Eagle Island Review

There is a category of video games that I just can’t play. These are games that require faster reflexes and sharper minds than I posses, games like Dark Souls and Super Meat Boy. I know that I could probably get into these games if I spent time playing them, but there are plenty of other games out there that require less personal improvement from me and also I’m lazy by nature. However, every once in a while, one of these challenging games will catch my eye just enough for me to put myself through the wringer. This happened last week when I came across Eagle Island, mostly because there was an adorable owl in the game.

In Eagle Island, players take the role of Quill, a young ornithologist traveling the Otriatic Sea with his owl companions Koji and Ichiro. Sadly, tragedy strikes in the form of a freak storm, destroying the trio’s boat and stranding them on an unfamiliar island. Then, bad goes to worse as an enormous eagle swoops out of the sky, grasps Ichiro in its massive talons, and flies away before the other can react. Meeting a kindly stranger soon after, players learn they are on the mysterious island of Yulu and that massive eagle was the protector deity Amaura who despises outsiders. Given a magic glove, players must guide Quill and Koji through the island’s many dangerous creatures with the ancient and mystical art of throwing a live owl your enemies until they die or, as some people know it, “falconry.”

Now, if I had to guess, you read that last sentence and thought something along the lines of “Hang on, what?” Well let me assure you that you read it correctly. The player’s only weapon in Eagle Island is Koji, the adorable owl friend following Quill around. Though not explained, the magical falconry glove given to players at the start of the game somehow renders Koji immune to skull-fracturing blunt trauma as well as compels him to attack whatever the player says. It also gives Quill the power to stop in mid-air any time he is directing Koji to attack. Using this bizarre, half-worrying half-hilarious tactic, players fight enemies in a combo-based system that rewards quick reflexes and precision aiming. As they defeat more enemies in quick succession, players will receive rewards and a higher final grade at the end of the level. Unfortunately, aiming is tricky because players can only aim in 8 directions: up, down, left, right, and halfway in between each of those. On top of that, players are sometimes unable to accomplish high-level combos because the game’s procedurally generated areas are set up in such a way that there aren’t enough enemies or the enemies are far apart or separated by walls or both.

To help with combat, players will get a number of tools to help them expand on their abilities. The most noteworthy abilities players can acquire are the three elemental feathers. At the end of each of the first three dungeons, players will get an elemental feather. These allow Koji to charge himself with the power of the corresponding elements and gain abilities such as splash damage or attacks that pierce through enemies. This is fueled by gems acquired from successful combo attacks and some chests. Players will also discover magical runes which augment existing abilities or grant entirely new ones, such as giving the player more health, higher jumps, or revealing hidden treasures. On paper, I like these ideas, but the execution isn’t great. Firstly, I only really like one of the three elemental feathers, which freezes enemies. The other two help players achieve higher combos, which is fine because it helps players get higher grades at the end of a level, but also aren’t that interesting. I have more of a problem with the runes, because they expire. This frustrated me because I would spend my hard-won money on these skill expansions or enhancements, but after a certain amount of time or number of uses, they shatter and I lose that ability. I understand that the motivation for this was to compel players to constantly adapt their playstyle to the runes they had at the moment, but it kept me from ever settling in to a comfortable groove and meant I couldn’t experiment much with interactions between different runes because I rarely had any specific two at the same time.

There’s some things Eagle Island doesn’t exactly nail but there are also a lot of features that are excellent. The first is the very broad category of accessibility options. This, of course, includes difficulty settings. Players can use the Core rules, Hardcore rules, or Casual rules. Having difficulty settings isn’t at all new, but what impressed me about Eagle Island was how it implemented these difficulty changes. No matter which rules players use, the game doesn’t adjust the number of enemies in a level, the health enemies have, or how much damage they do. Instead, they change things like maximum player health, combo requirements for rewards, and the cost of purchasing runes. This is fantastic because instead of lowering or raising the challenge, the game adjusts how many tools the player gets to meet those challenges. I was especially impressed with a feature in the Hardcore rules that automatically collects all of the money monsters drop on death so players can focus on doing the coolest combos possible instead of worrying about stopping to pick up their rewards. I personally played on Casual, because my reflexes aren’t great and I needed those extra health points to offset my natural clumsiness. Beyond difficulty settings, there’s great options for people with different abilities, including adding high-visibility outlines to enemies and platforms, alternate control layouts, and on-screen text readers. I think the developer took a page from Celeste’s book and it’s genuinely heartwarming to see more games be welcoming to players of all ability levels. The game also has great artwork and sound design. The levels all look amazing, with well-rendered enemies, tiny non-enemy background creatures and environmental details. The music is similarly wonderful, matching the tone of the music to the dungeon’s theme.

Judging Eagle Island was a peculiar challenge for me. On one hand, the core mechanics of the game feel weirdly flawed, sometimes working against itself as it tries to be both a procedurally-generated, run-based game and a precision-focused combo challenge. On the other hand, it has a lot of solid design choices and customization options that can allow anyone to play, regardless of skill or ability. In the end, I believe it’s accurate to say that almost anyone can have a good time with Eagle Island, but I don’t think it will end up as anyone’s favorite game.

Buy this game on sale

It’s worth playing, just not at the price they’re asking