Saving Islanders

Review of Volcano Island HD
Developer: Little Shop of Adventures
Price(20/8/2011): $0.99
Author’s Rating: 6

This game is good for: Some chilled-out intellectual stimulation

There seem to be fewer and fewer turn based games on the market these days, and I do feel that game developers should really look back to a style of gaming that defined puzzle and strategy genres for years to come. All of us at AOMBase are huge fans of turn-based strategy games, such as Civilization, Heroes of Might & Magic, and the iOS’s very own Great Little Game for iPad. Naturally, we were quite excited to begin reviewing Volcano Island HD as we read what it was all about.

Volcano Island HD is a top down turn-based strategy game. Some poor islanders are stranded on an island with a massive erupting volcano. From the name of the game, I was completely expecting to have the islanders to be trying to escape from volcano lava, but it seems that the danger comes from the island itself, as it crumbles, turn-by-turn, into the ocean. The objective of the game, is to maneuver all of the hapless islanders to the safety of rescue vessels that appear in random locations and ultimately prevent them from suffering a watery death by  drowning.

Each level presents itself as an island that is split into a tile-based map, with the islanders distributed randomly across it. Over a series of turns, the tiles will start to blink as a warning that it is the next one that is about sink. Each islander has a number of moves that will allow you to direct it to safety from these sinking tiles. Some islanders also have the ability to swim, adding an extra dimension for moving them to safety vessels. But if they don’t reach a safety vessel before the end of their movement turn, they could end up becoming shark or octopus fodder, so be careful! And as if it’s not bad enough, the octopi have the ability to sink rescue boats! (Pirates of  the Caribbean style!)

Volcano Island HD has 5 different maps,  and each map has 3 scenarios. To complete a map, you have to progress through all three scenarios without losing the 3 lives that you begin with. Each map gives you approximately 15-30 minutes of gameplay, depending on how quickly you think. But the advantage of this being a turn-based game, is that it is by no means requires your full, undivided attention for long-periods of time, which is quite a refreshing change from the action based games that dominate the app store.

The level of strategic thinking of Volcano Island HD is definitely gives the average person enough to think about each round. However, I would suggest that there is room for improvement as it does get a little tedious to spot the flashing tiles, which are sometimes subtle and difficult to spot. While there are many other games out on the app market that offer more than this, I would definitely say it is worth its price, and its great for some chilled-out intellectual stimulation at a nice relaxing pace.

Review by Smoking Crows

(This sponsored review was requested via ReviewRoster Id: allofmybase)