Isle of Arrows
- September 8, 2022
- Gridpop
- 25h median play time
Get on SteamBuild an impenetrable fortress, tile by tile. Place buildings, build roads, and expand your isle to defend against waves of invaders in this roguelike fusion of tower defense and board game.
iPad
iPhone
Mac OS
PC
Phone
Windows
Android
Mobile Platform
Tablet
Reviews
- Unique blend of tower defense and roguelike mechanics, providing a fresh gameplay experience.
- Challenging and rewarding, with a satisfying sense of accomplishment when successfully navigating the RNG.
- Beautiful art style and engaging sound design, creating a relaxing atmosphere while playing.
- Heavy reliance on RNG can lead to frustrating experiences, with runs often feeling unfair due to bad luck.
- Limited player agency in tile placement and tower selection can make strategic planning difficult.
- Difficulty spikes, especially in later levels, can feel punishing and may deter players from progressing.
- gameplay80 mentions
- 45 % positive mentions
- 51 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "Isle of Arrows" is a blend of tower defense and roguelike mechanics, offering a mix of strategic planning and randomness that can be both rewarding and punishing. While many players appreciate the game's unique mechanics and engaging puzzle elements, some criticize the heavy reliance on RNG, which can lead to frustrating experiences and a sense of repetitiveness. Overall, the game is praised for its addictive nature and charming visuals, though it may require patience to navigate its challenging aspects.
“Isle of Arrows is a delightful blend of tower defense, strategic planning, and roguelike mechanics, and it quickly became one of my favorite games.”
“Its unique card-based mechanics, charming visuals, and engaging gameplay make it a standout title in its genre.”
“The gameplay is interesting and offers a nice twist in the tower defense genre.”
“You will lose, time and again, in every gameplay mode, simply because there is nothing you can do to prevent losing after a certain point.”
“However, after a while, the gameplay can start to feel repetitive, and the lack of variety can make the game feel monotonous.”
“Why is this game so pointlessly hard due to really dumb RNG mechanics?”
- graphics53 mentions
- 64 % positive mentions
- 30 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received widespread praise for their charming and aesthetically pleasing art style, often described as colorful, minimalist, and reminiscent of voxel or pixel art. Many reviewers highlight the visuals as a significant aspect of the gameplay experience, enhancing both the enjoyment and immersion. However, some critiques mention that while the graphics are appealing, they can also be simplistic and occasionally lack variety in design.
“It's very cool, the art style is gorgeous, and when it works, it works beautifully.”
“Visually, Isle of Arrows is charming and colorful, with detailed pixel art graphics that bring the game's world to life.”
“The graphics are bright and colorful, and the music is soothing and atmospheric.”
“Graphics are cute, but it's not very interesting.”
“The minimalistic approach also suits this game well in both the graphic design and soundtrack.”
“The game visuals look slick and very charming.”
- replayability21 mentions
- 38 % positive mentions
- 48 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
Overall, the game is praised for its high replayability, with features like daily challenges and varied gameplay mechanics contributing to its longevity. Players appreciate the balance of strategy and randomness, which encourages adaptation and keeps each playthrough fresh. However, some critics feel that certain elements may diminish replayability once players master the mechanics.
“A daily challenge feature boosts the title's replayability in the long term.”
“Outstanding tower defense strategy with a ton of variety and replayability!”
“The unique style of tile placement to a tower defense game has huge replayability.”
“Once you figure out the trick to each map, there's little replayability.”
“I understand the idea of rogue-likes is to improve replayability but to my tastes this one has gone too far and made the fundamental actions (of making interesting choices) meaningless; for me, it's ruined any fun the gameplay might have had.”
“Played about 12 hours of the demo, that even at its bare bones state (as compared to the full release), was incredibly replayable, even at its previous level 25 cap.”
- music17 mentions
- 24 % positive mentions
- 59 % neutral mentions
- 18 % negative mentions
The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some praising its atmospheric and soothing qualities, while others criticize its repetitiveness and lack of variety. While the soundtrack enhances the immersive experience for some players, others find it lackluster and unbalanced, detracting from the overall enjoyment. Overall, the music is described as minimalistic and fitting for the game's style, but many players desire more diversity in the tracks.
“The fast-paced gameplay is challenging yet rewarding, with satisfying boss battles and a catchy soundtrack.”
“The game's soundtrack is also a standout feature, providing an atmospheric and immersive backdrop to the gameplay.”
“And finally the music is very atmospheric, which is perfect for this type of game.”
“The biggest flaws are its repetitive soundtrack and the fact that some abilities are hilariously unbalanced at times.”
“The graphics are unimpressive, the music and sound effects are lackluster and missing things like health bars and upgrade paths other than progression (which relies on lucky draws vs good adoption of strategy) sucks the fun out of this one for me.”
“Only thing I really miss is more variety in music and towers.”
- story12 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The game's story is perceived as lacking depth, leading to a feeling of shallowness for some players. While the campaign offers a variety of missions and challenges, many players encounter frustrating difficulty spikes and RNG issues that hinder progress, particularly in the latter half of the story. Despite a recent patch that improved balance, the overall narrative experience remains underwhelming, with insufficient unlocks and mechanics to maintain interest.
“The game has a lot of content for its price; first you go through the tutorial and campaign missions, and then there is an 'ascension' mode where you take all of the towers you unlocked in the campaign and there are 6 levels per guild.”
“After the patch, I was able to complete both merchant missions with only a handful of restarts.”
“Unlocks don't happen often enough, especially when you're stuck in the rut of level 20-40 for the first story; if you do get lucky and move past it, there's not enough new mechanics to keep the game interesting.”
“Additionally, the lack of a storyline may make the game feel a bit shallow for some players.”
“Unlocks don't happen often enough, especially when you're stuck in the rut of level 20-40 for the first story. If you do get lucky and move past it, there's not enough new mechanics to keep the game interesting.”
“With only two missions left (merchants), I've played over 40 rounds trying to get them finished and it is literally impossible without extreme RNG luck.”
- atmosphere7 mentions
- 71 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its bright and colorful graphics, complemented by a soothing and immersive soundtrack that enhances the overall experience. Reviewers find it perfect for relaxation, making it an ideal choice for unwinding after work or starting the day.
“The game's soundtrack is also a standout feature, providing an atmospheric and immersive backdrop to the gameplay.”
“The graphics are bright and colorful, and the music is soothing and atmospheric.”
“I love the graphics and the atmosphere; it is perfect to relax after work or start the day smoothly with a coffee.”
- grinding5 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game both engaging and tedious; while it offers enjoyment and a sense of achievement in completing levels, the repetitive nature of the gameplay and limited variety in maps and modes can lead to fatigue after a few hours. Overall, the grind is seen as a double-edged sword, providing satisfaction but also becoming monotonous over time.
“I've 100% completed it, but it took a lot of grinding to clear everything.”
“There's a lot of enjoyment to be had, but once you get all the towers and it's just grinding against the chance generator, it starts to sour.”
“It becomes very tedious after maybe 5 hours, which for the price is decent, I suppose.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is often derived from its absurdities, such as the unbalanced abilities and the frustrating randomness that leads to comically repetitive scenarios. Players find themselves in laughable situations, like repeatedly facing overwhelming challenges while trying to progress, which adds a lighthearted touch to the overall experience.
“I tried so hard to get to new areas of the game, but RNG was just laughing at me while I created the 16th water world with 5 towers to my name, as I was butchered by the ruthless waves.”
- optimization2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- -50 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is a mixed bag; while the card system introduces randomness that prevents players from creating identical, highly optimized strategies each round, the distinct enemies ultimately tend to be countered using similar optimized damage paths. This balance between randomness and optimization adds a unique twist to the tower defense genre.
“It's a great little mix-up on tower defense games; there is a certain amount of RNG with the card system, but that prevents you from building the exact same, highly optimized path every round, which is typical in the genre.”
“While there is an effort to have distinct enemies, they largely all are solved the same way, by building a long optimized damage path.”
“It's a great little mix-up on tower defense games; there is a certain amount of RNG with the card system, but that stops you from building the exact same, highly optimized path every round, which is typical in the genre.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The emotional aspect of the game is not directly addressed in the provided text, which focuses more on gameplay mechanics rather than emotional engagement or impact. Therefore, it lacks sufficient information to summarize any emotional elements.
