Room Escape Artist

Islands of Insight is a puzzle platformer video game by Lunarch Studios, published by Behaviour Interactive Inc.

Format

Style of Play:

• Puzzle platformer video game

Who is it For?

• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Any experience level

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 1

Play Time: There is no timer. Play and solve puzzles for as long as you want. Our reviewers completed the campaign in about 30 hours.

Price: $29.99

Booking: purchase and play at your leisure

Description

This is a puzzle platformer video game that you can play in first or third person. It is graphically intensive.

You are dropped into a world stocked with puzzles as far as the eye can see! After customizing your character, you are free to explore the terrain of the islands and uncover puzzles. Some puzzles take you into a new view to solve, and others are solved by looking at structures embedded in the environment just the right way.

Ryan Brady’s Reaction

Compared to many puzzle games, most of the puzzles in Islands of Insight are on the shallow side, but there are a huge amount of them. The world is beautiful and fun to explore, though the narrative is light and abstract. There are dozens of hours of play on offer here and it’s easy to get in a groove and lose yourself in the puzzle zone with the calming background music.

I have no idea why this game is multiplayer other than to justify the cosmetic rewards. Interaction is very limited and there is no way to collaborate on puzzles.

I appreciated that Islands of Insight is generally kind to players. You can hint your way through any logic puzzle if you’re patient enough. There are no rewards for clearing every puzzle in an area beyond a little gold mark on the map. You can skip a puzzle or two that you’re struggling with and still get all the rewards. First-person platforming is often frustrating, but it works here because it has been made mechanically forgiving.

Anyone looking for a pile of light puzzles to dig through will have a good time with Islands of Insight.

Theresa Piazza’s Reaction

Let me preface this review by stating that I played 30 hours of Islands of Insight. If you’re only going to sink a couple hours into Islands of Insight, I feel you’re likely going to be disappointed, as the first several hours of the game are pretty basic. Once you make it past hour 5 or so, I found the game quite engaging! The gameplay builds on concepts that you learn iteratively and has helpful hinting mechanisms for some puzzles. (For others you are just on your own!) At it’s heart, this game is a mash up of what could be 10 different puzzle apps on your phone, put in a beautiful setting and stocked with such a high quantity of those puzzles that you’ll never get bored. It’s not going to grace the top of my puzzle video game list anytime soon, but it was fun to pass the time.

Andrew Reynolds’ Reaction

Islands of Insight was a unique and interesting puzzle game. On the positive end of things, there were an absolute ton of puzzles to solve, and they came in a surprisingly broad variety of types. This meant that while not every puzzle will be enjoyable to everyone, there will certainly be a few types that are. For example, I don’t care for speed challenges in games, so the “get this series of orbs as fast as possible” puzzle type was something I mostly avoided when I could, but I really latched onto the handful of perspective puzzle types. There was a story that you discovered as you played, but I couldn’t really follow the thread of quasi-philosophical statements. This element felt like someone had played and liked The Talos Principle and attempted then to imitate it unsuccessfully.

The art style was attractive and ethereal, and the world felt like walking through a dream of half-remembered images of ancient Egyptian and Greek buildings. The soundtrack added to that feeling, though I found myself needing headphones for the puzzles with audio clues – the sounds were either too low or blended into the music. For the most part, I enjoyed my time with Islands of Insight. Part of my enjoyment was due to my ignoring the forced multiplayer aspect and story and just concentrating on something that I love – solving puzzles. I recommend adding this to your wishlist and waiting for one of the many, many Steam sales that will bring this to a more reasonable price.