I love a good city builder, and we’ve recently been blessed with some great additions to the genre like Synergy and Frostpunk 2. But while both of those games approached the survival and challenge of building a city, Islanders: New Shores leans hard into the zen of it all.
If you’ve ever spent way too long in a creative mode, Islanders: New Shores is for you. It’s a chill city builder that tasks you with creating a quaint little civilisation on an island somewhere far away from any worries.
The Videogame Zen Garden
Islanders: New Shores doesn’t have zombies at the gates or hunger meters to keep on top of, it has cute little buildings and seagulls drifting quietly along, backed by a relaxing soundtrack. Your goal is simple: place buildings on the island to create something functional and picturesque. Hit the required score for each island and move on to the next.
When you land on an island, you’ll be able to take stock of the environment quickly. Some will have soaring mountains with sweeping overhangs, while others have low valleys or clusters of smaller islands. Then, you’ll choose from a set of buildings based on a theme. You might select farming buildings, fishing related structures, or houses.
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Every building you place has a bubble that grants an adjacency bonus, depending on which buildings want to be closer to others. Houses and mansions wish to be close to the city centre, while lumberjacks want to be surrounded by trees. The categories are generally intuitive, and when you’re placing a building, it’s very easy to see the score counting up or down as you move it around.
When you’ve placed enough structures, the little score widget in the bottom left of screen will fill up, and you get to choose new buildings to construct around your city. Do that enough, and you’ll fill the right-hand widget and be able to move to a new island. Crucially, the game doesn’t force you to leave your island, if you’re relaxing and enjoying placing buildings, you can continue doing that. This zen-like approach to the genre is excellent.
I’m sure there are all sorts of mental health benefits to relaxing at the end of a day and building my little virtual zen garden.
One aspect that feels somewhat at odds with the overall experience is the inclusion of a ‘High Score’ mode, which is bolted into the main campaign. As you progress through the string of islands, your score is continuously tallied and compared to the global leaderboard. I get the idea of gameifying the system, but having my performance ranked clashes with the relaxing nature of the game.
New Horizons, Same Island
Islanders: New Shores is the sequel to Islanders, released in 2019. The sequel has added a handful of new features that increase variety and introduce more gamey elements, while also maintaining the core charm.
For example, the new ‘Boons’ system introduces one-time powers to adjust your settlement. A boon might allow you to increase the score of the next building you place, delete a building entirely, or clone an essential structure. When you’re running out of space or not quite getting to the score you need, boons can be a big help.
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As you’d expect, there are plenty of new buildings in this sequel; from messenger pigeon coops to mountaintop temples. A lot of these play with elevation in their placements, aiming to be in a place of high honour in your town.
The original Islanders focused heavily on the procedural generation of each island, and that system feels like it has been upgraded. There are many more mini archipelagos and islands with extreme overhangs that present more challenging builds. The issue with blending high score leaderboards and procedural generation though, is that the islands need to be consistent enough that fair scoring is possible. Otherwise, randomness could absolutely tank your run.
The difficulty ramps up as you progress through the main set of twenty islands, with many challenges to work through and spectacles on display. I hit one island that seemed like a tiny little nub of rock, and I thought I was in for a micro-building challenge. Until I selected my second set of buildings, and suddenly, the islands all began to rise out of the sea, giving me new land to build on. New islands rise up each round, making planning ahead difficult.
The Not-so Deserted Islands
The visuals of Islanders: New Shores are spectacular. As you progress through the new biomes, you’ll start to see little differences that make each island feel unique. For example, the slowly drifting snow over the Arctic biome and seagulls that fly across the sky. When you complete an island, all of the houses send up little floating lanterns that glow as they drift over the world you’ve created. It’s the best.
Each building is designed in a beautiful cartoon aesthetic. Buildings that move, such as fountains or mineral mines, feature simple animations, like turning wheels or grinding gears. It is beautiful, though a little similar to the original Islanders. I would have loved to see actual people living in the world, or more small details that help tie your civilisation to the islands they inhabit. The new biomes look amazing, but could feel like a purely aesthetic swap; for instance, being able to plant farms in the Arctic doesn’t really make sense.
Should you buy Islanders: New Shores?
Islanders: New Shores can feel like more of the same. However, this is a very good thing for a particular breed of player. If Islanders is your thing, I’m confident you’ll be pleased with the updates to the formula.
There are spectacular new islands to explore, new buildings to place and some cool new tweaks that make each island feel different. It doesn’t all land flawlessly, but what’s here makes for a compelling way to revisit your little island nations. If you’ve played every stress-driven city builder and want to take things a bit slower, Islanders: New Shores is a great way to do it.
And if you haven’t played Islanders but want a little zen Garden to relax after a long day — look no further.
Quest Daily scores Islanders: New Shores:
8/10
Quest Daily was supplied with an early review copy of Islanders: New Shores thanks to the publisher.
