With Solo: Islands of the Heart, Merge games has attempted to create a game that engages the player both intellectually and emotionally. The game is simple in every way except in its narrative and depth. The somber and calm guitar music in the background, the colorfully saturated environment, and engagement with a wide variety of peculiar and friendly animals all culminated in creating a game that sought to make the player journey through their own psyche more than the digitally rendered world of Solo. Overall, Solo is a game about romantic love and seeks to provide new perspective to players regarding their opinions and experiences around love.
At the beginning of the game, the player is asked several personal questions such as “gender” and “sexual preference” as a baseline for the game ahead. Once the player reaches the island, they are met with a colorful world full of animals and puzzle-based gameplay that challenges the player to access lighthouses that turn on totems which can only ask the player questions. Turning on each lighthouse and accessing its matching totem is as mechanically complex as Solo gets, with each totem/lighthouse combo being a sort of level that unlocks a new question for the player to answer regarding their past experiences/relationships and opinions about the concept of love in general.
I completed the entirety of Solo’s two-and-a-half hour story in one sitting and I can conclusively say that while the concept of Solo as a spiritual journey through one’s own mind may seem like an amazing and inventive video game that would be an enjoyable experience, I found that I was so incredibly bored with this game from start to finish that I was thankful it was such a short story. I think that Solo was a good idea in concept, but what was intended to be a deep and meaningful narrative just seemed silly and melodramatic to the point that it seemed less a game about love and more a game about nonsensical “faux-deep” messages and oddly personal questions that made me wonder if Merge games is a subsidiary of Facebook.
Throughout the entirety of the game, the player is accompanied by a sort of spirit of their “soulmate” which they are going on the journey to discover more about. The “ghost” can be found on each island doing things such as jumping up to trees to find apples or sitting on a swingset overlooking the vast ocean. The player can join the “ghost” in each of these activities, but the spirit questions each of the answers that the player gives to the totems on the previous island. I could tell that this system was created in order to produce a level of introspection in the player, however, it just came across as somber and negative in a game that claimed to be about love and self-discovery. The puzzles to get to each of the totems just felt frustrating and monotonous after a certain point. I started to care less and less about reaching the totems and lighthouses to “discover more about myself” and care more about simply completing each of the levels for the sake of finally finishing this unbelievably boring game.
The most redeeming parts of Solo actually had very little to do with the main storyline at all. The character has a camera which they can use to take classic-looking photographs of the island and its animals in a fun addition to the game. The player can also pull out a guitar and play some melodic tunes that can summon moles, rain, or sunshine (among other things) in a nice touch that perpetuates the somewhat melancholy and relaxed tone of the game.
Solo is a game that has excellent mechanics, beautiful 3-dimensional visuals, a calming tone, and a surplus of good intent. That being said, Solo is also a game that falls victim to having an overly-sentimental storyline, tedious gameplay, and repetitive puzzles that take a lot of the meaning and fun out of the game. I see what Merge games was trying to do with this game, but I feel like a “self-help” book really didn’t need to be made into a video game.
Check Out the Solo: Islands of the Heart Video:
I've been playing video games since I got a Playstation 2 when I was about 5 or 6 years old. The original Star Wars: Battlefront series and the Spyro series initially ignited my interest in gaming, but it wasn't until I got older that I truly appreciated the subtle details that make video games such a unique form of entertainment. My favorite type of video game would have to be any lengthy and plot-driven open world game, with my favorite games of all time being Batman: Arkham City, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and Firewatch.
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