Ancient Islands Review

Game: Ancient Islands
Genre: Arcade, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows))
Developer|Publisher: Avernus Software | Art Games Studio
Age Rating: EU 3+ | US Everyone
Price: US $12.49 | UK £11.29 | EU € 12,49
Release Date: March 10th, 2022

Review code provided with many thanks to Art Games Studio.

Tower Defence

Ancient Islands is a tower defence game that looks a little by the numbers on the surface. The typical formula of defending your base from waves of invading monsters by planting defences in designated spots and watching the spectacle play out on screen. But if you decide to take the plunge with Ancient Islands you’ll find a title that adds an impressive amount of depth to its gameplay. Definitely a title to try for fans of the genre.

Prepare for Battle

The goal of each level is to defend your village from incoming enemy waves of monsters. Before each level starts you are given a set amount of resources; gold, wood and stone which you can use to purchase defences like archery towers, melee combat barracks and magical barriers. Each tower has certain perks against certain enemies, for example, archery towers are capable of taking down flying enemies but don’t deal as much damage as the melee warriors. Having a mixture of towers placed in the right place is the key to success.

This is usually where the depth of most tower defence ends but Ancient Islands goes a lot deeper. Within the walls of your village, you are able to build support buildings that will craft more wood or stone. Placing these in the correct green zones will net you more resources. You can also build structures to allow you to use magic, upgrade the stats of defence towers and even exchange resources to purchase ones you are low on. On top of all these, you can upgrade all the structures both support, defence and even the main gate giving you plenty to play around with. 

Tactics

One of the game’s most notable features is that you can set specific tactics for individual defence towers. For example, you can prioritize a tower attacking weak enemies or flying enemies. You can choose 5 tactics per tower and easily access them when selecting a defence. Before a level begins you get to preview the enemies that will spawn so you can use these tactics to try to plan the best strategy. It’s much more depth than I’m used to in tower defence and those who love this genre will likely really like this feature.

The game spends the first few levels introducing you to the new mechanics as well as designing the level around them in order to lock it into your memory. On completing a level successfully you are given the usual star rating along with some ability points which you can spend on a pretty huge skill tree. Each level has three difficulty settings so I often replayed older levels on a higher difficulty to grind for more ability points. 

Controls

Controls are quite the muddle on Nintendo Switch. To place towers you need to use the analogue stick to highlight various spots. This seems simple enough but the area highlighted is very vague making it hard to see. It also becomes even more fiddly the more towers you place as you awkwardly try to select the correct building to manage or upgrade. The menus at the top of the screen are also accessed via a mixture of buttons mapped to the controller. It all just feels more cumbersome than it should be and it took me a bit of time to get used to it.

The good news is you can pause the action to get your bearings but it feels like a control system better designed for a PC with a mouse. Considering how the menus were designed in this game I was very surprised this game didn’t feature touch controls in handheld mode. The game’s almost mobile game-like design seems to be crying out for this to be implemented. 

A Mix of Art Styles

The graphics are also kinda disorganized. The backgrounds are these detailed, almost painting-like, environments. But these are oddly mixed with character and enemy sprites which are cartoony. It’s an unusual combination that doesn’t make for an appealing or consistent art style. The soundtrack also doesn’t always fit in places. Mostly these chilled piano melodies don’t particularly gel when the action starts to heat up. It doesn’t have the best presentation but it certainly doesn’t harm the gameplay which is what may count for most players.

Conclusion  – Don’t Judge a Tower Defence by its Cover

If you can adapt to the controls there is actually a pretty deep tower defence game to sink your teeth into here. It’s certainly more tailored to those looking for a challenge. If tower defence games have never been your thing this game most certainly won’t win you over. Not the best looking tower defence game I have played but probably one with some of the deepest mechanics I have seen in some time. PC may be the way to go with this title but if Nintendo Switch is your preferred option it does the job. 

Final Verdict: I Like it