Solo: Islands Of The Heart Switch Review

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Is your relationship failing? do you often want to know exactly how your partner is feeling but they never talk about it? playing Solo: Island Hearts sure opened up a new can of worms within gameplay for me! Involving both real puzzles to mess with your brain and real-life issues that may occur during relationships, asking at many times personal questions, was it worthy of me spending more than an hour? did it look like a cheap alternative to relationship counselling? enough with the questions, Coral – Although, I think the game has rubbed off on me with all the invading questions given.

Solo: Islands of the heart is a quirky puzzle game brought to you by developers Team Gotham and published by Merge Games

Gameplay

Kicking off the game I noticed something I have never before seen in a game! you get to pick your avatar, but the choices are; Male, Female and Non-Binary! the gaming world is opening up options to whatever you identify as! Then you’re thrown into a game, it seems some cute little companion has accompanied you on your journey, but in the form of a ghost, I believe it’s like a metaphorical version of your loved one.. except he kind of looked very much like bill from left for dead, not my exact choice of partner but beggars can’t be choosers can they?

Having a little stroll around the island you’re thrown onto you will come across some weird huge totem things, I named mine Norris, this was due to the fact nosy Norris over here decided it was ok to go through personal questions, life scenarios, even put his non-existent nose into my sex life (or what there is of it), it turns out the answers you reply with change what your ” lover” says as you go around the islands, many of it I personally found manipulative as hell to the point I was actually wanting to throw poor “bill” off of the swings into the water (although, there weren’t sharks, just peaceful turtles, not enough gore if you ask me!)

Between each of the different totems, you will need to solve many puzzles that involve manipulating boxes and blocks, they can be just a normal box, ones with a platform that extends out or ones with fans attached which may blow you in different directions (up, down, left, right) , you must use what brain power you have, (I lack in this at the best of times), to reach different destinations, this could just be a higher platform or could be over the water and to another part of the island, it became very boring very fast there wasn’t much difference between the “puzzles” therefore me with the simplest brain ever could actually do this.

Oh, you get to feed the little animals around the islands, unsure why they’re there but there’s some kind of bee coloured pig you can give bananas to, it gives you love for doing so, yep, just climbed a huge cliff to get you a banana just so you love me… okay then.

Graphics

In Solo: Islands Of The Heart everything seemed very crisp and clear, and very very bright, many times I found myself tapping around for the brightness option, on top of this I feel like the islands were slightly overcrowded by trees and animals which made me feel like I needed more space to do what I needed to do! if anything they should make it either slightly less in your face or fewer obstacles to shine in your eyes.

Audio

I personally didn’t mind the audio, it was just some soft music, not too annoying but also had to turn my volume down a few times because it went on for so long! you do have the option to bring out your own little guitar and play some music, the notes for them can be found around the map… or I just made my own, if they don’t like it it’s tough!

Longevity

I can’t see this game lasting very long at all, yes there may be a few hours worth of play in it but if you don’t get annoyed with the personal questions, or the “lover” moaning like a little … moaner, you’ll soon discover the puzzles are the same, they’re not very mentally challenging and they could have been done so much better. If you want your time out of this game I’d probably only play it whilst having a pee, make it last that little bit longer.

Conclusion

The graphics were lovely, the audio was lovely, the game was absolute trash, I feel like I’ve had more brain-stimulating games from a free phone app, I probably won’t ever load this back up on my Switch because I can’t bear to play it any longer. In terms of buying Solo: Islands Of The Heart as it is, I’d probably not even bother doing that, get yourself some paint with the money and paint your walls, let it dry, watch it whilst it dries I promise you it’s much more fun.

I’m going to give Solo: Islands Of The Heart a platitrash (trash) award, meaning it’s probably one of the worst games I’ve reviewed yet.