Heaven Island is a simple and cheap walking simulator set on a tropical island. When you enter the game, you will be surrounded by sand and water as far as the eye can see, but the deeper you venture into the island the more tropical elements you will find.
Anyone who is considering picking up Heaven Island needs to know two things; do not expect any form of challenge, and do not expect any in-depth detail. This game is meant for a purely relaxational experience, so it is void of any form of puzzles. As well, it's a dollar game, the island is not crawling with exotic inhabitants. At the very best, you get about 3-4 different kinds of fish swimming in the ocean, the occasional butterfly and some sea turtles.
While I found the visuals of the game passable, the audio here is deplorable. Heaven Island is marketing itself as a VR game. One of the most important features to any VR title is the audio. I use a Corsair Void Wireless 7.1 headset, and I will say that the sound is 2.0 at best. There are sections of the game that do not even have any sound, or the sound cuts out abruptly. You will hear some crashing waves and the odd flock of seagulls squawking, but that's about it. The sound is never consistent, and as such neither is my immersion in this "VR" game.
The latest addition to the game are achievements, which you can obtain by collecting 70 apples and 70 shells. This is not an especially grueling task, so long as you're prepared to scour every nook and cranny of the island and areas within the ocean. However, there is no in-game counter to help you keep track of what you have collected. Having to keep a tally in your head or on paper also causes the immersion in this "VR" experience to fly out the window. A simple counter is not hard to implement. I should also point out that if you exit the game, your progress is reset.
I was 36 shells in when Heaven Island decided to abruptly dump me back to the starting area, logo and all, effectively resetting my shell collecting. Up to that point, I was having a mildly fun and mostly relaxing time playing the game. The fun left when the entire game reset, and I decided that I'd had enough of wandering around the island for now. It's cool to see other people who are playing the game, as indicated by their blue orbs scattered about. If you turn around fast enough, you can see your own blue orb trail. At first, I thought it was someone trolling me by following my every movement, I found it funny when I realized that it wasn't and it was just my own blue orb trail.
Overall, you get what you pay for. Heaven Island can hardly classify itself as a VR, and it should remove the MMO from its title. There are numerous bugs that need to be fixed, the developer released a game that really was not ready to be released yet. This game could be made a lot better with the implementation of better sound, more sound effects, an in-game counter for shells and apples, and a fix for the game-killing bugs. In its current state, I would not recommend this title... not even for a buck.
Edit: The developer has implemented new features, such as now when you exit the game your shell/apple collecting process is saved. You can now interact with more objects on the island. There are more fish as well.the island. There are more fish as well. Updated score from 1 star to 2 stars.
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