This week, while plowing through a heap on new iOS game releases I happened upon a delightful new adventure game called The Witch’s Isle. The game, surprisingly, hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves, so I’ve written this review in hopes that a few more people will download this delightfully curious little adventure.
From the first few moments of the game, The Witch’s Isle’s mysterious storyline will draw you in and keep you guessing as you seek to unlock the perfect ending to this choose-your-own-adventure offering.
The story begins at nightfall. You are lying in the bed of your one-room house as the comforting crackle of the fireplace warms and soothes you to sleep. As you drift into into a deep slumber, the room suddenly goes dark and a mysterious woman appears at the foot of your bed. Raising her hand slowly, a black cloud suddenly appears above you. It descends, covering you in a darkness that jolts you from your sleep.
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Disoriented, you ask “Who’s there?” The witch makes her presence known, informing you that you’ve been struck with a death spell. The only way to remove the spell is to find a mysterious urn an intruder stole from the witch’s castle just moments before. If you do not succeed in finding and returning the urn by 4 a.m., you are destined to die a dark and painful death. The witch disappears as quickly as she came and the adventure is ready to begin.
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As you walk outside, you are met with the breathtaking view of a mountainside village with a castle looming in the nearby distance. It is about 10 o’clock at night so you only have six hours to find the urn. You must walk through the city, speaking with the few townsfolk who are awake and gathering clues that help unlock pieces of the mystery. As time passes, the characters you meet change. Some go to bed, while others are waking early to get a head start on the day’s work. Each character you meet and speak to is logged in an in-game collection, along with items and key clues you discover. The more you chat and explore the town, the more you come to realize that residents have conflicting feelings about the witch. The young people seem to hate her as they’ve seen too many sacrifices made to keep her alive. Meanwhile, the older people seem to almost idolize her as a heroine and protector of their small community. You are unsure if you should aid the witch or try to save the community from her and with every townsperson you speak to, you’ll become more and more unsure of the answer.
My first run through the game, I was afraid it might be too short or too simple, as it took me about an hour to reach the “end.” However, I was mistaken. Though I did manage to find the urn and return it to the queen before the 4 a.m. deadline, my ending was still dubbed a “sad one” as I did nothing to change the circumstances of the people in the community.
At this point I was given the opportunity to “retry” the adventure in hopes of unlocking a different ending. When you reboot, the time rewinds back to 10 p.m. but you keep all the characters you unlocked before. The clues and items collected, however, disappear. Making it to an “end” of the game, earns you an achievement as you will have unlocked one of the eight possible endings to the story. There are four sad ends, two bad ends, a normal and true end. There are also achievements for unlocking all characters, items, and a few other random things. It wasn’t until I finished my first run I realized the surprising depth in the game and at that point, I truly fell in love with it.
There are moments in The Witch’s Isle, where the dialogue feels a little corny but other times, it is truly entertaining. I particularly enjoyed reading the descriptions of the characters as some of them are quite witty.
For such an in-depth offering, I was surprised to find it was free on both the iOS and Android app stores, as I would have happily paid a few bucks for it. If you love point-and-click adventure games, be sure to check this one out today.
