progress and explore, you will happen across ancient ruins and abandoned military bases that, with perseverance and time, can convert into your own outpost or nesting ground in this hostile world.

  • As the survivor, you'll experience a sense of both wonder and terror as everything on the island has evolved to kill you. However, you will find yourself armed to the teeth and more than capable when it comes to survival skills. Discover how you came to be here, and escape. Nothing will stand in your way... so long as you still have ammo.

  • As the Indigenous, you will find yourself in-tune with the natural environment. Surviving here for many lifetimes, the indigenous are capable foragers and natural hunters. Form tribes or survive alone, you will be armed with spears, bows, poison, and makeshift camouflage. Become as ruthless as the beasts among you, or become food.

  • As a Dinosaur, you'll be the epitome of cunning and ferocity. From the swift and agile Utahraptor to the unstoppable Tyrannosaurus Rex, you must survive as a meager juvenile until reaching maturity. Form packs, create and defend your nests, hunt prey, and claim territory. All roads lead to death, or becoming the dominant predator of the island.

A Global Community Story

The Isle features a narrative told strictly through the environment, achievable only through immense cooperation among players. Hidden locations and artifacts are dynamically created within the open world that reveal the answers to all the questions that would arise. How are you stranded? Why cant you just leave? How did the dinosaurs get here? What is the distant call that pierces the night? It will take the entire community to unravel the purpose to their being on the Isle and each discovery will directly affect the future of the game.

Become the Beast

One key focus of the Isle is the unique element of playing as dinosaurs and other creatures found on the islands. All will have a general familiar play-style, while each retain their own uniqueness of capability. Players can select a variety of creatures and grow from juvenile to adulthood. As your dinosaur grows, you can select different palette options and skins, growing your abilities to hunt, create your pack, and eventually mutate into a much powerful version of your dinosaur and claim the right as the Apex.

Unparalleled Mod Support

We will support all the features of Steamworks and allow for any aspect of the game to be modded by the community using Steam Workshop. Members of the community will be able to download a free copy of Unreal Engine 4 from Epic Games and generate mods and change all aspects of the game. This includes everything but not limited to making a new map, adding new dinosaur types or new game modes such as a Dinosaur Park Simulator or a role playing focused game mode. The most notable feature is turning off large portions of the game for a specific user experience, such as having an island strictly populated by dinosaurs.

You can subscribe to mods on the workshop and select what ones you want enabled when you start your server. Players joining the servers will automatically obtain the required mods without even needing to restart the game.

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