Islanders: New Shores is the recently released sequel to Islanders, developed by The Station and published by Coatsink and Thunderful Games, that refines the original game’s minimalist city-building formula with understated yet impactful upgrades. It’s still cozy and ambient, but the added depth of greater biome variety and spatial mechanics makes each island feel more intentional without compromising the simplicity that defines the experience. With that said…. I had higher hopes for this title.
Islanders: New Shores makes an interesting first impression. With a relatively small download size, the game loads up quickly and brings with it a charming 3D world for the player to create in. The art style and graphics design were just as simplistic as the gameplay. However, the gameplay wasn’t quite as beautiful in its simplicity. The real fun of Islanders: New Shores lies in its creative mode. Players build across various island types utilizing a great deal of shapes, sizes, colors, and terrain types, which are all customizable.
Players can connect islands, construct buildings, and experiment freely, though the fun of it all falls somewhat flat in the lackluster sandbox world on offer. The flexibility is mediocre even though the manual camera controls let you zoom and rotate freely, and buildings can be turned in any direction for placement, the controls just don’t feel as refined as similar titles of the genre. This unfortunately left me a bit disappointed in my time with the game.
While the competitive mode tries to make this game challenging, it ends up feeling tedious and at times rather boring. The scoring system is, for lack of a better word, awful, and docks points for creativity in a game that teaches the player that creativity is paramount! This system punishes players for trying to have fun and put buildings in random places. Starting over on new maps repeatedly becomes a war of attrition, especially with the learning curve tied to the frustrating camera and input control mechanics. What should feel like a rewarding challenge, feels like grinding for no reason.
Islanders: New Shores is a game that has a promising Minecraft creative mode type of concept with an added scoring system, but it ultimately falls short. Its gameplay lacks the fun, creativity, pacing, and better mechanics needed to make it a truly enjoyable indie title. While some may enjoy building on floating islands (mostly children), most players will likely find the experience too slow and the game just missing anything that would make it worthwhile.
Pros:
- Fast load times
- Decent graphics
- Manual camera and rotation controls
- Creative concept
Cons:
- Repetitive gameplay loop
- Unenjoyable competitive progression
- Poor tutorials and core mechanic explanations
- Punishes creative map design in certain modes
- Frustrating control scheme and camera glitches
I’m giving Islanders: New Shores a 4/10. Gameplay lacked much depth and featured frustrating progression systems that limited player creativity, hampering the potential fun of the experience.
If this type of island building, world crafting sort of game is your thing, then definitely give it a shot. Perhaps you’ll enjoy it more than I was able to as it seems to be a very positively received title, but it just didn’t land with me. The game is currently available on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, and PC.
