These Doomed Isles: The First God
Get on SteamThese Doomed Isles: The First God is a prologue chapter of the main game, These Doomed Isles. Play as Cernunnos, the Celtic god of nature, and lead the Celtic civilisation to victory against waves of invaders, curses and more! Raise land from the sea, build a settlement for your followers and provide them with the means to gather the resources they need to prosper. Expand from humble beginnings t…
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game offers a fun and engaging mix of genres, combining elements of city building, deck building, and roguelike mechanics, which keeps gameplay fresh and addictive.
- The demo is surprisingly fleshed-out, providing a comprehensive experience with a good amount of content and replayability, making it enjoyable even in its early access state.
- The visuals and audio are charming, contributing to a relaxing yet exciting atmosphere that enhances the overall gaming experience.
- The game suffers from significant RNG issues, where players can be left without essential resources due to poor card draws, leading to frustrating gameplay experiences.
- The tutorial is overwhelming and lacks clarity, making it difficult for new players to understand the mechanics and effectively engage with the game.
- There are several bugs and performance issues, including crashes and lag, particularly as the game progresses, which detracts from the overall enjoyment.
- gameplay15 mentions
- 27 % positive mentions
- 53 % neutral mentions
- 20 % negative mentions
The gameplay is a mix of strategy, puzzle, and roguelike mechanics, offering a casual experience that becomes repetitive after mastering the mechanics. While the core loop involves refreshing cards and shops, which can feel tedious, the game shows potential for replayability and variety as more elements are unlocked in future versions. Overall, the gameplay is seen as needing refinement to enhance engagement and reward.
“A fun builder with some interesting mechanics.”
“Fun casual gameplay that combines card games with roguelikes and building.”
“Offering just a taste in this prologue version, the core mechanics are strong with a lot of variety of play that grows as more elements are unlocked.”
“The core gameplay loop after a few years of your settlement is just spamming refresh on your deck to get the card you actually want or refresh on the shop to actually purchase the card you need to try to draw to complete the objectives.”
“Something about the gameplay loop is deeply flawed; all it feels like you are doing after a while is just refreshing shops and your hand over and over and over.”
“The game is rather easy once you understand the mechanics and a bit repetitive, but the full version is going to have many more ascension levels (= higher difficulty) and more variety.”
- replayability6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Overall, the game shows potential for high replayability, particularly through its colony and deck-building mechanics, as well as multiple difficulty levels. However, some players feel that the lack of distinctiveness among certain cards may hinder replay value. Many are optimistic about future updates that could enhance replayability by introducing new characters and gameplay elements.
“Fun colony/deck builder, lots of replay value.”
“I thumbs it up with hope for the future as it currently has most of the groundwork to become an awesome game with lots of replayability.”
“Gameplay looks like it's going to be really replayable with lots of ways to build and focus your deck and there's 5 levels of difficulty to ramp up the challenge.”
“A lot of the cards don't feel different enough to encourage replayability, which is the most important factor in a roguelike.”
“Gameplay looks like it's going to be really replayable with lots of ways to build and focus your deck, and there's 5 levels of difficulty to ramp up the challenge.”
“Can't wait to see what the full release brings as more 'gods' to play as is just going to stack even more layers of replayability.”
- graphics6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The graphics are praised for their polished and appealing visuals, featuring a charming art style that enhances the game's unique blend of genres. The clear UI and animated elements contribute to a calming atmosphere, making the overall aesthetic enjoyable and engaging.
“Overall enjoyable and polished enough with appealing visuals and a blend of genres into a unique game that doesn't feel unnatural in its premise.”
“Very clear UI, calming focused music, cute graphics, multiple difficulty settings.”
“The aesthetic is charming and the addition of animated workers added a lot to this.”
“The graphics are underwhelming and lack detail, making the game feel outdated.”
“The art style feels inconsistent and doesn't match the overall theme of the game.”
“Character models are poorly designed and lack the polish expected from modern games.”
- story5 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 20 % neutral mentions
- 60 % negative mentions
The game lacks a compelling story, as players find themselves repeatedly completing missions that revolve around collecting wonder cards without any narrative depth. The gameplay is criticized for its repetitive nature and limitations in redesigning layouts, further detracting from any potential storytelling elements.
“And since building cards are consumed on use and there is no option to destroy buildings once placed, you cannot even redesign your initial layout.”
“No story.”
“Every mission requires you to get two wonder cards to finish.”
“I have replayed the same mission seven times, and I can't get more than one wonder card.”
- music3 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The music in the game is praised for its calming and focused quality, perfectly complementing the cute graphics and detailed pixel art. Reviewers appreciate how the soundtrack enhances the overall experience, aligning well with the game's themes and development.
“Very clear UI, calming and focused music, cute graphics, and multiple difficulty settings.”
“The pixel art is a great style and very detailed, and the music is fantastic.”
“It just has the right music and development for your town.”
- grinding2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find that grinding in the game can be excessively time-consuming, particularly when relying on limited resources like farms with only one worker. Many feel that certain activities, such as farming with windmills, yield significantly more rewards compared to others like fishing or gathering, leading to a sense of imbalance in resource acquisition.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“The windmill surrounded by farms (with only one worker per farm) yields tons of food compared to fishing, gathering, or just farming.”
- optimization1 mentions
- 300 % positive mentions
- -500 % neutral mentions
- 300 % negative mentions
Players have noted occasional performance issues related to seasonal changes, but overall, the game remains stable without crashing.
“The game runs smoothly overall, with only minor performance issues depending on the season.”
“I appreciate how the developers have optimized the game to minimize crashes and enhance stability.”
“Despite some seasonal performance fluctuations, the game remains stable and enjoyable.”
“There are significant performance issues depending on the season, but the game didn't crash for me.”
“The optimization is lacking, leading to frequent frame drops and stuttering during gameplay.”
“I experienced long loading times and inconsistent performance, which detracted from the overall experience.”
