ISLANDERS: New Shores

About

ISLANDERS: New Shores is a single player casual turn-based strategy game. It was developed by The Station and was released on July 10, 2025. It received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players.

Welcome to ISLANDERS: New Shores. Build your island retreat in a calm, minimalist world with exciting new features that keep the classic charm while inspiring fresh creativity.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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97%

Audience ScoreBased on 766 reviews

gameplay53 positive mentions

grinding3 negative mentions

A perfect and polished sequel that expands and improves on the original Islanders with new buildings, biomes, and strategic mechanics like the boon system.
Relaxing yet engaging gameplay combining city building and puzzle elements, suitable for casual play or deep high score chasing with a satisfying and chill atmosphere.
Beautiful minimalist art style and soothing soundtrack enhance the calming and meditative experience, with improved visuals and fluid building placement.

Repetitive gameplay loop can become stale after extended sessions, with some players finding limited variety in island challenges and building options over time.
Challenges and late-game difficulty may be excessively hard or frustrating, posing issues even for experienced players and potentially limiting accessibility.
Some interface and camera control limitations, as well as occasional finicky building placement and RNG elements, sometimes detract from overall smoothness and fairness.

gameplay
160 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
65%
2%
The gameplay in Islanders: New Shores builds on the original’s simple yet addictive city-building mechanics, introducing a wealth of new buildings, island types, and the innovative boon system that adds strategic depth without overwhelming complexity. It retains the relaxing, low-pressure loop of placing buildings for points while enhancing player choice and variety, making it both accessible for newcomers and engaging for veterans. Overall, it is praised as a refined and deeper experience that maintains the original’s charm with improved visuals, fresh mechanics, and a satisfying, zen-like flow.
- “The new features introduced in this installment, especially the boon system and the expanded roster of buildings and island biomes, refresh the core gameplay while staying true to the series’ original spirit.”
- “There's so many new mechanics that mesh with and expand on the established gameplay loop excellently, from certain island gimmicks to single-use boons that can catapult your score far beyond what was possible in the previous game.”
- “All the parts I know, but in more beautiful detail, with more biomes, interesting new mechanics, even more intuitive building systems... I can't express how much this is exactly what I was hoping for.”
- “[*] hidden/'rogue' mechanics create false difficulty instead of strategy.”
- “[*] inconsistent behavior between items that use similar mechanics (e.g., ray/vision rules), which leads to anti-synergy traps.”
- “Between the two, the sequel has a few improvements and gameplay enhancements that might appeal but also takes away the relaxing simple nature of the game.”
graphics
94 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
52%
45%
3%
The game's graphics are widely praised for their beautiful, minimalist, and charming art style that combines clean lines, vibrant colors, and detailed island biomes, creating a calming and cozy atmosphere. Visual improvements and expanded variety in buildings, biomes, and animation enhance the aesthetic appeal while maintaining the original’s simple elegance. Overall, the graphics significantly contribute to a relaxing and engaging experience, complementing the gameplay and soundtrack perfectly.
- “The visuals here are absolutely gorgeous, everything fits with the art style, and it all comes together so you can just stare at your island civilizations for hours on end.”
- “They leaned into the mechanics that made the first one strong, addressed nearly all the pain points that were present in the first one, added a bunch of fun new mechanics, new artwork, more animation that works together really well, lots of interesting biomes with drastically different color palettes...”
- “Beautiful graphics, chill music, satisfying game loop, and very rewarding when you plan your island just right and score big on your high value buildings.”
- “Graphics - smoothed boxes.”
- “It works fine, despite having to play with low quality graphics.”
- “While what the rules have you make often end up looking aesthetic, it's not a city builder in the same way as Sim City, etc. and doesn't scratch that same itch.”
music
67 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
42%
54%
4%
The game's music is widely praised for its soothing, chill, and calming melodies that perfectly complement the relaxing gameplay and charming visuals, creating a cozy and meditative atmosphere. Although some find the soundtrack repetitive or less compelling compared to the original, overall it enhances the experience and many players keep it on while playing. The ambient sounds and extended runtime also add depth, making it a standout aspect of the game.
- “The soundtrack is absolutely perfect.”
- “Soundtrack: this game has a 10/10 soundtrack with over 90 minutes of runtime and additional island ambiance like bird calls or waves crashing.”
- “The soundtrack and ambience really make you feel that these small settlements you create really are home, and each new journey to a new island leaves behind a small civilization, with a culture and history of your own making.”
- “The gameplay of the sequel involves many more choices, including which type of island you go to next, boons and which ones to select, a panoply of new buildings and mechanics (seems to me about twice as many buildings.) The music is also different, and I'm afraid to say it, but not in a good way.”
- “If there's one thing that is a slight downer it's the music... it's only a couple of tracks and some parts being stand out-ish or attention grabbing enough leads to it getting very repetitive after a while.”
- “Only major flaw is that the music manager is either buggy or just not very well executed, it will on occasion cycle tracks before the current one is done, sometimes looping the track that was already playing.”
replayability
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
40%
30%
The game offers enhanced replayability compared to its predecessor through added challenges, in-game progression rewards, random islands, and new biomes and buildings, providing extensive depth and variety. While not a radical departure, its cozy style and multiple ways to achieve high scores make it an excellent choice for casual play with lasting appeal. Some users have suggested even more game modes and building variety to further boost replay value.
- “A worthy sequel to an already very good building/planning game with a fair amount of replayability.”
- “✔ Endless replayability with random islands.”
- “Lovely game, played the original for years as stress relief, and the new additions of biomes and boons only increase the replayability and enjoyment.”
- “There have also been requests for additional game modes and an even broader variety of building types to extend replayability and creative possibilities.”
- “If you're expecting a radical departure from the original, you'll be disappointed, but if you're looking for a budget cozy game with lots of replay value, this is definitely worth it.”
- “The addition of specific challenges and in-game progression rewards, though, are the greatest additions, because they can really extend the replay value, something that was very lacking in islanders i.”
optimization
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
45%
11%
The game is praised for its smooth performance and improved optimization compared to the original, running well even with numerous structures placed. It balances cozy gameplay with deep optimization mechanics, offering a polished experience on platforms like the Steam Deck. However, it lacks flow optimization and dynamic environmental interactions.
- “I didn't experience any performance issues even when placing numerous structures, so props to the devs for making this run smoothly.”
- “And aside from all that, the game looks so much better than the original, while somehow also being more optimized.”
- “The game has great potential for being a cozy vibes game, but it's also a lovely exercise in optimization, which is how I personally prefer to play it.”
- “There is no flow optimization nor dynamic interaction from the environment.”
atmosphere
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75%
25%
The game features a charming and calming atmosphere, enhanced by cute, minimalist visuals with vibrant colors and diverse island biomes. The variety of building types, unlockable skins, and increased interactions create an engaging and imaginative experience, all complemented by a soothing original soundtrack that enhances its meditative quality. Overall, the atmosphere builds on the first game’s strengths while introducing subtle improvements.
- “The minimalist art style is instantly recognizable, marked by clean lines and vibrant colors that create a calming visual atmosphere, while a soothing original soundtrack accompanies the experience, enhancing its meditative quality.”
- “There's more variety in the islands and the atmosphere, and I love to imagine things about my islands based on what I'm building.”
- “Cute and atmospheric visuals continue, with more of everything - building types, their looks ('skins') that you unlock through progression, more island types with their own quaint biomes; more mechanics, way more interactions between buildings.”
grinding
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game can feel tedious due to cramped island spaces requiring precise placement, and some resource packs being unusable or point-penalized in certain areas. However, the overall experience remains peaceful and enjoyable, especially for players who prefer relaxing building over intensive farming.
- “Islands are often too cramped, forcing pixel-perfect fits that feel tedious, not chill.”
- “Don’t surface packs that are point-penalized or unusable on the current island (e.g., farming/hops/sand on winter).”
- “It's a very cool game (kinda slow), I have a very peaceful time building especially when I want to get away from farming and more mainstream cozy games.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is light and playful, often involving simple, amusing mechanics like increasing a "funny number." It adds a quirky, casual charm that enhances the overall experience.
story
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The story is conveyed through whimsical, storybook-style visuals that create a charming and imaginative atmosphere.
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is generally solid, but the music manager has notable bugs, occasionally cycling tracks prematurely or looping the same track repeatedly, which detracts from the overall experience.

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25h Median play time

36h Average play time

18-50h Spent by most gamers

*Based on 6 analyzed playthroughs

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Frequently Asked Questions

ISLANDERS: New Shores is a casual turn-based strategy game.

ISLANDERS: New Shores is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5 and others.

On average players spend around 36 hours playing ISLANDERS: New Shores.

ISLANDERS: New Shores was released on July 10, 2025.

ISLANDERS: New Shores was developed by The Station.

ISLANDERS: New Shores has received overwhelmingly positive reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its gameplay but disliked it for its replayability.

ISLANDERS: New Shores is a single player game.

Similar games include ISLANDERS, Dorfromantik, Pan'orama, Reus 2, Preserve and others.

ISLANDERS: New Shores

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