Secrets of Temple Isle Review
Disclaimer: Secrets of Temple Isle was provided to MissingInput for free from the developer for review purposes.
There’s an old saying that many will surely be familiar with, the phrase I’m thinking of is: “Everything old is new again”, this reflects on the idea that what we currently view as new and cool will inevitably be uncool from a later generations point of view, the cycle of pop culture life, however the second part of that phrase indicates that those same things will eventually wrap itself back around to becoming “new” and “cool” again. We’ve already seen numerous examples of this happening, probably the biggest example that comes to mind would be Vinyl, a format to listen to music that was largely made redundant by CDs and eventually music streaming but has seen a resurrection coming back around to being popular again. Video games are no exception to this phrase, as we’ve seen a large outpouring of support and love for pixel art which was the bread-and-butter of the Super Nintendo and the Sega Mega Drive, but quickly fell out of favour when the N64, Dreamcast and PS1 launched and looked to focus on 3D modeling instead, resulting in many games with strong pixel art roots moving to 3D i.e. Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy. Secrets of Temple Isle is a 3D Action-RPG that aims to capture that initial move to 3D in spirit but not to replicate the same pitfalls that they ran into. Created solely by one person, Moses Doyle, the game follows an unnamed treasure hunter as you’re thrust into a struggle for freedom as you assist the residents of the peaceful island that you’ve landed on fend themselves from pirates that have taken over and discover the mysteries that are teased on ancient texts, it feel like Secrets of Temple Isle wears its inspirations on its sleeve as I’m reminded of Tomb Raider with the protagonists occupation and how a simple treasure hunt turns into something much grander than expected
The generation that grew up with the first iteration of 3D games experienced many developers try their hand at making coherent level design, satisfying controls and varying levels of fidelity to see what resonated with players the best and in doing that we’ve gotten a number of games that, by today’s standard, many would say are “dated” but I would rather describe the approach as “simpler” as they feel simpler in approach to all the things I mentioned previously, controls that make your character feel like a tank, level design that is fun but maybe doesn’t make sense in the games story or setting and models doing just enough that you got the idea and fill in the rest of the details with your imagination.
Today’s hyperrealistic video games with their ever increasing budgets and intricate details has carved a niche set of gamers that want something closer to those games, the simpler games, pick up and go. We’re seeing the rule I mentioned at the beginning in effect as every day there are new games that look to emulate that simple, to the point, game design that got many people hooked into gaming as a hobby, and that’s where Secrets of Temple Isle comes in.
This is echoed in the graphics and the camera angle being used, the character models absolutely invoke that nostalgic feeling of playing a game on the N64 or PS1 when I was younger. One thing that stood out to me from the very beginning was some of the animations, and this might be where the simpler design might crossover into the dated. The animation that stood out the most to me was landing in water, the animation for landing in the water and swimming forward felt extremely stiff and is noticeable from the getgo as you start the game in water, I would have liked to see a smoother animation being used here as it’s rather jarring. It’s the smallest of nitpicks and again it’s worth stressing that this game is developed by a single person but it happening so early in the game can set the tone and expectations.
Unlike the games of yesteryear, Secrets of Temple Isle does not have a defined character as the protagonist, there is no name attached to your character. This led me to instead view the protagonist as a self-insert for the player much like Link from The Legend of Zelda, this extends to other aspects for the story as the protagonist doesn’t talk, at least not that we know of as conversations with the supporting cast of characters is them speaking at you with no indication of what the protagonist is saying and isn’t really a back and forth conversation. Further setting itself apart from the games that inspired the graphics and gameplay by including the customisation of the protagonist, you’ll be able to change their skin colour, the clothes that they wear, their hair and facial hair, with more customisation being found through exploring, giving myself reason to be thorough with my searches, this makes Secrets of Temple Isle feel closer to the modern RPGs that we see that generally give the player carte blanche to create any kind of character they want. The game continues to incentivise exploring through other ways too, you’re given a minimap and the number of secrets in the current area and how many you’ve discovered can be seen on this, a very nice quality of life feature that helps people that want to get all of the collectibles if that’s something that you’re interested in.
One thing that took me by surprise from the very beginning of my time playing, that being the total lack of music. The game starts with you skydiving into Temple Isle and again there is no music, it’s just the sound of the wind wooshing past which did feel awkward as the game starts with what should be a large action set piece but there is no music to subtly inform the player that “yes, this is cool”. From my time playing I can’t recount a single time hearing a background track, leaving you with the sound effects of running, enemies make noises, the swing of your sword and knock of your shield, it’s not that I expect music to be playing at all times but I feel like there should at least be some, if anything it would make the time that it is used feel all the more meaningful. Having just the sound effects works when you’re exploring somewhere like a cave as it gives it that immersive feel, but it being missing for things such as boss fights almost deflates the boss fight itself. To again look at the comparison of Tomb Raider there is also little music in that game while exploring, especially in the first level, but you still have constant sound effects of things to come, wolves howling, the sounds of metal clanging in the vast distance, all for it to culminate in a fast paced strings, woodwind and percussion for when you find your first boss fight that lets you know that this is the real deal, I feel this is something sorely missing from Secrets of Temple Isle and leaves me disappointed and wishing it had just a little bit more.
Crashes, no one likes them, they can range from annoyances to straight up ruining the game for people as in the worst cases they can ruin hours of progress or lead to save file corruption. During my time with Secrets of Temple Isle the game crashed on me around 3-4 times in the span of 2 hours of play, they would always happen when moving from one area to another, this is also when saving occurs, so nothing would be lost but it would mean the game would close down and I have to reopen it and then continue the game. Checking the Steam Forums to see if it was something specific to me or if there was something to do with my setup to try and resolve it was what I looked to do. I also reached out to the developer Moses and provided them with logging info to hopefully help them figure out where these are coming from.
While playing you’re capable of picking up pretty much anything that’s sitting around on tables or drawers, the number of forks and vases I’d picked up during my playtime was interesting as I kept saying “they might be useful for something”
Secrets of Temple Isle feels like it’s looking to bridge a gap between the aesthetics of PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 games but with PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 game controls and attention to detail, while the game reminded me heavily of Tomb Raider as mentioned before, a core difference being that Secrets of Temple Isle controls nothing like its inspiration, with the controls feeling snappy and reactive compared to Lara Croft feeling much closer to driving a tank with a slight delay in jumping.
While playing you’re capable of picking up pretty much anything that’s sitting around on tables or drawers, the number of forks and vases I’d picked up during my playtime was interesting as I kept saying “they might be useful for something”, which isn’t something I’ve heard myself saying since playing something like Elder Scrolls: Skyrim or Fallout 3 where it’s pretty common place to turn a house upside down in the hopes of finding something useful. Doing this in Secrets of Temple Isle means that you can find treasures, gold that you’ll use to buy armour, weapons and even furniture for your own house that can be purchased in the town you’re looking to free from the pirates, on your journey you will also come across many food ingredients that can be used to give yourself small amounts of health back, alternatively you can opt to keep these items and instead combine them with other ingredients to make a bigger, better health item which gives you a nice balance of gathering for the sake of gathering and you’re actually gathering with a purpose.
What Moses has achieved with the development of Secrets of Temple Isle is nothing short of inspiring, having focused on delivering this solo developed game over 5 years, developed on a bespoke engine and the personal success in getting this over the line as Moses said it is a “massive step forward” for their own technical and personal development, it’s a story to show that it can be done for the aspiring developers of the world. While there were some things that I would have liked to see, such as some kind of music being used, some smoother animations and less crashes with my default configurations I can see that the development team are taking the reports serious and working to find solutions for these kinds of crashes, which is why I’m sticking with my recommended result as from what I’ve seen and how I’ve spoken with the developers I don’t foresee them abandoning the game. I think the entire package of Secrets of Temple Isle is a worthwhile experience to check out, if you yearn for retro inspired games then this is a perfect place to stop and check, as it’s given us a unique game looks to strike a cord for a time that gaming was simpler and wasn’t afraid to just be a game and not attempt to be more akin to movies.
