Amber Isle

I was always going to pick up Amber Isle, so I was very happy to review it. Even though it has a few bugs related to the camera and UI, as well as some progression issues to be worked out, I know I'll be spending a lot more time in my shop crafting items to sell to my dinosaur customers. There’s a lot to like about Amber Isle and the team at Ambertail has tried its best to create a wholesome experience. All of these adorable dinos will be my friend before I’m through here, even the grumpy mayor.

I found myself very conflicted about what I feel about Amber Isle, as the ambition is there for a great game, but I found my experience to be more mediocre to good. I think there is some good in the concept, the way characters speak, getting to hang out with the characters in this game is a joy, and I’m not annoyed by the main gameplay of running the shop. However, it feels like this game needed something more with its basic-ish story, slightly frustrating exploration game, and generally lacking features that would help my enjoyment of this game quite a bit. £25 isn’t too bad a price for this, but I would personally look elsewhere, or wait for a price before considering this.

Despite its early bugs and minor frustrations, Amber Isle delivers a charming, cosy simulation with a lot of heart. It’s easy to get swept up running your prehistoric shop and watching the island come back to life with a cast of dinosaurs that are cute and full of character. Though it still has some rough edges, Amber Isle manages to offer an experience that improves the more time you spend with it. With recent and future patches to smooth out the bugs, it has the potential to be a go-to game for anyone looking for a relaxing yet engaging simulation.

Amber Isle is a wholesome game where you manage a shop and restore an island, offering relaxing and varied gameplay with no energy meter, allowing you to set your own pace, though early repetition, missing quality of life features, and some bugs may detract, but its charming dinosaurs and well-designed recipe system make up for it.

While I thought its Animal Crossing influences would be right up my alley, it ultimately left me feeling dissatisfied with a buggy playthrough.

Amber Isle has several great aspects to it, like good shop mechanics, fun decorating, and an enjoyable cast of characters. However, bugs drag the experience down and stop it from feeling as relaxing as it should.

Amber Isle is a fun prehistoric adventure that values the friendships and profits made in the game. However, it is held back by some issues that can get in the way of truly enjoying the experience.

Amber Isle has the potential to be one of the top cozy management games if the dev team played their cards right, but it currently feels pretty barebones except for the visuals. The shop management system only scratches the surface, the exploration area seems large on the map but feels limited once you explore it. [...] The concept of running your own chibi-dinosaur island and growing your business into a thriving centre in the village seems promising. However, Amber Isle makes this idea seem too good to be true, offering little to explore in this adorable prehistoric world. In short, it feels and plays as outdated as its subjects.

At the time of reviewing, which was pre launch, there were some minor issues with Amber Isle. For example, some of the menus wouldn’t work when I clicked them. I also saw eyes sometimes meshing into characters models. Not the cute look the devs were going for I’m sure. Like I said these are minor issues and they can easily be addressed with a patch on release. Another quality of life improvement would be info boxes for items when attempting to recommend a product to a customer. The image is okay, but becomes hard when the client wants something small. For example, at one point I tried to give a customer a pencil and it was the wrong choice. As the icon was small and there was no info box this was a repeated mistake and it did become tedious. I also found the filter option didn’t work and using the sorting function could be better. I understand these may actually sound like major issues, but they didn’t break my gameplay experience. They were just minor nuisances. With all that said, Amber Isle is both fun and adorable to play and, just like the island, it needs a few fixes. The creative choices you can do for the shop and island feel like Animal Crossing (although not so in depth with custom designs). The inhabitants are quirky and entertaining with their personalities. That’s why I’m giving Amber Isle the Thumb Culture Gold Award. Now excuse me, if you need me I’ll be on Amber Isle completing my island fix up.