Πρόσφατες κριτικές από τον Ley

It's easy to compare Coral Island to Stardew Valley since many mechanics and ideas are similar or even identical. If you've played one, you’ll quickly feel at home with the other. However, as a Stardew Valley player, it doesn’t feel like just another clone. Coral Island takes what Stardew Valley does best and expands upon it in creative and refreshing ways.

The town in Coral Island is massive, vibrant, and stunningly beautiful, almost idyllic. Its lush environments and thoughtful design make exploring a real pleasure. There are 58 unique characters (not including secondary ones) to meet, each with distinct personalities, stories, and relationships you can develop. The festivals are engaging and reward you for participating year after year, adding a sense of progression and excitement. Beyond farming, you can dive to explore the sea, catch insects and critters, and uncover the island’s many secrets.

What really sets Coral Island apart is its embrace of fantasy elements. The game introduces beings like merfolk and "giants", which weave into the lore and gameplay in unique ways. These touches of magic add depth and charm, making the world feel alive and mystical.

At around 20 hours in, I’m already blown away by the sheer amount of content the game offers. It’s clear the developers have poured a lot of love into the game, and with frequent updates on the horizon, it’s only going to get better.

The only downside I’ve encountered so far is the combat system, which feels underwhelming and rushed. It lacks responsiveness and depth, making it one of the weaker aspects of the game, if not the weakest. Using the starter sword was particularly frustrating: it felt clunky and ineffective. Thankfully, you gain access to a hammer shortly after, which is a noticeable improvement and makes combat a bit more tolerable. However, the overall experience could still benefit from refinement, such as smoother mechanics, better hit detection, and more engaging combat options.

If Stardew Valley is a 10/10, Coral Island currently sits at a solid 9.5/10 for me. It’s familiar yet innovative, relaxing yet exciting. A fantastic addition to the life-sim genre that deserves your attention.

Frankly, a masterpiece.
And I've never played a Castlevania game.

I'm a huge fan of survivors-like games, so much so that I'm always on the lookout for a new one to complete. It's a great genre with limitless possibilities, and has usually fantastic replayability, as every run is somewhat unique.

I can't recommend this one in its current state, however. All runs feel the same, out of all the weapons in the game only a handful feel unique, while the rest are just generic guns with a slight twist. The upgrades are also very basic, you're only upgrading the damage, range, potency, reload speed and so on, which doesn't make a level-up that exciting. The same thing can be said for mastery runs: complete a challenge run with a single weapon or a specific class mod, if you successfully extract after 3 rounds you get a measly 1/2/3% permanent bonus (damage, reload speed, potency, dodge...) on that weapon or class mod across all runs.

Overclocks are a nice mechanic, though. You can overclock your weapon every few weapon levels, up to 3 times. They change how a weapon is fired/used and make it deal elemental damage.
There are some pretty boring overclocks as well, such as +25% damage and +25% reload speed, or -25% damage but +25% to your other weapons, but there are a few that are quite fun to play with, and can spice up the run. It's a nice mechanic, a pity they didn't get a bit more creative with it.

I wish there was an endless mode as well, because the runs are generally quite short. This means that, unlike most survivors-like games, you can't reach a point where you're super powerful and can mow down waves of thousands of enemies. That's where the dopamine rush is at!

I'll still play it because it's not an awful game by all means, the core gameplay is fun and most features are nice (digging for mats, challenge runs, drop pod...), it just lacks depth, variety and creativity.

So it wasn't the Final Fantasy...

KOROMARU IS THE GOODEST BOY

get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head get out of my head

I've played the Open Beta and Closed Beta 2 for the entire duration of both, and every time they ended I asked myself "what now?" - I just couldn't wait for the final release.
The developers consistently communicate through their Discord server, fix bugs pretty quickly and listen to the players' feedback. When faced with the glorious TFLA0004 error code (aka banned) for 3 days straight, an Embark employee contacted me on Discord and manually fixed it for me. It really shows how dedicated and passionate they are about this game and its community.

Gameplay wise you have LOTS of destruction (more than any Battlefield), you're constantly fighting so you'll never need to run around for hours to find an enemy team, matches are quite short, the weapons are very different from one another (unlike CoD games where they have more or less the same recoil, fire rate and precision), great customisation for both your character and equipment and multiple builds fitting more or less any playstyle.

There are a few things I don't really like though, such as invisibility, sentry turrets and the dome shield (like Apex's Gibraltar, but smaller.)

Definitely recommend it, it's incredibly fun and very unique.

Dusty_Embark, you're the GOAT.

A very very sweet and relaxing, albeit very short, game with a story that unfolds as you grow up, from 1997 to 2018.
The game has very little text, the uniqueness of it is that the story is narrated through the items you unpack after each move. With a sprinkle of imagination you'll fill in the gaps and give the story your own personal touch.

Good simulation of my life, 5/5

I never was into D&D or CRPGs. Could be because of the turn based combat, the whole "throw the dice" system that's omnipresent from start to finish, or because I thought that speccing and finding the right build for your character was a massive headache. None of that mattered in the end. These prejudices, these "cons" I had quickly turned into qualities I now seek when choosing my next game to play. I grasped the basics of BG3 during my very first fight and never felt the need to use a single guide (be it for my gear or the gameplay in general.)

Seriously, trust the Metacritic score and the Steam reviews.
I never play a game twice, even the games I consider to be my absolute favourite. This being said, I'll now start my second playthrough.

Good new content, cheers Malcs.