Island Time VR – PSVR | Review

By Joe Anderson
| 3rd April 2018
| PSVR, Review
| 0

Island Time for PlayStation VR is a game I don’t have too much to say about. It’s a game with a simple premise. You find yourself stranded on an island with an animated crab and have to survive for as long as you can using the various tools at your disposal. Think Castaway, but without the football.

It’s fair to say Island Time is an interesting premise and that’s to survive for as long as you can. To do this the island provides you with canes and flint to create spears and fire, so you can then cook the fish you have managed to catch. You can even use your spear to knock coconuts off the trees and then use your hands to throw them onto a rock and split them open, before refreshing yourself with the contents. You’ll need to be on your guard because there are pesky seagulls who’ll try and steal your food from under your nose, while you only have limited supplies of wood and flint, which are only refreshed when a rescue crate floats ashore.

The main problem is, that’s about it really. As well as the animated crab (voiced by Greg Miller) repeating his dialogue over and over, you’ll also be repeating the same steps outlined above again and again. It’s fair to say there’s more depth in the sea which surrounds you than there will ever be on the tiny island. It’s a shame really because I love the idea of trying to beat my survival time, but you’ll soon find the game wears thin. Perhaps if there was any sort of humour at all then Island Time would be more entertaining, but instead, it falls into the ‘trying to be funny’ category and it constantly fails. You can’t even throw a coconut at the crab’s face, although you can roast the seagull with a timely swipe, so that’s something I suppose.

There are a few other issues which made me pretty mad at the game. For instance, sometimes you’ll eat fish and then all of a sudden will get a chime warning you that you’re about to die from starvation, while at other times there seems to be a much longer gap in between eating and starving. Often the chime just comes out of nowhere and if there are no coconuts on the trees or fish in the sea then you’ll have no option but to accept your fate.

I often had a lot of issues with the tracking in the game, no matter how many times I reset the camera or tweaked the VR settings. I can’t say if this is Island Time’s fault or not, but I’ve never had so many issues with a game that I have this one, but hopefully, if you do opt to spend £16.99 on this game (I wouldn’t recommend it), then you’ll escape these same issues.

On the positive side, the game does look nice. It’s colourful, friendly and welcoming, making it feel like an island you would like to spend some time sunbathing on. Although it’s likely you won’t want to spend very long there, since there’s nothing to do and not even a bar to distract you.

Final Impressions

Island Time VR might have been a fun pick up and play game had it cost £3.99 or something similar, however, there is no way I could possibly recommend you pay £16.99 for what essentially feels like a demo. There are so many better games out there which you should spend your hard earned cash and time on. It disappoints me to say this, but spend your money on something else.

Developer: Flight School / Publisher: Flight School
Release date: 03/04/2018
Platforms: PSVR
Platform Reviewed on: PSVR