As a big fan of puzzle games, I was eagerly anticipating the release of Islands of Insight, but my initial excitement turned to disappointment as I delved into the game. While I initially found myself immersed in solving puzzles for hours on end, my enthusiasm waned when I discovered that puzzles were respawning. This revelation shattered my perception of progress and completion within the game, leaving me feeling betrayed, because I was tackling a lot of stupid and mundane puzzles thinking I was progressing.

However, once I shifted my focus to the core puzzles within the enclaves and quests I found a renewed sense of enjoyment. These puzzles were meticulously crafted and provided a satisfying challenge, unlike the repetitive fillers scattered throughout the game.

Unlike games like The Witness, which strategically unlock late-game puzzles based on player knowledge, Islands of Insight simply gates puzzles behind enclave completion. While this approach is not inherently flawed, I can't help but feel it represents a missed opportunity and a lackluster implementation. Even more, the so-called knowledge 'unlocked' throughout the game often felt superficial, rehashing concepts already encountered in earlier puzzles. While occasionally beneficial, it seldom provided significant depth to the gameplay experience.

Unfortunately, the storytelling fell flat for me. The cryptic narrative, delivered through obscure dialogues with a seemingly random entity, failed to engage me. I found myself skipping through these interactions, feeling disconnected from the narrative experience.

One significant frustration was the amount of time spent searching for puzzles rather than solving them, particularly when attempting to complete challenges. The lack of clear puzzle locations, compounded by the game's sprawling open world, often detracted from the gameplay experience.

Speaking of the open world, it failed to leave a lasting impression. Despite featuring distinct themed islands, they all blurred together into a forgettable landscape. The minimal interaction between puzzles and the world further diminished the impact of exploration.

The multiplayer component also missed the mark. Lacking meaningful interaction or tools for collaboration, it felt like a tacked-on feature that added little value to the experience.

As for the puzzle types themselves:

Wandering Echo: Similar to the seelie form in Genshin Impact, this puzzle involves touching floating balls that move to different locations. While it occasionally presents interesting applications, it often disrupts the flow of gameplay and adds little depth.

Matchboxes: Players must find two boxes of opposite colors with matching patterns in the environment. While some instances offer engaging challenges, others devolve into frustrating searches due to lack of distinct patterns.

Hidden Archway, Hidden Ring: These puzzles simply involve locating invisible objects, offering little in terms of depth or challenge.

Armillary Rings: A perspective puzzle where players must find a straight line across all yellow rings without crossing blue rings. While initially engaging, it becomes repetitive due to overuse.

Grids: The main puzzle type, offering a wide variety of challenges and creativity. Subtypes include Pattern, Environment, Viewport Numbers, Memory, Music puzzles, etc. each offering its own unique challenge.

Hidden Cube: Players must find hidden cubes scattered throughout the world, which becomes more interesting when players realize they emit a sound.

Hidden Pendant: Involves finding hidden pieces in a spherical area, often leading to frustrating experiences.

Sentinel Stones: Another perspective puzzle that requires finding a location where all pillars are visible at once, lacking in significant challenge.

Skydrop: Players must form a circle with giant balls in the sky, offering minimal depth beyond basic spatial reasoning.

Crystal Labyrinth: A labyrinth with nearly invisible walls, providing little in terms of challenge or engagement.

Morphic Fractal: Generally uninteresting, requiring players to move the mouse around until the puzzle is solved.

Shifting Mosaic: Offers nothing new or innovative, resembling typical sliding block puzzles.

Flow Orbs: Players must run through all orbs within a set time limit, occasionally offering strategic challenges.

Glide Rings: Involves gliding through all rings, providing minimal engagement.

Match Three: Similar to Candy Crush (or any of the other billion match three games), offering occasional moments of interest but lacking depth.

Rolling Block: Resembles Bloxorz, offering challenging and engaging puzzles.

Phasic Dial: Requires syncing clocks spinning at different rates using different buttons, providing a significant challenge.

Sightseer: Players must find where a picture was taken, offering enjoyable moments outside the overworld.

Shy Aura: Involves determining how to interact with an aura, offering minimal depth or challenge.

Light Motif: Players must find patterns drawn in the environment, but often lacks interesting variations.

Ultimately, while Islands of Insight offers moments of enjoyment, particularly within its core puzzle enclaves, it falls short in several key areas. The repetitive nature of puzzles, lackluster storytelling, and disjointed open world detract from what could have been a more immersive experience.

I remember when yahoo first introduced virtual chatrooms, which you could try for free but needed to host them to get people to join, and, well, this was at a point where I didn't know anyone with both The Internet and Any Desire To Do This. Anyways, one of their visual chatrooms was a weird skatepark that in my mind's eye has the same color scheme as the original Half-Life 2 trailer on that pier going into early Ravenholm. Using my formless avatar I ran up and down the half pipe, pretending I was skateboarding.

About 25 years later, the other kid who did that probably released this. I wish I could tell them I understand what they mean.