Rising Islands Review

<p><em>Rising Islands<&sol;em> is an interesting game&semi; it certainly grabbed my attention as 3D platformers have become somewhat of a rarity in video games lately&period; Even rarer is both the fact that they are indie games&comma; as most indie games go for an easier art style than 3D graphics&comma; and the idea that an indie game could implement it well&comma; which attracted my attention&period; Enter <em>Rising Islands<&sol;em>&comma; an indie 3D platformer from new developer&comma; Lone Hero Studios&period; The game itself is somewhat of a mixed bag&comma; with plenty of promising potential&comma; but also various disappointments more made apparent by the glimmers of potential I could see below the surface&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Rising Island<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s story is rather simple&semi; the game&&num;8217&semi;s protagonist is found by two Guardians who give her the power to move in-between dimensions&period; They do this because their Elder Guardian has taken all the artifacts and absorbed their power from the temple&period; There is no stated reason for the Elder Guardian doing this&comma; but it seems to be a standard evil plot&period; I wish the developers had put a little more effort into the story&comma; as I am not even sure if the character I was playing had a name&period; Most of the characters don&&num;8217&semi;t seem to state any names and there are only 4 that I can remember&period; The only one ever stated with a name was the villain&comma; and even then the other two Guardians only referred to them as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Boss&period;” This is a little disappointing&comma; as the main character is given a simple &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;save the world” mission right off the bat&comma; but I will let it slide as it just serves as a backdrop to the setting and game mechanics&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110984" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110984" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110984 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;02173504&sol;ss&lowbar;676d470f9a392b5e1688641832417afdc211afde&period;1920x1080&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Rising Islands&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; SOEDESCO Publishing&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110984" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Rising Islands<&sol;em>&comma; SOEDESCO Publishing&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The main mechanics of <em>Rising Islands<&sol;em> are moving in between the two separate dimensions&comma; one being blue&comma; and the other being red&period; This can be used for platforms that can&&num;8217&semi;t be accessed unless you&&num;8217&semi;re in the correct dimension&comma; or for avoiding obstacles that only appear if you are in that colored dimension&period; The base mechanics themselves are pretty simple&comma; but the way they have been implemented are pretty clever as you move along in the game&comma; getting more and more advanced until the end&period; This led to some moderate challenges and tests of skill&period; I did&comma; however&comma; find the controls to be glitchy in some places and imprecise in others&period; I think these problems could be improved but seeing as this is the developer&&num;8217&semi;s first game&comma; I am implied to cut them some slack&period; I can only think of one or two places I became a little frustrated because of imprecise controls&comma; although I never got overly mad&period; I could see them revisiting these mechanics in the future and doing a lot more with them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The graphics themselves are rather impressive for an indie developer&comma; especially since it&&num;8217&semi;s a 3D platformer game and those often require the most work out of any other game genre&period; The landscapes are pretty and the graphics have a light cell-shaded style that works for it&comma; although the game was set on the lowest graphic settings by default so it didn&&num;8217&semi;t look that impressive to me until I realized this and turned up the graphics&period; Although&comma; on the higher settings I then experienced frame rate drops due to poor optimization&period; So while the graphics can be pretty&comma; you might have to sacrifice them for playability&comma; and that is simply only detrimental to the game itself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110986" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110986" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110986 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;02173520&sol;ss&lowbar;bdfe3bcfd7d1d341baf4574b5081e860f6221a86&period;1920x1080&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;Rising Islands&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; SOEDESCO Publishing&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110986" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Rising Islands<&sol;em>&comma; SOEDESCO Publishing&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The music in the game isn&&num;8217&semi;t revolutionary&comma; but it isn&&num;8217&semi;t bad either&period; The soundtrack varies and is neat to listen to&comma; although I found myself tuning it out after a while as no tracks really grabbed me like in other games&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s mostly orchestral music&comma; and really fits the settings that you play in&comma; although like I just stated&comma; it does suffer from &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;background music syndrome&period;” You will probably find yourself tuning it out after a while&comma; but the tracks themselves aren&&num;8217&semi;t to blame for that&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game&&num;8217&semi;s length was also called into question as well&comma; as I completed the whole game with 100&percnt; completion in what Steam has recorded as 2 hours of in-game time&period; While I think some of that was due to my history of platformers&comma; I also think that the game is a little short&comma; with only 3 worlds and 5 levels in each&period; I think if the developers make a sequel then perhaps they should expand on the levels a lot more and just use less of the unique mechanics over time in favor of using each type of platform and obstacle in more unique ways&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;110985" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-110985" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-110985 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;08&sol;02173512&sol;ss&lowbar;bc1668a8ab22677fee69acbd2007876ce1adcf6f&period;1920x1080&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;Rising Islands&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; SOEDESCO Publishing&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-110985" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Rising Islands<&sol;em>&comma; SOEDESCO Publishing&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The game is currently priced at &dollar;8&period;99&sol;£6&period;29 as of this review&comma; with the normal price being &dollar;9&period;99&sol;£6&period;99&period; I think that if you&&num;8217&semi;re a fan of 3D platformers and are willing to help a new developer out&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s a nice purchase&comma; and will keep you occupied for a few hours or more&comma; depending on your skill level&period; I think it&&num;8217&semi;s worth it for fans of the genre&period; However&comma; if you aren&&num;8217&semi;t a fan of platformers in general&comma; there is nothing here that is going to change your mind and that is ok&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a decent first attempt for a new studio&comma; and I look forward to seeing more of Lone Hero Studios in the future and hopefully see them grow as a developer&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;