Len’s Island PC Review
Summary: An ambitious open world crafting game that ends up feeling grindy and awkward.
2.6
Limp Len
After stealing my sunshine (a reference that no doubt dates me), Len set off to an Island. Well a series of Islands and then did… whatever they wanted?
Len’s Island states you can “play your way” and you can… but there is also structure if you want to have a bit of guidance. The game starts with the story of a society’s downfall and the current state of things… Essentially the previous people have all mutated into monsters and apparently you’ve taken it upon yourself to try and rid the land/s of this trouble. Apparently, for some reason, you also have a big issue with footwear which seems odd for someone planning to do a lot of mining… OHS would not be happy.
The quests act as a quick tutorial to get you up and running and to guide you to explore further from the starting area. This is where things can take a bit of a change. If you want, you can just set up home and grind away gathering resources to build/expand your home and to sell to the townsfolk. You could also head off into the mines and gather resources there and/or work to clear the mines of their infestation. You could build a raft and simply explore the seas (which ends up being essentially island hopping). There are also ruins with text that you can slowly work towards translating to unravel the mystery of the past.
So there is quite a bit here… and the build options increase as you level up and level up your tools. But… I found the game far too clunky to really ever get comfortable. One of the big things that sets this apart from many other survival crafting games is the isometric view (imagine Diablo crossed with Minecraft). Which, whilst being novel and feeling a bit like a tilt shift camera experience for a while, starts to grow old and can get extremely irritating. There is an option to change the camera perspective… but it doesn’t lock to the new view (unless you keep the button down for the shift) and can sometimes be unresponsive anyway. The maps are simplistic bordering on infuriating, above ground looks pretty enough but the underground maps just look like a pixelated mess (you can get used to it… but it’s not pretty)… but most annoyingly there are no legends to the maps and there are no options to make notes or place markers. The world isn’t so big that this is a huge issue… but it’s another annoyance that just adds to the list and, all combined, for me it makes the overall experience less than pleasant.
I do have to give some credit to the idea of chaining tree falls. The notion that you can cut a tree down and have it fall against and subsequently fell another tree as it falls into it is a great idea. It is a little hampered by the fact that it can be a bit tricky to line up your cutting efforts… As a result sometimes the tree you fell will not land against the next tree but beside it. It isn’t helped by the fact that when you are performing an act like cutting a tree, mining ore or trimming bushes… the direction you seem to perform the action can seem a bit “off”.
Final Thoughts?
So is it worth having a look? Well… it depends. If you aren’t likely to be bothered by the camera angle/view and you aren’t super bothered by maps… then perhaps you will get a lot of fun out of Len’s Island. You can certainly focus on building your home, setting up a farm etc… but for me, the movement/camera dynamic just made it feel like I was working against the game and made it a particularly unpleasant experience (combine with a roll instead of a run and awkward edges in mines and scenery that blocks your view while you are trying to chase down prey… it’s a bit too much). Maybe wait for a good sale (or if they have another free weekend) to get a sense if it’s really for you. Personally, I’m not likely to return to Len’s Island/s.
About the Author
Chris O'Connor Father of four, husband of one and all round oddity. Gaming at home since about 1982 with a Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Moving on to the more traditional PC genre in the years that followed with the classic Jump Joe and Alley Cat. CGA, EGA, VGA and beyond PC's have been central to my gaming but I've also enjoyed consoles and hand helds along the way (who remembers the Atari Lynx?). Would have been actor/film maker, jack of many trades master of none.
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