Steam Review of
Islands of the Caliph, a very good blob... 1person dungeoncrawler
Also check out the RPGCodex review by Darth Roxor
Had a lot of fun with this one
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This is a very fun first person dungeon crawler that really shines in its smooth gameplay, exploration, worldbuilding, and original setting. If you like games in this style such as Legend of Grimrock, Eye of the Beholder, etc, I can highly recommend Islands of the Caliph.
The tropical sun, the sea wind blowing over the beaches; jungles, mountains and deserts, maze-like cities, full of markets and strange characters… Coupled with the great soundtrack, the atmosphere in this game is simply great. You are invited to explore... which is the main gameplay focus, and is excellent in this game.
A set of islands is the gameworld, and each island has a different theme and feeling. You will explore jungles, deserts, mountains, undead wastelands, and a few dungeons. Move freely from island to island, as long as you can pay the captain's fee. Moving through this world feels very pleasant; you have the step-based movement as in blobbers, but with fluid transitions.
Note that the game is fully keyboard-based, which may take some getting used to to new players. I have found that this makes interacting with the game smooth and efficient.
The music is excellent. The pixelart is serviceable and does not fall into the trap of a tired, forced, fake retro look. The graphics and music serve the gameplay and atmosphere, and fit the game well.
The main focus of the game is exploration. There is combat and some interaction with NPCs, but these serve the aforementioned focus.
Combat is real-time and not tactical, and perhaps a weaker part of the game. As it is not very difficult, this is not very important.
NPC’s provide information, quests, and shops; there are no real dialogues, but you will be presented with some choices. Some puzzles are based on the information you hear from an NPC. The world feels alive; people are in cities, some hermits outside in the wilderness, there is a lot to explore.
Now, for what makes this game stand apart:
The worldbuilding is excellent. Cities, the island wilderness, dungeons: exploration, being the main gameplay focus, is super fun to do. The islands invite exploring them; interacting with the game sucks you into the gameworld - there are secrets to unravel, treasures to find, monsters to slay, NPCs to find. Most quests are exploration based; finding the right person, place or item is usually the focus. There are a few puzzles, also based on searching. The size of the islands, and the towns they contain, is exactly right; the world is not overly big, but also big enough to reward exploring. It has been a long time since I had so much fun in a 3d game exploring the world! If you’re a veteran blobber player, the dungeons might feel a bit on the small side, though.
Second, the setting: it is unusual to have a game based on Arabic mythology that includes the religion of Islam. Religious practices are implemented in the gameplay. Praying, fasting gives you bonuses; a questline has you travel and visit different religious teachers. All of this is done in an unobtrusive way. You can learn religious practices in a questline from NPCs; yet this is, as most quests in the game, entirely optional. The actions and the way religion is presented is quite unique, and done tastefully, without beating the player over the head with it. The developer definitely deserves praise for this.
Third: the optional nature of quests, and the consequences in choosing to take them or not. There are not many games in which actually doing a quest is the wrong action to take, and actually has bad outcomes! The game does a great job in alerting you to the consequences, and there are ways afterwards to deal with them. Some actions have permanent consequences for the gameworld, which gives the game some replayability.
Minor nitpicks:
The game is overall simple and easy. It does not have the difficulty of older titles such as Eye of the Beholder, nor the party customization, itemization, choices in character progression, and so on. The real-time combat is a breeze if you are a seasoned player of these types of games: just use EoB cheese “dance” tactics and mash the attack button. Money comes easily later on. The hunger and sleep mechanics are (thankfully!) easily managed. For me, these are very good things, as I do not have the time anymore to grind a game for many hours, as I could in the past... It is a light, simple experience.
The character system is very simple and not very balanced. Some skills are not very useful, some it doesn’t make sense to increase. In general you will not gain many levels before finishing the game. All of this doesn’t matter much, as it is not hard to defeat the enemies in the game, and money after some time will come by easily. Again, don’t expect any challenge here; which is good in my opinion.
Note on the save system: I am not sure why the developer chose to restrict saving the game always onto the same save-slot. You can by copying the save folder and modifying its name, move it to a different saveslot, if you want to try out some different quest outcomes.
Minor point for the developer: potatoes are a New World crop that came from Latin America with Spanish colonizers in the 16th century; they could not have been present in medieval Arabia
Give this one a whirl and support indie one-man developers, making games in this truly classic old-school style!
