Pokemon Sword / Shield: The Isle of Armor

The Isle of Armor breathes new life into Pokémon Sword and Shield by giving players something they wanted from the start: access to more classic Pokémon from previous generations.

DLC is new to the main-series Pokemon games, and it's certainly a great alternative to replaying the same game a year or two later when the souped-up rerelease comes out. But like the traditional third or "Ultra" version, The Isle of Armor does refine much of the experience we had in vanilla Sword and Shield, with a more interesting Wild Area to explore and some small quality-of-life tweaks that further the progress Gen 8 has made in that regard. It doesn't totally change up the game, to be sure, but The Isle of Armor is definitely a delight.

Pokémon Sword and Shield: Isle of Armor also offers competitive features with a wealth of new tools and resources to make your battles even more interesting, and give you a helping hand with building new teams. Through this DLC, the metagame is almost certain to evolve, at least until the Crown Tundra expansion drops later this year. Oooh, I’m excited already.

The Isle of Armor isn’t much, but it’s a nice addition of content for an already great Pokémon game.

Overall, if you're a fan of Pokémon Sword and Shield, you'll probably enjoy The Isle of Armor. It's not perfect and it feels a little skimpy, but the decent amount of postgame content that is there contributes quite well to the main title. It truly feels like an expansion rather than something excised from the main game, which is the best you can hope for when it comes to DLC.

The Pokemon Sword and Shield Isle of Armor DLC is a worthy add-on to the base game, despite being somewhat light on content.

Although it still remains to be discovered what is included in The Tundra Crown, The Island of Armor offers us an interesting growth path that encourages us to discover all the details of the story, as well as an immense environment to explore with Pokémon returning from previous games, different activities to do and a great sound section.

The Isle of Armor is a lovely addition to the base Pokémon Sword & Shield games, bringing in far more new features to tickle hardcore fans than we initially expected. On the downside, it’s a little shy on narrative-driven content and is really all about the isle and its Pokémon inhabitants. Still, while we would certainly have liked to have seen more story-based gameplay, what’s on offer is still excellent, and offers dedicated fans of the series an awful lot to explore and do. If you loved the Wild Area in Sword and Shield and want more of that, we can safely say you’ll get a real kick out of this.

The Isle of Armor gives you a neat little exercise trip with Kubfu, but story and visuals still are a bit bland.

Despite not being the primary DLC for the Pokémon Sword and Shield Expansion Pass, The Isle of Armor has enough quality content to bring us back to the eighth generation. Even if its history is short and shallow.

Isle of Armor won't convince naysayers to try Pokemon Sword and Shield for the first time, but offers fans some lovely new content and bags of charm.

I was freed from Pokemon’s adorable clutches for months, and this DLC release has handily undone all that work. Like the base game, the story is an afterthought. Sword, Shield, and now the DLC are all geared towards non-linear play habits. Rather than being guided towards a story-centered goal, you’re making your own fun. The good news is, there’s quite a lot of this kind of fun to be had here. If you’re in the mood for more of what made Pokemon Sword and Shield so good, Isle of Armor will be just what you need.

A modest expansion to Pokémon Sword and Shield, Isle of Armor doesn’t stray away from the established formula of last year’s blockbuster game. But when the core experience was that good to begin with, more of the same is exactly what the series needs to still stay fun and fresh.

Quotation forthcoming.

The Isle of Armor doesn't succeed in every way, but it has enough good atmosphere and nice surprises that make it worthwhile to jump back into Sword and Shield. With suncream, of course.

We were striving for a new Wild Area and we received a the next step of Pokémon's open world experience. Sadly the first part of the Expansion Pass still feels shallow and with lots of empty space.

When reviwed from a zero point, Isle of Armor renews the metagame and includes a significant amount of content. It is just a pity that there is no sign of challenge to live up to the eight months of training. When out of this vacuum, however, it is clear that this expansion is much more complete than the base game, expanding its experience.

The Isle of Armor is a nice extra chunk of land to explore in the Galar region that brings with it 100 past Pokémon, and two new ones to add to the list of playables in the 8th generation games. A slew of extra items and features making Pokémon breeding and training a bit better are also included, along with enough bonuses to warrant the existence of this DLC... but not much more than that. Nevertheless there's a sense that story content is kind of short here, and that having to pay extra to gain access to more of the older Pokémon, whereas past games included all of them right from the start, whether through Pokémon Bank or not, is not the best of deals. Still, this is better than having to pay for a full new game like Ultra Sun and Moon, only to have access to a bit of extra stuff. The concept of expansions is, at least, a better solution.

With all the added Pokemon that were previously missing and the fact it's just more Sword and Shield to enjoy, The Isle of Armor is definitely worth getting, but it's best not to have the highest of expectations going in regardless due to the major flaws that hold it back from being great.

Isle of Armor is big, colorful and filled with familiar faces and feelings, but there's a real lack of brand new content.

Isle of Armor is an interesting shot of new content which the original Pokémon Sword and Shield players will be able to extend the game experience for a few hours. It is not necessarily better, but it does successfully complement the previous experience. Smart map design, 100 new returning Pokémon, some quests to face… but the story is too short, though. Good enough.

As Pokémon's first-ever DLC, The Isle of Armor is an entertaining but shallow return to the Galar region.

The Isle of Armor improves on Pokémon Sword and Shield's open world experiments with a light expansion.

The main plusses of the Island of Armor expansion are the fun game world and the large amount of trusted pokémon that have been added to the game. Unfortunately, the main adventure around Kubfu is so short that you hardly have the opportunity to enjoy all these favorites.

The Isle of Armor DLC feels like a glimpse into the future of what Pokémon is going to be. It's just a shame that elements from the base release hold it back. Let's hope the next half of the DLC, The Tundra Crown pushes the gameplay to even greater heights.

You're getting a very small narrative and another big interconnected Wild Area: that's pretty much of the gist of it.

A product that travels by oxymorons: it presents an evolution of 3D exploration lived in the Wild Lands, but it also inherits defects in level design that it decides not to leave behind.

Even though the Isle of Armor reintroduces 210 new Pokémon and provides a new and easier way to get certain items and upgrades, it's story is too short and not entertaining to really prove itself worthy. However you are a big Pokémon fan and just want to capture more of them, this DLC will probably to the job for you.

With few summer Switch games this year, The Isle of Armor is a breath of fresh air and its vibe will make you feel like you're on vacation. Plus, exploring the beautiful island while catching new Pokemon has definitely made me re-experience some of Pokemon Sword's magic.

Isle of Armor is a good small step for Pokémon, but we can only recommend it to players who want to continue capturing and fighting.

The Isle of Armor is an expansion that does things right, but in the end it feels like an underwhelming experience. The main story leaves a lot to be desired and I can't help but think that some of its improvements should be on the base game.

Pokemon Sword/Shiled: Isle of Armor is the first piece of a whole called the Expansion Pass, and despite its incredible visuals and offering a new wilderness area, it's still relying on the next iteration to justify its price. Crown of Tundra comes later this year and its premise itself caught our eye from the very first moment. Island of Armor is just a way to prepare us for what is coming.

Isle of Armor is an enjoyable expansion to Pokemon Sword and Shield and brings the franchise one step closer to embracing a cohesive open-world, but it isn’t enough to detract from an experience that is far too brief for its own good.

While the release of the Isle of Armor DLC puts Game Freak in the right steps of regaining the hearts of Pokemon trainers worldwide, the execution of the DLC leads to a mess, rather than a milestone for the series. The addition of a great Pokemon is, consequently, meritless; that, with the combination of a rather short and unimpressive main quest might lead players away, rather than ensnare them with the beauties and qualities of the Isle of Armor that are seemingly hidden.

There are definitely some much-needed additions that come with the Isle of Armor, but it still feels as though it's the least amount of content possible. I love Pokémon, but this expansion has left me feeling a little bit cold on the whole thing. There's fun to be had, but unless you're committed to catching 'em all or grinding every Pokémon up to a competitive standard, it won't last very long.

If you picked up the expansion pass hoping for a lengthy and interesting story, or some new gameplay then you’ll probably find Isle of Armor a little lacking as I did. That said, the price of $15 isn’t overwhelmingly prohibitive so if you’re a fan of Sword and Shield, you’ll probably be OK with another similar helping.

Reasonably good value for money and a better open world environment than the original but with very little story or structure, Pokémon’s first expansion feels disappointingly hollow.

Pokémon Sword and Shield's Isle of Armor Expansion gives the game the best environment and world design Pokémon has had in any 3D game, mainline, or spin-off, but very little else. If you're a Pokémaniac who is dead-set on completing another Pokédex, you'll love this, but if you want to do something other than filling out a list, this is not for you. This is not the whimsical world-traveling adventure mainline Pokémon games are, this is just boring.

As sympathetic as it is, Isolarmure is therefore the theater of a first dispensable DLC which certainly does not lack content, but above all of inspiration.

A tiny boring plot, four new monsters for the series, and optimization of some game mechanics are clearly not enough for fans of the franchise, nor for ordinary players. The overall impression of the Expansion Pass, of course, can be formed only after the release of the final part - The Crown of Tundra. Now we can only say with complete confidence that The Isle of Armor is not worth the money.