When a narrative adventure does things a little differently, my ears and eyes perk up. ‘Solo: Islands of the Heart’ mixes together a block-based puzzle platformer with relaxed animal feeding and a BuzzFeed style love and relationship quiz. That’s what I call a kitchen sink game!
I mock, but Solo hangs this all together really coherently. You choose your character and then the sex of your (potential) partner and sail off to several islands to be asked questions about how you define love. These questions are provided by sentient lighthouse gods and they are the games main puzzles. You’ll need to traverse to a light source to turn on the lighthouse god and then reach them to be asked the question. This in turn opens up the next part of the island.
The questions start out quite broadly and in an interesting twist, your answers seem to determine what type of landscape the newly grown island section becomes. You might be hot-headed and grow a desert, or reject love for the icy cold snow. I’m a soppy so and so which meant I have lush forests for a lot of my playthrough. Better still, when I revisited the game and also watched other peoples playthroughs, the questions change depending on previous answers. Solo: Islands of the Heart is determined to find a root fear or worry you may have about love and then pin you down on it.
Whilst BuzzFeed the game takes place passively, you’ll be interacting with the lovely low poly environments with block puzzles. Your character can pick up and move blocks to climb up them. Some blocks extend ledges out and others blow wind. You can use those to either send you flying or rotate them for hover blocks. There is no jump in the game but you do have a parachute. A lot of the later game puzzles are building stacks of stairs to climb with limited blocks so you are high enough to glide to the next platform.
Solo: Islands of the Heart relishes in being a slow-paced, relaxed puzzler. you are encouraged to mull over your options and there are seats to sit on and relax. That, coupled with the lovely soundtrack and beautiful graphics make Solo an enjoyable experience. It is a shame that the camera and block placement of the puzzles can sometimes go awry though. You have complete free reign to place your blocks anywhere you can see and so sometimes you’ll be fighting the camera. This is so the block will snap to the right location you want it to go – not a cliff far away in the distance. It’s a small frustration but it was one that cropped up several times in the final island where things are most complicated.
Solo is short too. It took me about three hours to complete and I was going quite slowly. During that time it did keep me very busy though, including cute bridge connection puzzles to reunite stranded animals and some tricky 3D shadow puzzles. Ultimately, my thoughts on Solo rested on how it sparked some thoughts about how my relationship with my partner is going. Whilst Solo asked some interesting questions, I felt it confirmed my love for my partner. Each question had three options and often only one was a balanced approach and the other were two extremes. Maybe I am just too chill!
Bought and reviewed on PS4. Also available on PC, Switch.
Higher Plain Games is part of the Higher Plain Network. If you like what I do, please consider supporting me via Patreon for as little as $1/£1 a month. There are additional perks for supporting me, such as behind-the-scenes content and downloads. You can also share the website or use the affiliate buy now links on reviews. Buying credit from CD Keys using my affiliate link means I get a couple of pence per sale. All your support will enable me to produce better content, more often. Thank you.
