Should You Buy Amber Isle? | Amber Isle Review, Cozy Shop Simulator Review with Gaming Archaeologist

Today we're talking about the adorable new prehistoric shop management/social sim game Amber Isle! As a gaming archaeologist, I'm always looking to check out new games with history presence, even if it is paleontology! I had a blast checking out this game and really think it is a nice piece within the genre. The game launches October 10!
Mallory is an archaeologist and full-time content creator that livestreams gameplay on Twitch.TV. Catch past livestream VODs here: ‪@ArchaeoMalArchives‬.
While she plays a variety of games, Mallory primarily focuses on creating timed "challenge runs" to be completed in Stardew Valley. She also compiles challenges for others to try out for themselves on her website (linked below).
Watch the next stream live, weekdays at 10:30AM EST: / amateurarchaeologist
Check out all of Mallory's challenges (and try one for yourself) here: malschallenger...

[@jess2109]

This was super helpful. Thank you! I wanted to give this a try but always like seeing a review first before I commit.

[@waxwinged_hound]

It's worth mentioning that the "tutorial" section is very long and dialogue heavy. The game pulls you along by the hand, and, while it does show you how to do things in a quite understandable way (at least in my experience), it doesn't really let you do your own thing for several hours. I personally don't mind, but if that's the sort of thing that would bother you, I would either give this one a miss or wait for a sale.
Also, while the game *does* work with controllers, I wouldn't consider the integration with the UI to be the greatest (though it's not terrible either), and also for some reason you can't remap the controls with a controller, while you can keymap for mouse/keyboard. It's possible this was just an oversight and may be added in the future, but as of this posting it seems to be impossible.
However, the character creator is incredible and it's not often that you get an anthropomorphic animal creator this robust. It's clear the designers are furries (at least somewhat) because who else would let you choose the color of your tongue? This game got onto my radar specifically because it's rare that I get to make a fursona/scalesona ingame. (it's not specifically catered toward furries though, in case you're worried about that)
If you're still on the fence I'd recommend watching a stream of it. I've decided to stream it for a while on my twitch channel, and I'm sure that lots of other people are as well, probably here on youtube too. Sorry for the text dump, I just thought I'd add some more info!

[@MMXVIII_]

I think the only thing it needs is some time before you buy it, as I’ve heard it has a lot of ways to get soft locked. It is quite new, so it might be better to wait a bit for some bug fixes to confirm that the developers will continue developing and improving on it, before putting your money into it. It’s very cute and intriguing, but it’s always better to play it safe if you’re worried about making your money’s worth. (Hope fully you get what I’m saying

[@GandalfTheTsaagan]

Wait, no pressure from time or tool durability?! Oh my stars SO MUCH YES!
I don't mind these mechanics in survival games since gathering and crafting is the only thing you do for the most part. Plus the time pressure adds to the immersion.
But in cozy games I not only find those distracting, but they end up taking all my time and energy and leave me unable to work on building up a community and establishing my character (which, as an autistic person, hits a little too close to home 🥲).
So Amber Isle taking that weight off my shoulders makes it even more of a treasure than it already was. On November 21st I'll get it from the eshop ASAP. 🦖♥️🦕

[@waxwinged_hound]

Heh, as a fellow person on the spectrum, I appreciate the lack of survival mechanics too, at least for a game like this. It's a really fun game so far, especially if you're like me and zoology/paleontology is a special interest... I keep geeking out over all the species I recognize.

[@Naekotic]

Amber Isle was.. okay? Not my cup of tea :( I experienced some stuttering when moving the camera, the building is like.. weird, I don't like the face down placement option. Also the game animations feel cheap? I'm not sure.