Whether you are a longtime player of Rust or the debacle that is the current state of Bethesda’s Fallout 76, survival games have a certain appeal to a part of the gaming audience that downloadable The Isle from Afterthought LLC does a good job of capturing to some extent.
How to Download The Isle
The Isle can be downloaded from Steam. To begin simply click on the Download button at the end of the review. If you like games with dinosaurs be sure to also check out and download another famous survival title: ARK: Surivival Evolved or a strategy game: Jurassic World Evolution.
The Game Review
Probably kick-started by the Minecraft craze more than anything else, survival games are all about plopping you down into a foreign environment with little to nothing in the way of provisions and asking you to survive (and thrive) in your new home.
Crafting, hunting, exploration – all of these are typical features found in a survival game and the degree to which one or the other is intuitive or accessible sometimes defines the game. Minecraft, for example, defines itself through crafting and building while games like Rust are more known for hunting (other players) and the general chaos of their in-game worlds.
A fun formula if done right, survival games can also be paradises for griefers and trolls if there is a huge (and necessary) online component.
The Isle doesn’t break with this formula though it does introduce a 100 player, battle royale style arena element that changes the game drastically.
Battle royale seems to be the buzzword in gaming these days and The Isle hasn’t ignored this fad. In fact, the game is premised more on a battle royale concept than anything else – and this makes the survival game elements confusing at best.
While survival games often involve some kind of battle royale element, it is not explicit, while most battle royale games, by definition, entail a survival element.
What is most likely to attract gamers to The Isle’s unique take on both genres is its environments and overall zany approach to game design. There are ruins to explore and hide in as well as being a dinosaur simulator.
You can start out as a baby dino and grow into a behemoth, all while attacking or cooperating with other players.
There are 30 different types of dinosaurs for the player to choose from. These beast include the likes of:
- Acrocanthosaurus,
- Allosaurus,
- Carnotaurus,
- RexGallimimus,
- Triceratops,
- Tyrannosaurus,
- and Utahraptor.
In that vein, humans can choose to cooperate or compete against one another. The objectives, as ill-defined as they are, are more player determined than anything else. Gamers that like to have their hand held during a game will find The Isle disorienting, to say the least.
Sporting surprisingly lush graphics, The Isle is a beautiful game to behold. Dinosaur models are fully realized and detailed and the sound often matches the epic nature of the beasts on show. Controls are tight if somewhat imprecise at times and the music is nature documentary epic.
The full package is unique and worth a try, even if it doesn’t work out all the time.
