Islands of Insight Review (PC)

Here’s one for you: an open-world game, but without the button-mashing combat and a seemingly infinite wealth of side quests and monotonous extracurricular activities. Heard of that before? Neither have I. Lunarch Studios, on the other hand, has definitely heard of it — to the point of transforming it into a full-fledged puzzle-centric MMO called Islands of Insight. For the record, it isn’t an RPG, nor is it a homage to any open-world game you’ve ever seen before, for that matter. But what it is, really, is a sandbox puzzler that essentially operates as a shared vessel for fledgling solvers to pluck clean of hundreds, if not thousands of 2D and environmental puzzles. In other words, it’s an open-world puzzle game.

Islands of Insight is a weird one, I’ll give you that. It’s weird, mainly down to the fact that it doesn’t quite know what it is, let alone what its purpose is other than to provide players with a treasure trove of randomized match-three puzzles and other bits and pieces. And although this does sound all rather promising at face value, it does beg the question: is an open-world setting really all that necessary for what can only be described as a textbook, wall-to-wall puzzler that’s hardly without any lore or context?

As I fashioned a few cosmetics for my eager-eyed avatar and made way for the so-called Islands of Insight for a crack at its litter of puzzles, I couldn’t help but mull over the fact that I, along with countless other silent companions, were mere pawns in a world without kingmakers. I wasn’t to step foot into the archipelago of islands as an intuitive guide, but a complete stranger—an oblivious observer, if you like, without the slightest clue of what loomed beyond that very first door.

Riddle Me This

Islands of Insight ejects you into an enormous open-world setting that’s absolutely bursting with puzzles—an entire collection of 10,000 and counting hand-made pieces, no less. Your duty, as one of the island’s newcomers, is to explore the tropical biomes of the region, and sift through each of the puzzles in any way you see fit, all whilst working to flesh out mastery points and harvest an in-game currency called Sparks. It isn’t a linear game whatsoever, either, and so, for the most part, you’re left to your own devices.

In addition to the numerous areas that are open for you to unlock, several of which require additional skills (a high jump, for example) to reach, there’s also a nifty selection of dungeon-like maps to complete, too—areas in which the completion criteria mostly revolves around a series of to-do lists. Again, it’s merely the case of sifting through one of several formats, but with the added bonus of having more loot to show for your efforts.

There is, weirdly enough, a story to unravel here, too, though it is purely decorative, and in no way, shape, or form, something that you’ll need to onboard. To cut a long story short, there’s a mysterious world laced with lore, and it’s your job, in a true detective manner, to decipher it and put two and two together. It isn’t enough to keep you on the edge of your seat, but it is, at least in some small way, a good bit of filler to break up some of those longer chunks of repetitive chore core work.

…Go on Then

Aside from a relatively short tutorial—an introductory period in which you learn the basic controls and come to grips with the types of puzzles that the game has to offer—there isn’t a whole lot to work through. I say that, as in, there aren’t all that many story-driven puzzles to solve, but rather, an open-world that’s rife with set pieces and 2D mini-games and puzzles. To start out, you don’t have a primary objective; instead, you just have to figure it out for yourself and, you know, see where the road takes you. Along the way, you have the opportunity to flex your intuitive skills by accessing one of several puzzle types, whether it’s logical, mechanical, 2D, or 3D. That’s all fine and dandy — so long as you don’t mind the significant lack of context, that is.

It’s a shared world, and so, naturally, you can expect to bump into your fair share of like-minded players, all of whom will have their own puzzles to sift through and locations to explore. The only issue here, however, is that you won’t technically need to enlist any of them for the sake of collaborating, as the vast majority of puzzles can be completed by a single pair of hands. What’s more, as players aren’t able to express their emotions outside of a generic emote, they don’t really feel like companions, but rather, empty drones that just so happen to occupy the same space as you. And that’s it.

Of course, if the lion’s share of the puzzles had a completion criterion that involved working together as a collective, it would make sense. However, as there’s no real value to working with another player, it does make the MMO part a little, I don’t know, pointless. And that’s a shame, truly.

A World of Clutter

Don’t get me wrong, Islands of Insight is a very pretty game — even if, for the most part, it’s within a gaping gullet comprised of random set pieces and clutter. If you’re able to gloss over the “mess” of it all, however, then you’ll come to find that, when it comes to actually exploring the islands, everything is as one. And that’s just it — there’s so much of said clutter that it’s almost impossible to be at a loose end and without a job to do. With 10,000 puzzles to shovel through, there’s always some progress to be made, if not in your skill tree, then in the store—a portal in which you can obtain new skins, cosmetics, and other nifty upgrades.

As far as these 10,000 puzzles go, a huge portion of them can be a little daunting, to say the least, and not to mention tediously repetitive. For example, there are several grid-based 2D puzzles that task you with filling black and white squares, and others that require you to scan an area and line up certain objects in order to create a complete picture. These are all fun to solve in shorter bursts, but if you’re really unlucky, and just so happen to stumble upon a dozen or so in a row, then the monotony of it all can become a little excessive and disheartening.

On the plus side, there are countless other tasks to complete in Islands of Insight, including traversal challenges that involve collecting orbs in a timely fashion, and unlocking core secrets that pertain to the world’s history. So again, while there are plenty of mundane chores to progress through, the fact that none of them prevent you from abandoning ship and seeking out an alternate route does alleviate that level of repetition.

Verdict

There‘s no denying the fact that Islands of Insight is a beautiful work of art, and not to mention the ultimate Shangri-La for anyone with a warm heart for complex puzzles and open-ended exploration. What is it isn’t, however, is an invitation to round up your closest allies and jump directly into the fray for a series of collaborative tasks. It’s an MMO, sure, but it doesn’t necessarily paint itself as one, either, as the vast majority of the in-game content is targeted towards lone voyagers and nothing more. It’s a neat addition, but one that’s also as equally redundant as it is necessary.

Of course, there are some pretty solid bones to pick at here, and so, on that note, it is worth keeping tabs on — if not at the time of writing, then in the near future, when the creases are no longer visible and the multiplayer is a little more inclusive. But if that sort of thing doesn’t bother you, and you’re more into the idea of scraping the barrel clean on your lonesome, then you’ll probably find more than enough to enjoy in Islands of Insight. Similarly, if you’re looking to plunge into a bottomless abyss of puzzles that’ll take you anywhere from a dozen to fifty hours or more to sweep beneath the rug, then you’re sure to find the islands a good spot to hang your coat.