Islanders Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · September 1, 2021

For our Islanders Review, we play this rather nifty minimalist strategy game about building cities on colorful islands. Explore an infinite number of ever-changing new lands, expand your settlements from sprawling villages to vast cities and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere.

Islanders Review Pros:

Beautiful graphics.
571.1MB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Town building gameplay.
Two modes – high score or sandbox mode.
Basic tutorial.
Full camera control.
Laidback chilled soundtrack.
Fast loading times.
Beautiful locations.
You build structures and buildings which give a score, that score awarded changes upon you hitting the criteria to score more. For example, being a Seaweed farm scores more for being by the sea than land but you can increase the score again by having more seaweed farm slots in the water. Houses score more for being by structures and over houses.
You can see the score both positive and negative before placing your build.
You get told what a build needs to score more.
Get points and level up to get more builds.
Game over is when you can’t build anything.
Islanders is basically a puzzle game.
Gets very addictive.
You can rotate builds.
Play how you want.
Every game is randomized.
As you level up the builds get bigger.
Online leaderboards.
Clear red or green outline to show if you can do something.
The game is very accessible.
Save when you want.
As you build you also fill up an island graphic that once filled will allow you to travel to a new island. (you keep progress)
Highlighting a build will show how much it fills your score bar.

Islanders Review Cons:

You have to manually submit your score.
Eventually, you just grab a building and move around until you get a high score.
Can’t really play how you want in terms of your need to maximize score and space.
It’s the sort of game you play for hours but then never come back to.
The World isn’t alive so you don’t see people milling about.
The camera takes some getting used to.
Can only undo the last build.
Getting a good accurate placement can be tricky.

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