There are five floating islands. They each have a core that needs to be activated. Unite them back together because harmony is swell. They are guarded by assholes. You have a sword. This is Islets.
I'm gonna keep this short and not-so-sweet because I really just want to move on and forget Islets. For a while it's perfectly serviceable, but it probably should have only been four islands because it just starts to drag. If you absolutely NEED to play every Metroidvania you come across, I'll say you'll find worse games than this (Ghost Song comes to mind), but otherwise this should not be played. It's very derivative; the best comparison I think I can make is that it's like Hollow Knight without the soul.
Just check the screenshots on Steam and you'll see you've probably already played this game in everything but name. It's a middling Metroidvania with some bullet hell segments. It'll take you about seven hours to 100% (on Normal), and for its final half-hour stretch, you'll pray you have a stroke. It won't be showing you anything you haven't seen before, and on Normal every boss will take you one or two tries. I really should have been reading “Dune” instead.
I think I could drop down to one and a half stars, easily, but I'm going with two only because I think this was made almost entirely by one guy (and the music by his brother). I thought it was competently made (never ran into bugs, game looked okay, etc.) and I think my man Kyle Thompson is pretty good at the behind the scenes work. He's working on another game that I've added to my Steam Wishlist because I'm curious, now; I feel like Islets showed he has potential but just wasn't there yet with this one. Maybe Crypt Custodian will be better? I genuinely hope so.
I really do applaud the effort, I'm sure getting this made was no easy task, but just by reducing the scope a bit I think this would have landed so much better for me. But, then again, I'm seemingly in a tiny minority: 96% of reviews are positive. Congrats, Kyle.
I don't recommend Islets.
I'm gonna keep this short and not-so-sweet because I really just want to move on and forget Islets. For a while it's perfectly serviceable, but it probably should have only been four islands because it just starts to drag. If you absolutely NEED to play every Metroidvania you come across, I'll say you'll find worse games than this (Ghost Song comes to mind), but otherwise this should not be played. It's very derivative; the best comparison I think I can make is that it's like Hollow Knight without the soul.
Just check the screenshots on Steam and you'll see you've probably already played this game in everything but name. It's a middling Metroidvania with some bullet hell segments. It'll take you about seven hours to 100% (on Normal), and for its final half-hour stretch, you'll pray you have a stroke. It won't be showing you anything you haven't seen before, and on Normal every boss will take you one or two tries. I really should have been reading “Dune” instead.
I think I could drop down to one and a half stars, easily, but I'm going with two only because I think this was made almost entirely by one guy (and the music by his brother). I thought it was competently made (never ran into bugs, game looked okay, etc.) and I think my man Kyle Thompson is pretty good at the behind the scenes work. He's working on another game that I've added to my Steam Wishlist because I'm curious, now; I feel like Islets showed he has potential but just wasn't there yet with this one. Maybe Crypt Custodian will be better? I genuinely hope so.
I really do applaud the effort, I'm sure getting this made was no easy task, but just by reducing the scope a bit I think this would have landed so much better for me. But, then again, I'm seemingly in a tiny minority: 96% of reviews are positive. Congrats, Kyle.
I don't recommend Islets.