Island Notes

About

Island Notes is a single player open world role playing shooter game with fantasy, romance, drama, mystery and others themes. It was developed by KangBaoGame and was released on August 21, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

Story Introduction:After a yacht accident, you and your guests are stranded on a mysterious island. Will you survive alone or help everyone pull through together? The game blends romance, survival, crafting, farming, fishing, pet taming, and more—promising a unique survival adventure. Game Features: A vast island map featuring caves, abandoned structures, cliffs, and other special locations. With…

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83%

Audience ScoreBased on 66 reviews

story3 positive mentions

grinding4 negative mentions

The game offers a high degree of freedom with creative survival scenarios and a rich tropical island environment.
AI companions add uniqueness by reducing loneliness, providing helpful actions, and enhancing immersion in single-player survival.
The mix of survival, crafting, base building, and companion relationship elements creates an addictive and engaging gameplay experience.

Resource gathering can be frustrating due to rare materials being hard to find and inefficient gathering mechanics.
The UI and inventory management are clunky, with poor translations and limited crafting/storage quality-of-life features.
NPC companions' AI and animations are simplistic and sometimes problematic, limiting their usefulness in combat and tasks.

gameplay
14 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
58%
21%
The gameplay offers a highly immersive survival experience with realistic mechanics, creative freedom, and charming companion characters, drawing strong comparisons to The Forest. While survival and crafting elements are well-developed and addictive, the building system is considered basic and limiting, lacking advanced features like build-anywhere or transportation options, which may hinder long-term engagement. Overall, the gameplay is deep and enjoyable, though it could benefit from enhancements such as workshop support.
- “This new desert island survival game skillfully integrates three core elements: a wild island environment, realistic survival mechanics, and charming female companion characters.”
- “It boasts diverse and creative designs as well as an extremely high degree of freedom, enabling players to realize almost all kinds of imaginative survival scenarios and bringing a remarkable gameplay experience.”
- “It gives me major The Forest vibes, with all the survival and crafting mechanics being properly fleshed out.”
- “There is a basic building mechanic of different tiers, only base blocks and simple constructions.”
- “Building mechanics suck.”
- “Although there are a lot of survival mechanics to keep you hooked, without a simple 'build anywhere' concept, the game gets pretty boring pretty soon.”
grinding
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game primarily involves collecting materials for crafting, which can feel somewhat repetitive due to the limited variety of items. However, NPCs help alleviate this by assisting in resource gathering, making the overall grinding experience more manageable within the exploration and survival-focused gameplay.
- “Because there are not a lot of items, the game has quite a grindy craft.”
- “This is a really cute game, potential all over the place, the crafting is good, though somewhat grindy collecting materials, but that is to be expected.”
story
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The story centers on a classic stranded-on-a-desert-island theme, with players choosing characters to survive while exploring and advancing the plot. Though the narrative is currently minimal, it complements the gameplay focus on exploration, customization, and combat, with players hopeful for future story expansions.
- “You can pick one or all 4 characters to "survive" (which doesn't feel overpowered) as well as change a few difficulty options, then explore the island and advance the plot.”
- “The game essentially revolves around exploration, character customization, combat, and farming—a classic stranded-on-a-desert-island storyline.”
- “I'm looking forward to more content being added and the story being expanded.”
graphics
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
33%
The graphics are visually appealing and create an engaging environment, especially with interactive NPCs and island exploration. However, animations and character movements feel stiff and lack fluidity, detracting from the overall experience. While not the most visually impressive, the graphics effectively support the game's deep gameplay.
- “Love how interactive and helpful the NPCs can be, great visuals and I like how exploring the island can be a fun yet challenging adventure.”
- “The graphics aren't the flashiest, but the gameplay's deep.”
stability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game generally runs smoothly without major glitches, though some users report noticeable bugs that impact stability. Overall, stability is decent but could be improved.
- “Interesting concept, but it's a bit too buggy now.”
replayability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Users highlight that the game's replayability is greatly enhanced by supporting Steam Workshop, allowing skilled modders to create new content that enriches the game world and extends its lifespan.
character development
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Character development is praised for its detailed and immersive female character designs, which significantly enhance the overall experience.
optimization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's optimization is improving rapidly, with frequent updates enhancing performance and quality of life, which instills confidence in the developer's roadmap.
- “Seeing optimizations and quality of life updates roll out at a fast pace makes me believe in their roadmap”