The review below is based on me originally playing the PC version. I now own the game on Switch and have invested around 10 hours into it so far and haven't seen a disparity between the versions, so the original review still applies.
Eagle Island is a rock-solid 2D pixel art roguelite. You control Quill, a young boy who finds himself on a mysterious island with his owl companion Koji.The review below is based on me originally playing the PC version. I now own the game on Switch and have invested around 10 hours into it so far and haven't seen a disparity between the versions, so the original review still applies.
Eagle Island is a rock-solid 2D pixel art roguelite. You control Quill, a young boy who finds himself on a mysterious island with his owl companion Koji. The game has a set overworld hub that leads to the game's dungeons. Each dungeon is procedurally generated, which may put some people off, but the algorithm behind the scenes is very impressive, with the vast majority of levels feel hand-crafted and designed. If you lose all your health in a dungeon, you're returned to the start, minus any perks you've found in the dungeon, and the dungeon generates a brand new layout to battle through. You will keep any permanent upgrades you've found, though, it's just those temporary perks that are lost.
However, if you want to tackle the same layout over and over, you can play the game's "Official Seed," where the dungeon layouts remain static, allowing multiple practice runs through to learn enemy placement and optimal routes. The fact the developer gives you the choice to enjoy the game on it's "core" setting of procedural levels or having the option to set the levels so they're the same each time is doubtless going to be appreciated by many.
Speaking of options, there's an absolutely huge number of settings in the options menu. This game has some of the best accessibility options I've ever seen: from being able to adjust the brightness of the background, so that the foreground is more in focus, to being able to add an outline to enemies, to having option aim guides, to remappable controls, there's plenty to tweak and change to make the experience more comfortable.
The game is challenging. Don't let the gorgeous, cutesy pixel art deceive you. On the "Core" difficulty setting, you get 3 HP. Getting a 4-times combo drops a health item, which will restore 1 missing hit point, but it takes some serious skill and practice to consistently get those combos. There are shops scattered through the dungeons, where you can use coins gained from defeated enemies to buy health pickups, and even increase you HP for that run. Still, if you charge in without a plan to deal with the enemies on screen, you can find yourself booted back to the start of the level pretty quickly! Thankfully, you can change the difficulty when back in the hub world, and choosing an 'easier' difficulty level does not impact the achievements you can unlock in-game. So that's a nice touch!
The bosses encountered at the end of each stage are visually impressive and imposing, some of them taking up nearly half the screen! They're reasonably challenging, though it can be a little disheartening to make it through a dungeon all the way to the boss, die at the boss, then go back to the beginning of the level. The upshot of this, however, is the next run-through could see you locate new perks/runes that changes the outcome of your next fight!
I'm not normally a fan of games with high difficulty levels, but Eagle Island's charm, visual style, and the immense satisfaction when you manage a 23-hit combo on a boss has kept me coming back for more over and over again. Well worth checking out if you like roguelites and a challenging experience!… Expand
Eagle IslandYour Score0 out of 10User Score
