The Shrouded Isle Reviews

Looked promising, but in reality is a chore. I don't like it and won't play it again.

A tentative recommend, mostly because I'd like to see a more fleshed out version of this. It's got an okay atmosphere, soundtrack and visuals for a few hours, but as I continued playing, it just didn't feel like it built to anything, or developed into anything more complicated. You have to juggle a few RNG elements, then after about about 20 minutes, you'll have an extra bit of RNG thrown in from their Sunken Sins DLC. So, it's pretty good for 30 minute bursts, about what you'll need for each run, but I don't see this being anyone's favorite version of any of it's steam tags. But, this was made by a few people on what I imagine to be a very small budget, and they don't ask a lot for it. They tried something, and essentially, they got it right. I'm sure they had ideas to expand and deepen this game, and I'd love to see them get the opportunity to do that. If you're looking for a straightforwards management sim to burn a few hours on, you have nothing to lose in giving this a try.

As a detective-style game, I was initially intrigued with the gameplay loop of balancing various stats while trying to hunt down the secret sinners in my community. If that was all the game was, I'd have an absolute blast. Unfortunately, there's an RNG element to the actions you take that is so punishing it renders the rest of the game pointless. I'll give you an example. One of the stats is Obedience. If it falls below a threshold at the end of one season, it must get back to that threshold before the end of the next, or it's game over. I know this, and I'm fine with this, because I already have a non-sinner picked out that I can just focus on to complete that action one or two times to restore it. That person went on to fail the action three times and I lost. The problem is that randomly failing an action doesn't just give you a small bump to the relevant stat. It *reduces* the stat even more. And you only ever get three opportunities each season to raise stats. Some people might enjoy that even your best schemes can be absolutely ruined by three bad rolls in a row, but in a game that prides itself on being a deduction game, this is simply unacceptable. "BRO don't you get it!? It's Cthulhu, the whole point is humanity has no chance!" Cool, this game has no chance of me recommending it either.