magerette
Hedgewitch
- Joined
- October 18, 2006
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Michael Anderson (txa1265) takes a look back at Russian developer Nival's 2001 rpg, Evil Islands, from a netbook gamer's perspective in this review posted at Geardiary.
On the game in general:
On the game in general:
Conclusion:The ‘meat’ of the game is in the combat, character progression, and massive scope of the areas you need to explore. Make no mistake – this is a very difficult game, and it is HUGE. You will easily spend 80 hours getting to the end. The game takes place across three islands: Gipath, Ingos and Suslanger. Each has a different landscape and weather pattern, and each is filled with different types of challenges.
The combat system is real-time with pause (RTwP) as mentioned, meaning that you can play the game largely as an action-RPG in the style of Diablo, but also pause everything whenever needed to issue commands to your party. In many games that distinction doesn’t matter, but Evil Islands is a very punishing game in terms of difficulty. Early on you are instructed on how to use stealth to sneak by a couple of (large) enemies; if you choose not to take that advice…you will die. I know, I tried several times.
So the game makes actual strategic use of stealth as well as all-out action combat...
More information.There are times when looking for ‘gems in the rough’ all you find is the rough! But with Evil Islands I found a huge game with tons of positives – and plenty of negatives – but overall a very fun and challenging experience that rewards planning and careful selection of skills and battle tactics...This is an absolute gem of a netbook game, and one of the sorts of games I originally intended to play when I started doing this: I had never played, it was modern enough to run easily, still looked pretty good, had netbook-friendly controls, and offered an experience that most folks had missed but was still worth checking out. Evil Islands is a flawed gem, but I am thrilled that ...I was able to find and play it through!
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2006
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