Over Islands
- Sha
- 17 hours ago
- 3 min read
🎮 Gameplay Mechanics
🔶 Who doesn’t love the idea of soaring islands brimming with treasure, mystery, and glory? Over Islands taps perfectly into that fantasy- offering a mix of combat and exploration that feels like a pirate adventure, except this time, the sea has been swapped for the open skies. You play as the stranger, a wanderer seeking riches from cursed islands while slowly building a floating haven of your own. 🔷 Each island you visit comes with a clear goal: collect colored paints scattered across the terrain and use them to activate portals of matching hues. But, of course, it’s never that easy. Every island is crawling with enemies- runners that charge headfirst into you, skeleton archers firing from afar, cannons blasting from every corner, and yes, even massive boss fights. The levels are packed with loot: gold for your treasury and upgrades that boost things like weapon fire rate or damage output. 🔶 Back at your home island, the gold you’ve earned can be used to upgrade various facilities. The Armory enhances your weapons, the Alchemist improves mid-run upgrades, and the Fisherman boosts your gold income. There are also additional modes like Arena and Interception, but they’re essentially extensions of the same core gameplay loop- nothing too groundbreaking there.
🔷 What truly makes Over Islands shine, though, is its atmosphere. The floating islands, glowing skies, and dreamlike scenery create an almost magical sense of adventure. But like most good things, it has its flaws—and they mostly show up in the combat. Enemies feel overpowered, often appearing out of nowhere, and sometimes even shooting you through solid walls. The AI is glitchy too; enemies frequently get stuck behind barrels or random objects. On top of that, your weapon has zero recoil, which turns most encounters into a simple run-in-circles-and-shoot affair- because the moment you stop moving, you’re done for.
🔶 In short, Over Islands nails its level design—each area is packed with creative puzzles and wrapped in a stunning, magical atmosphere. But where it really stumbles is the combat. The fights feel unbalanced and clunky, and to make things worse, there’s no option to save your progress during an island raid.
📷 Visuals and Audio
🔷 The developers absolutely nailed the theme they were aiming for- a colorful, vibrant world that perfectly blends medieval charm with magical elements. The visuals shine through with polished animations, detailed landscapes, lively NPCs, and well-crafted enemy hordes. As for the audio, the soundtrack might not be extraordinary, but it complements the atmosphere nicely and does its job well.
📝Main Pros and Cons
Pros-
The environment keeps you immersed.
Variety in the levels.
Various skill and weapon upgrades.
Runs decent.
Cons-
Bad AI.
Combat needs improvement.
😇 Honest Rating
🔶 Is the game tough because of its subpar combat mechanics? Absolutely—but the stunning level design often manages to distract you from that frustration. The good news is that Over Islands feels like it’s in a fixable state; a few solid updates could really elevate the experience. For now, though, I’d suggest grabbing it only during a sale.
Rating: 7/10
Over Island lets you float through breathtaking islands… and frustrating battles that’ll test your patience.