Ember Island Review – Always Bet On Magic

Arcade games are often known for their difficulty, something to keep you glued to the game and entice you to spend more money there. If you failed because you ran out of money, you lost all of your progress. What if you could keep that difficulty but not lose everything when things go pear-shaped? That’s what Ember Island, an action-adventure 2D platformer developed and published by Calibus Creations LLC, tries to do. Play as a Knight, Mage, or Rogue as you venture across several zones and battle monsters. Hone your skills as you aim to get the highest score possible. Thanks to unlimited retries, you can’t fail and are free to experiment as you like. Discover your favorite class and utilize their abilities to quickly pass through zones.

There is no narrative, just one person fighting various monsters and progressing through each zone. Your goal is to get as many points as possible by defeating several enemies and finishing a zone quickly. The Knight is a physical powerhouse, the Rogue is a fast attacker, and the Mage casts long-range magic. All three classes can fight their way through the hordes of enemies but it takes lots of practice. I’m not the best platformer player but I do enjoy the chance to test my skills and reflexes. Ember Island quickly put me to shame with the amount of times I needed to redo sections.

Each class has their own advantages to stand out. The Knight has the most starting health and can use ranged magic but is the slowest. Using the Rogue lets you attack enemies quickly but you have no ranged options. Mage users safely attack enemies but they have the lowest health of the three. Utilizing each class’ advantages is key to maximizing your score or surviving a run. The process of practicing to use each class is tough, but also rewarding when it pays off. I often defaulted to using the Knight at first because they can use both melee and physical attacks. Rogue runs were difficult but easy to speed through while the Mage was the class that I found the most success with.

Experimenting with each of the three classes showed that the Mage stands out above the others. Not because the Mage is somehow stronger, but it suits the game’s enemies more. I often found many situations where long-range combat was the superior option, which is where the Mage shines. Enemies often swipe at you whenever you get close, sometimes farther than you can reach. The Mage doesn’t have that weakness since all they can do is long-range attacks. While that makes the Mage fantastic for beginners, it’s also hard to justify using the Knight or the Rogue. I did use the Knight and Rogue after the Mage, but it almost felt like I was deliberately holding myself back. It wasn’t the fact that I couldn’t succeed with them but that none of their playstyles or high scores came close to anything I could get with the Mage.

Ember Island is a difficult game and it shows. Enemies sometimes hide in the environment and jump out at you. Bottomless pits, spikes, and falling objects are nasty surprises for your health meter. As straight-forward as gameplay looked, I often found myself losing lives because enemies jumped from trees or waited at the bottom of a long jump. Thankfully checkpoints and unlimited tries meant that I could always pick myself up and try again. Even with those tries, it often took at least 10 tries with a Knight or Rogue while a Mage needed no more than three.

Some parts may be frustrating to bypass but it’s not hard to try something new and overcome an obstacle. Knowing that I could easily revive made it more likely that I took a risk with an attack. Even if I ended up failing because I didn’t know what was coming or made a silly mistake, it was a slap on the wrist. All I had to do was select “Continue” and I was back with three lives, ready to experiment until I reached the end.

Unfortunately combat can be difficult to master because it doesn’t work as you would expect. Melee attacks have a short range and jumping attacks aren’t as easy as they look. Sometimes enemies can hit you when it feels like it should be a missed shot. I often found that jump attacks weren’t exactly “jumping while attacking”, instead being “attack, then jump”. Even if that’s what I did, most of the tries to do this often failed. Enemies could also hit clothing like the Mage’s hat or the Knight’s feather tuft, this doesn’t seem fair when by comparison I could barely touch an enemy’s head with a spell and they emerged unscathed.

Ember Island is a difficult challenge that inspires you to conquer it. Three classes lets you choose a playstyle and work to master it. Surprises keep you on your toes as you struggle to stay alive. However, controls aren’t very smooth and combat motions don’t work as you would expect. The Mage is also significantly better than the other two classes. However, this is a great game for anyone looking for a challenge, but prepare for frustration on multiple fronts.

Victor reviewed Ember Island on PC with a provided review code. This review is based on the version of the game available at the time of writing and our score will not be changed.