An entertaining pirate themed simulation/rpg with some minor flaws that will likely get ironed out.
Type: Single-player
Genre: Simulation, RPG,
Survival, Open World
Developer: Elushis
Publisher: Elushis Music & Gaming
Release date: 18 October, 2019
Intro
Mutiny Island is a 2D open world pirate themed simulation game with some RPG elements. It’s largely a mixture of multiple game genres but it’s primarily a pirate game. The game offers little hand-holding once the game begins so you’re free to explore and learn the game as you play. The developer has been adding in some light tutorials to get players better accustomed to the game world but there’s a lot to know about this game. If you enjoy pirate-themed games and don’t want to anger Blackbeard, read on!
Story and Setting
Mutiny Island’s story isn’t the game’s main focus but it has a fascinating world to explore. The “story” or what there is of a story is told through flashbacks revolving around Captain Red (You) and the crew that mutinied. These usually happen when Red is sleeping during dreams. They mostly explain why his crew mutinied and are quite reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean, which is the game’s biggest influence.
The game’s setting is pretty interesting and is filled with places to discover, people to meet and enemies to battle. Some islands hold dungeons that you can explore but many of them require special items, like climbing gloves, to explore. The world is inhabited by many dangerous enemies ranging from mere snakes to harpies and even the legendary Kraken. There are also weather-based hazards like tornadoes and monsoons to watch out for as well. As time passes the seasons change and so too does the weather.
It’s a pretty fascinating world to explore overall.
Gameplay
There is a lot to know about Mutiny Island gameplay wise so I’ll be mostly covering the basics in this review, as it’d take a while to explain everything available.
Once you’ve been thrown onto Mutiny Island, there will be a bunch of items and boxes scattered throughout the island for you to collect. Collecting everything possible in this game is highly recommended because much of it will be used in the game’s crafting system. The only downside to collecting a lot of items is the fact that if you happen to die during battle or on a sea voyage, you’ll lose all of it to the sea. This increases the difficulty a bit but ultimately, it makes the game kinda tedious since you have to recollect everything again in a rinse/repeat type setup. It grows tiresome after a while, I will admit, especially when you want to explore but ultimately die in the process.
The game’s crafting system will be one of your most used areas of the menu. In the menu you’ll be able to find everything that you currently have recipes to create. You start with only the basics like a temporary raft/shelter, a wooden axe, and the ability to make cloth and rope, among other things. Temporary rafts allow you to travel the oceans for a brief time to get to out of reach areas of the world. If you get off of the raft it will sink. If you want a ship that won’t sink, you’ll need to pay 5,000 gold to buy a real ship in one of the port towns.
Exploration is one of the biggest things to do in this game. There’s a lot to discover but without your own ship, you won’t be able to explore very far. Thankfully there’s a pretty easy way to make money, you can join the crew of someone else’s ship. This allows you to explore the world for a bit while also seeking treasure and getting paid for your work. The longer you survive, the more money you make but if you happen to perish during this time, the treasure pool resets and you will be sent back to where you last rested, you’ll also lose your items too. Key Items, like really valuable treasures don’t get dropped, thankfully, so you can sell any loot you kept from the journey to stores.
Combat in the game is a bit on the basic side of the spectrum, as there’s a cool down after each attack. So, it’s slower-paced than an action RPG. Depending on the enemy you’re fighting, you can also die pretty quickly if you’re not careful. If you attack a city guard, for example, the chances that you’ll die is pretty high, unless you run away. If you attack a snake, on the other hand, you’ll have an easy time winning. If you walk over the body of a defeated opponent, you’ll be able to loot them. You’ll likely lose favor with them but there’s a chance you’ll get some nice stuff.
Performance and Other Issues
Truth be told, one of the things that kinda made me a bit disappointed was the game’s performance issues. I couldn’t really tell if it was the game itself or if it was my older graphics card that was the issue but it persisted no matter the resolution I played on. The game suffered from a variety of slowdowns which made the game pretty stuttery for me. Eventually, I wound up using Bandicam to limit the frame rate to 30FPS which helped a great deal. I couldn’t figure out what the cause of the issue was unfortunately so I figured it might be worth mentioning in the review.
I also couldn’t help but feel that there were areas of the game that could be improved upon a bit. The loss of items was one area where I felt it kinda takes away a lot of the enjoyment the game has to offer, especially in the early game. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth when you’re weak, die, and then have to recollect everything you just collected but 90% of the time you’re waiting for items to respawn and it just kills the momentum.
I also ran into an issue when I bought my own ship which made me pretty angry cause it took some time to collect the money for it. I didn’t realize that you had to go through the water to reach the ship I’d just bought and wound up dying before realizing it. The ship then disappeared before I figured it out and couldn’t find it again anywhere I looked. The shop owner recognized that I still owned the ship but it’s not clear where the ship goes if you aren’t using it, or if you die.
Verdict
Overall, I found Mutiny Island to be a pretty interesting game, despite its flaws and slowdowns. With some more improvement, the game could become something quite impressive and I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on its post release updates moving forward to see how much the game improves. If you’re in the market for a pirate-themed simulation game to play, then Mutiny Island is a fairly solid choice but it might be worth waiting for a few more post release updates. I’m going to save this one for later, could become something great.
