The Island - Escape Room

In 2023, Flat Cat Games released The Lab Escape Room which was a fun puzzler that required the player to interpret the environment, looking for patterns and identifying clues. I liked the game and was delighted to see a second title from this developer. I jumped into The Island Escape Room and had a good time exploring and puzzling my way around the island. The focus of the game is on puzzles, with only a bare hint of a backstory. The island is divided into distinct areas which are accessed in sequence. Each area contains a set of puzzles which are solved by discovering hidden clues. Some are stand-alone and require nothing extra. The good news is that there was only one mechanical puzzle (a slider) which I survived. Solution clues tend to be found close to each puzzle which means you do not need to do a lot of wandering. While puzzles are point-and-click, you can freely move around the environment using the WASD keys. There are no voice-overs and the background is instrumental music. I admit that I turned my headphones off, as I prefer the quiet when I’m busy thinking. There is a spoiler-free hint system that points you towards the clue or provides some extra insight. Puzzle…

Positives up front: It looks fine, sound scape is fine. it is a bit of fun. Now to the rest: the puzzles are crytic and illogical. Some do not seem to have hints in the environment or there are no hints to the environment. The hint system has only one stage and is either vague or gives away the solution. The story as it is is meh. If it were not there no one would notice. There are collectible notes in the world but at least was not able read them as in I was unable to see letters on the papers. Some kind of show text option would have been nice. It was mostly tedious and not much fun. Also there is a sliding block puzzle. The devs created a guide but it is basically the solutions. So the all or nothing option. There is often not even an explanation on what one should do. If you can get it for really cheap give it a go. Otherwise nah. At least there is a demo to try. Score: 4/9

Wanted to like this because it has the bones of being a great escape adventure, but it often presents the player with puzzles that require you to read the developers mind (and the hint system is so arcane as to be nearly useless). Other puzzles are dirt simple and some are simply tedious and not fun (I'm looking at you slider tile puzzle). There is a puzzle where you move sliders to correspond to heights of mountains just flat out did not work unless again you read the developers' minds. This is a promising work but needs more work to be enjoyable - right now it is joyless.

Fun and challenging.

[h2]Has its issues, but still quite enjoyable with many fun puzzles[/h2] [b]Difficulty:[/b] ★★★☆☆ (+moon logic) [i]Playtime: 4-8 hrs[/i] This is a mostly environmental puzzle-focused Escape Room puzzle game, which gets somewhat challenging towards the end. Very well designed on that front. Though every now and then, there will be puzzles that heavily lean on moon logic, or hinge on very thin logic at best. The hints will help you through those annoying parts. The Demo is a good showcase of what you can expect from the full game, so try that first if you are not sure. The lore notes were visually blurred and unreadable for me. Maybe it is a resolution issue, idk. Some visual glitches and bugs here and there. No jank with the movement. Overall, really enjoyed it even with its flaws.

Overall I liked this game. It provided various environments from which to explore and solve the various puzzles. I did not experience any graphical or mechanical bugs throughout the game. On the few occasions where something didn't work, I merely exited the game and re-entered at the point I left off and the unresponsive item resolved itself and I was able to proceed. I will admit that some puzzles were extremely difficult to solve and exceedingly hard to see where the clues were. However, on those occasions the helpful hints gave enough information to proceed. Overall, a challenging escape room and well worth the price.