The Beautiful Island

The Beautiful Island

TBF · February 27, 2025 · Alternate History, Visual Novel, Political, Choose Your Own Adventure, Exploration

The Beautiful Island is free to play — no purchase needed. We track it so you know if that ever changes.

PC
Mostly Positive70% · 44 📈 Making a comeback 84%
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

Screenshots

The Beautiful Island price

The Beautiful Island is free to play — there is no purchase price, on Steam or anywhere else we track. We keep watching it, so if it ever stops being free the price history on this page will show when that happened and what it changed to.

About The Beautiful Island

"The Beautiful Island" is set in a parallel history in a not-so-far future. It is set on an island, resembling the Taiwan of our own world, after a war. You can chose to either play the game after the island lost the war and got annexed by its neighbor or after it successfully defended itself.
Jan, an engineer, visits the island not long after the war ended. He tries to reconnect with people that he knew from his previous visit. He learns about their fates and how the war has changed their views on the political situation.
Will you stay neutral or will you get involved and help?
Can you change fate?
Will you form your own opinion? – Then share it with other players at the end of the game!

Game play


This visual novel includes several endings – some better, some worse. Make decisions, talk to people, find a path that leads to an ending of your choice, but please understand: war has no good endings!

The World of "Beautiful Island"


This is not the real world. It's the world of our fictional story. The real world is more complex than any story – but maybe stories can help us to understand the world a bit better?

The Beautiful Island — game info

Platforms
Windows, macOS, Linux / SteamOS
Player modes
Single-player
PC Game Pass
Not included
More games like this:Mac gamesLinux games

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

✦ AI summary

The Beautiful Island is a short visual novel about Taiwan after a hypothetical conflict, praised by players for its thoughtful storytelling and authentic portrayal of Taiwanese culture and people, but hampered by inconsistent and noticeably AI-generated artwork that breaks immersion with errors like duplicate landmarks and mismatched art styles. Most players feel the narrative and music merit playing through despite the visual flaws, though the heavy use of AI art is a significant drawback that bothers many.

Not recommended May 20, 2025
formosa ai generated. YOU can choose whose gonna destroy the island the United States or the China. and then you go to explore the aftermath. Not for me.
4 found this helpful
Recommended Jun 30, 2026
“War is where the young and stupid are tricked by the old and bitter into killing each other.” — Niko Bellic
3 found this helpful
Recommended May 18, 2025
YES GREAT STORY GREAT GAME USED THE 1 GUIDE AVAILABLE TO GET 100%
3 found this helpful
Not recommended Oct 6, 2025
I wanted to give it a chance, but the first seconds bombard you with so much AI I couldn't take it. (It's not even good, of course, the shading changes from sprite to sprite despite the character not even moving)
1 found this helpful
Recommended Apr 30, 2025
A beautiful short visual novel that explores Taiwan after a possible war and its impact on the people living there. I played it in German. Pros: - Beautiful story, shining light on the beautiful island of Taiwan - You notice that the author has indeed either lived in Taiwan or talked to Taiwanese people - Beautiful music Cons: - The artwork is sometimes inconsistent—for example, different art styles are used within the game. - I would’ve really preferred if the images of Taipei hadn’t been AI-generated—or at least had been based on real photos. - Some of the AI pictures show two or more Taipei 101s, which is a bit off-putting. - The voice acting could use some work, at least in the German version Overall, I recommend playing it. Although it has some flaws, it is nice to play in one evening and has a nice atmosphere.
1 found this helpful
Recommended Apr 20, 2025
beside the ai art, its good story

Community reviews

—

0 reviews

Sign in to write a review.

No reviews yet. Be the first to review this game.

More like The Beautiful Island

News

All news →
Games like Undertale that remember what you didPC

Games like Undertale that remember what you did

Undertale's own listing calls it the RPG where you don't have to destroy anyone. Games like Undertale that keep that idea: permanent choices, fights you can talk past, worlds that notice.

Nov 14, 2026
Games like Slay the Spire that keep the branching climbPC

Games like Slay the Spire that keep the branching climb

Most games like Slay the Spire copy the cards and lose the map. These keep the risky-or-safe choice, from a three-floor train to a deck made of poker hands.

Nov 14, 2026
Bodycam game price: what the zombie update changes about buyingPC

Bodycam game price: what the zombie update changes about buying

The Dead & Damned put Bodycam's zombies back on 13 November. What our dated record says about the Bodycam game price, and why the store's end date matters more than the sticker.

Nov 14, 2026
SilkMU is our new partner: MU Online Season 6 in a browser tabBlog

SilkMU is our new partner: MU Online Season 6 in a browser tab

SilkMU, a MU Online Season 6 server that runs in a browser tab or as an app, opened on 6 November 2026 and is now our partner. What it offers, what is free and what costs WCoin.

Nov 13, 2026
Games like Dying Light, where nightfall changes the rulesPC

Games like Dying Light, where nightfall changes the rules

Games like Dying Light are easy to find if you only want parkour or only want zombies. These eight keep the part that matters: a city that becomes a different place after dark.

Nov 13, 2026
Games like Portal 2, where one idea carries the whole gamePC

Games like Portal 2, where one idea carries the whole game

Games like Portal 2 all share one habit: teach a single impossible trick, then spend a campaign breaking it. From rewinding objects through time to Escher geometry that loops back on itself.

Nov 13, 2026
Planet Coaster DLC: skip the collection, buy the packsBundles

Planet Coaster DLC: skip the collection, buy the packs

The Planet Coaster DLC catalogue closed in 2019, so there is no curve left to wait out. Our record shows the collection bundle costs far more than assembling the same packs one by one.

Nov 13, 2026
Toxic Commando Game Pass: subscribe, or buy the key?Xbox

Toxic Commando Game Pass: subscribe, or buy the key?

The Toxic Commando Game Pass add landed on 12 November. Our price record since late September shows the key route barely moved, which changes what a subscription is worth.

Nov 13, 2026

Top games right now

All rankings →
  1. 1Counter-Strike 2Free
  2. 2Dota 2Free
  3. 3PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDSFree
  4. 4Grand Theft Auto V Legacy—
  5. 5Terraria$2.11
  6. 6Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six SiegeFree
  7. 7Rust$20.19
  8. 8Garry's Mod$6.19
  9. 9Team Fortress 2Free
  10. 10Black Myth: Wukong$35.72
  11. 11HELLDIVERS™ 2$23.99
  12. 12ELDEN RING$38.88
  13. 13Apex Legends™Free
  14. 14Left 4 Dead 2$9.99
  15. 15Stardew Valley$12.11
  16. 16Wallpaper Engine$3.99
  17. 17Cyberpunk 2077$17.99
  18. 18Euro Truck Simulator 2$4.99
  19. 19Dead by Daylight$6.81
  20. 20Red Dead Redemption 2$12.97
  21. 21The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt$9.77
  22. 22Baldur's Gate 3$53.52
  23. 23Phasmophobia$15.60
  24. 24War ThunderFree