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While it has some charms, and is obviously quite ambitious, it struggles in multiple areas
When I first saw Ylands I was impressed by what looked like the scope of what it was looking to pull off. While the somewhat low-poly look it sports wasn’t going to be amazing, there appeared to be a little bit of everything people could enjoy, whether the exploration of it all, crafting, building, or likely some combination of all the above. While I wasn’t expecting a grand open-world adventure necessarily, it looked like it was trying to pull off a bigger world than you’d normally see in a more budget-friendly game.The good news, I suppose, is that elements of that vision are present in the gameplay, and if you can be patient and understanding it can be quite enjoyable. There’s absolutely what feels like an unpredictable world to move through, working on new islands to build up resources to then throw into building ships, as well as increasingly-grand structures, and it can be done at pretty well whatever pace you like. Whether you’d prefer the varied challenges of adventure mode or the varied means of expression of creative mode, there’s potentially something for everyone here.The problem is that while I applaud the scope of the title’s ambition, I can’t help but note that it can be extremely rough around the edges in key areas. In particular, the crafting menus and key interfaces that you’ll have to spend a pretty significant amount of time in are cumbersome, somewhat confusing, and problematic with a controller. I’d imagine on a PC they may be more functional, but while I acknowledge the game has a load of different distinct things to craft or pursue that span a wide array of types it’s just a lot. Difficulties in differentiating resources by color or their general appearance I also found troublesome, adding to some frustrations. Finally, while it encourages your impulse for adventure on the high seas, or exploring, the mechanics of pulling those off have a tendency to be cumbersome at best.This is one of those titles where you can’t help but be impressed by what it has set out to do. Ideally, it could be the type of experience that you continue to return to and take in for quite some time. In execution though, it simply doesn’t hold up well enough to make a strong case for itself among the competition that may tackle its gameplay and objectives differently, but are simply more polished at the end of the day. If you can have patience there’s a game here that’s worthwhile, but it has some obstacles in the way of thorough enjoyment.
Justin Nation, Score:Fair [6.2]