Islands of Insight Reviews

I loved this game so much............. but I took a break and came back to find out that I lost all of my progress. What is this? I'm upset.

Decent game at first, but they just completely trashed everything once glitched started appearing and they didn't reach the expected sales. Instead of refining it, we got a singular content update once and then they shut down the online servers for good.

Despite its issues, I enjoyed this game when it was new. The puzzles were't the most challenging, but it provided the right mix of relaxing puzzles and exploration that made it a great game to unwind with. Having an avatar with small bits of customization was a nice bonus. Even if the developers didn't take advantage of the co-op nature of the world they setup, it was still nice having a shared sandbox to see how others were doing and what they had earned. But like so many others though, I lost what progress I had in the game due to not logging in at the right time after the announcement of the servers going offline. While I'm sure I could earn back what I had played more quickly than the first time though, having all progress just lost like that once puts a damper on any desire to do it again. It's truly unfortunate. I have fond memories of what time I did get to play the game with others, but having it all taken away without any recourse gives those memories a sad and sorry end.

Similar to the Witness, the 'story' puzzles are separated into little groups that get progressively harder and even throw unique challenges that help you learn how to solve them. I write 'story' as in the puzzles that allowed you to unlock islands that introduced variation into what puzzles you come across. I rather enjoyed the variety of puzzles. Some were located around the world (perspective puzzles, maze and more) but most were board puzzles with unique symbols that had rules behind each one. As you unlocked more islands and traversed deeper into the game, the puzzles would begin integrating multiple symbols so you'd need to be considerate of everything when trying to get the answer. You get a form of currency with each puzzle and it gave you the ability to either buy cosmetics or upgrade your character. The cosmetics were clothes, hair, wings, halo-type articles and more. It wasn't the greatest, but it was something to look forward to while working on puzzles. The upgrade for the character was movement speed, flight, and also how much currency you earned for each puzzle you solved (based on how long it took or mistakes.) The currency was easy to earn due to the fact that there was randomly generated puzzles all throughout the world (The ring puzzles was where I would frequent since they'd spawn every couple of seconds and always have 10-15 in the area) and they didn't require much brain power. This game is really relaxing while still offering challenges for those wanting it. If you're just starting this game and this sounds like something you want, absolutely get it on sale. The reason why I don't recommend this game is the fact that they've now abandoned the game, no more updates to be made. They also posted a news update regarding swapping the game from online to offline, with players losing game progress if they didn't see that singular news update in time. Players that lose all their progress and don't have the drive to start again, cannot get a refund for their game. 30 hours down the drain. Thanks!

Really a shame that this game got cut so early. I think it had a lot of potential, even if the multiplayer components weren't quite there. I still think it's worth playing without the multiplayer, but be aware that it's gone.

Incredible variety of puzzles with some unique and intriguing mechanics that keep me coming back, whether for a quick puzzle fix, or a long session to tackle one of the in-depth areas. The game switching to offline mode makes literally no difference to the user experience, and it's actually created the perfect opportunity to jump in to what will be the final version of the game for new users!

I played the game when it came out. It had quite a few bugs but otherwise it was a fun puzzle game. Originally it was a multiplayer online-only experience. The servers since went offline, and luckily (or maybe due to the many player requests) they allow offline play now. However, they decided to not save any of the online progress of players unless you did that by hand during a one month period from when they announced it until the servers shut down. Since that was in last October, and I wasn't around (and their announcement title was totally misleading as well, not at all hinting to anything similar) I lost my 47h progress. And even though I wanted to finish the game, I really don't want to start again anymore. The game itself might be playable but I wouldn't want to support a developer that disregards players this much.

This game was fantastic. Then they removed online play, and stopped updating it despite poor optimisation and performance. This probably lies more with the publishers than the devs, so i hope they don't get too much kickback from this if that was the case. The game itself is very pretty, and the puzzles range from relaxing to genuinely challenging. There's a nice variety to them too, from sliding puzzles and glass mazes, to simple "view from the right angle and perspective". I'd like to see more from this dev in the long run, but less from the publisher. Considering I found this game through Steam Discovery Queue and not once have i seen advertising for it to any degree, I'd hope the devs learn that they didn't actually need a publisher for this.

This game is fantastic if you like experiences full of exploration, puzzles, and the feeling of solving a great problem. You will be confused and frustrated but you'll get there. Keep solving. Enjoy.

I absolutely love this game it is one of my favourite puzzle games. However... the developers of this game discontinued *all* support for the game, removing the online feature (which I could get over), and not planning to add anything else in terms of achievements or steam deck capability for all of those who wanted it (like me). I also had all my progress reset after not coming back to the game in a while, as I had assumed with such a gem I wouldn't worry about this. Extremely upset and sad it came to this, I do recommend the game for people who like puzzles, it is great and offers a multitude of different types of puzzles and you will find yourself lost in this world for hours and hours. It has thousands of solvable puzzles that you can complete over your lifetime in the game. As much as I would like to recommend this, the developers of this game do not deserve money after killing off what could have been great, get on sale, or through keys. TL:DR devs bad, game good