Fascinating story, good voice acting. Played several times, once committed genocide. — gipat.ru/genocide/
Камень я не дам
It’s honestly been a while since I last played Evil Islands but I felt that it was about time to write something about this game. Evil Islands is one of those odd games of my childhood that I owned for some reason even though there was virtually no hype surrounding this game at the time as far as I remember. I probably came across the beautiful big box of this game in some electronics store, fell in love with the art printed on the back cover and then begged my parents to buy it for me. Well, one way or another, they did and soon enough, I began my epic journey through the world of Evil Islands.
At its core, it is an ARPG which offers real time combat with pause but also throws some strategy and stealth elements into the mix. You take control of the chosen hero Zak (who is called Kiran in the German version, which, in my opinion, is a much better name^^) who wakes up at the shores of Gipath after losing his memories. All you have in the beginning are some raggedy clothes, a bronze dagger and a cool chest tattoo. You make your way through the lush and, for the time, quite nice-looking environments of Gipath in the search of any signs of civilization. After killing some wolfs and running away from ogres (or killing them if you’re that good….or insane), you end up in a village that will serve as the Hub area for the next couple of hours of the game. Here, you learn about the world, a prophecy, which of course directly mentions you as the hero and savior of the lands, and get to know the various inhabitants of this settlement.
I gotta say that I always really loved the first hours of Evil Islands. There was something about this world that made it feel special and real. The voice acting in the German version was excellent with many actors that were also featured in the Gothic games, a legendary RPG series that is probably still the most impactful German contribution to the gaming sphere as a whole. In any case, the various voice actors did a fantastic job in making this world feel lively and coherent. There’s also a sprinkle of humor in the dialogue writing that thankfully doesn’t come across as annoying but actually manages to lighten the mood and make the protagonist somewhat sympathetic. I say somewhat because I do remember some sections of the game where the protagonist’s immanent sarcastic tone could get on my nerves. All in all though, I liked the characters and the writing in general in this first area of the game. Story-wise, Evil Islands starts rather promising. Apart from having to solve the mystery of your own existence, there is quite a lot do for the villagers of Gipath. Throughout the first few hours, the game presents some interesting story-beats for you to follow. For instance, there is a conflict between the villagers and the free hunters, a group of island dwellers gone rouge who have turned against the village for some reason. You explore the hunters’ camp, gather some information by talking to various characters and get a really good idea of why this conflict exists in the first place. On top of that, there is a group of goblins that raided the village constantly which you have to look into. At some point, there’s even a representative of the goblins in the village for peace negotiations :D I thought this was pretty special for a game like this at the time. I expected the story to just have you kill the evil hunters and goblins without asking too many questions but instead, these rival factions actually get some depth and are more than just cannon fodder for you to kill. And it doesn’t stop there. A little later, you fight a bunch of orcs and lizard people. Again, at first you think that these are just your standard evil creatures but no, there are different tribes among them and some of them are actually peaceful and open for conversation. On the other hand, it quickly becomes apparent that there is someone in the village who is actively working towards killing you and you will spend some time walking around suspecting everyone until you find out who the culprit is. I loved this kind of moral complexity of the game that goes beyond “good vs. evil”. At the time, this was something you didn’t see that often in ARPGs which were all about hacking and slaying monsters for hours on end without thinking too much about the story.
But of course, an ARPG wouldn’t be much fun if the action wasn’t fun as well. In that regard, I always thought that Evil Islands offered an easy-to-learn but still somehow strangely original combat system. You can engage enemies with melee, ranged, or magical attacks by equipping the corresponding weapon and then left-click away until you are victorious. However, you can optionally attack a specific body part of your opponent like the arms or the head. Crippling a certain body part will in turn lead to various effects. For instance, a humanoid attacker whose arm you smashed to bits, will be nearly unable to attack with this arm. On the other hand, a powerful enemy may strike your legs and prevent you from escaping the battle altogether. Strikes against the head have a lower hit chance but if they succeed, there’s a high chance to crit and thus deal enormous damage. Oh, and let’s not forget about the stealth element I mentioned earlier which can end a battle before it even began. Stealth attacks in this game are just straight up broken :D If you manage to hit an enemy from behind while you’re out of battle, you can turn an otherwise hard fight into a trivial affair by dealing massive damage or kill the enemy on the spot. It’s crazy fun to sneak around trying to backstab everything. There’s even a skill that you can put EXP into that lets you deal even more damage and raises your hit chance for any sneak attack.
Speaking of skills, this game has a ton. You gather EXP in battles and for solving quests and can invest these points into skills and stats. I have to say that, as a kid playing this game, I was quite overwhelmed by the number of options you have here. You can raise your affinity with certain weapon types, enhance special skills or learn entirely new abilities. There’s a catch though. The game commits a cardinal sin when it comes to leveling. Whenever you put points in anything, the costs for leveling ANY skill raises as well. And it’s not just a few points. Sometimes, costs for leveling can double or triple. And again, this goes for any skill, whether you level it or not. That means that you can quite easily get yourself into a situation where you leveled up a useless skill only to find out that all other skills have become so expensive, that you’re now stuck with your current skills. There’s no way to reset your character and respec so you better know what you’re doing. I’d recommend using a guide for this as the game does a poor job communicating this mechanic properly and it’s quite likely that you will end up soft-locking yourself if you level up the wrong skills. Another aspect to keep in mind is that you can take up to 2 companions with you and experience is shared among all group members. That’s why you should always ask yourself if for some missions it might be better to go alone and sack all of the EXP whereas in other missions, you might need the help of your comrades. Again, there is a sort of hardcore community for the game online and you will probably find help if you need it. Let’s just say that the skill system has not aged particularly well in my opinion and has led to needless frustration on my part.
However, there is one aspect of the game that has aged like fine wine and which was really novel and cool for a game of that era. I’m talking about the crafting system. Crafting in Evil Islands is special as it features a more modular approach than any other game at the time. Each item you can equip has a pattern and material. For instance, a leather vest consists of a leather vest pattern but can be constructed from all kinds of different leather. That means, you can take all items to the local blacksmith, dismember them and reconstruct them using other materials. On top of that, you can enchant items with various magic effects. These are also just another element of the item which means that you can also disenchant magical items and put the spell on another item. I still think this is a super simple, but cool mechanic.
I think this is pretty much all I have to say about Evil Islands at this point. I have to admit that I never really finished the game due to the level of difficulty that was just a bit too much for me as a kid. As I mentioned earlier, leveling yourself into a corner by spending EXP on some useless skills can happen easier than it should and is probably what happened to me as a kid as well. Additionally, even though the writing seemed rather fresh and interesting at first, I remember the game’s pacing losing some of its momentum after a couple of hours. There are stretches of the game where nothing really happens on a narrative level which was a little disappointing after the strong first impression. Still, I would say that if you like unconventional but innovative RPGs of the past and don’t mind the usual jank of early 2000s games, you should check out Evil Islands. It’s an experience unlike any other and quite the impressive game considering that it was developed by Nival Interactive, a small and relatively unknown Russian developer. It’s a bit sad that rarely anyone remembers this game as it definitely deserves some acknowledgement for the cool things it set out to do.
At its core, it is an ARPG which offers real time combat with pause but also throws some strategy and stealth elements into the mix. You take control of the chosen hero Zak (who is called Kiran in the German version, which, in my opinion, is a much better name^^) who wakes up at the shores of Gipath after losing his memories. All you have in the beginning are some raggedy clothes, a bronze dagger and a cool chest tattoo. You make your way through the lush and, for the time, quite nice-looking environments of Gipath in the search of any signs of civilization. After killing some wolfs and running away from ogres (or killing them if you’re that good….or insane), you end up in a village that will serve as the Hub area for the next couple of hours of the game. Here, you learn about the world, a prophecy, which of course directly mentions you as the hero and savior of the lands, and get to know the various inhabitants of this settlement.
I gotta say that I always really loved the first hours of Evil Islands. There was something about this world that made it feel special and real. The voice acting in the German version was excellent with many actors that were also featured in the Gothic games, a legendary RPG series that is probably still the most impactful German contribution to the gaming sphere as a whole. In any case, the various voice actors did a fantastic job in making this world feel lively and coherent. There’s also a sprinkle of humor in the dialogue writing that thankfully doesn’t come across as annoying but actually manages to lighten the mood and make the protagonist somewhat sympathetic. I say somewhat because I do remember some sections of the game where the protagonist’s immanent sarcastic tone could get on my nerves. All in all though, I liked the characters and the writing in general in this first area of the game. Story-wise, Evil Islands starts rather promising. Apart from having to solve the mystery of your own existence, there is quite a lot do for the villagers of Gipath. Throughout the first few hours, the game presents some interesting story-beats for you to follow. For instance, there is a conflict between the villagers and the free hunters, a group of island dwellers gone rouge who have turned against the village for some reason. You explore the hunters’ camp, gather some information by talking to various characters and get a really good idea of why this conflict exists in the first place. On top of that, there is a group of goblins that raided the village constantly which you have to look into. At some point, there’s even a representative of the goblins in the village for peace negotiations :D I thought this was pretty special for a game like this at the time. I expected the story to just have you kill the evil hunters and goblins without asking too many questions but instead, these rival factions actually get some depth and are more than just cannon fodder for you to kill. And it doesn’t stop there. A little later, you fight a bunch of orcs and lizard people. Again, at first you think that these are just your standard evil creatures but no, there are different tribes among them and some of them are actually peaceful and open for conversation. On the other hand, it quickly becomes apparent that there is someone in the village who is actively working towards killing you and you will spend some time walking around suspecting everyone until you find out who the culprit is. I loved this kind of moral complexity of the game that goes beyond “good vs. evil”. At the time, this was something you didn’t see that often in ARPGs which were all about hacking and slaying monsters for hours on end without thinking too much about the story.
But of course, an ARPG wouldn’t be much fun if the action wasn’t fun as well. In that regard, I always thought that Evil Islands offered an easy-to-learn but still somehow strangely original combat system. You can engage enemies with melee, ranged, or magical attacks by equipping the corresponding weapon and then left-click away until you are victorious. However, you can optionally attack a specific body part of your opponent like the arms or the head. Crippling a certain body part will in turn lead to various effects. For instance, a humanoid attacker whose arm you smashed to bits, will be nearly unable to attack with this arm. On the other hand, a powerful enemy may strike your legs and prevent you from escaping the battle altogether. Strikes against the head have a lower hit chance but if they succeed, there’s a high chance to crit and thus deal enormous damage. Oh, and let’s not forget about the stealth element I mentioned earlier which can end a battle before it even began. Stealth attacks in this game are just straight up broken :D If you manage to hit an enemy from behind while you’re out of battle, you can turn an otherwise hard fight into a trivial affair by dealing massive damage or kill the enemy on the spot. It’s crazy fun to sneak around trying to backstab everything. There’s even a skill that you can put EXP into that lets you deal even more damage and raises your hit chance for any sneak attack.
Speaking of skills, this game has a ton. You gather EXP in battles and for solving quests and can invest these points into skills and stats. I have to say that, as a kid playing this game, I was quite overwhelmed by the number of options you have here. You can raise your affinity with certain weapon types, enhance special skills or learn entirely new abilities. There’s a catch though. The game commits a cardinal sin when it comes to leveling. Whenever you put points in anything, the costs for leveling ANY skill raises as well. And it’s not just a few points. Sometimes, costs for leveling can double or triple. And again, this goes for any skill, whether you level it or not. That means that you can quite easily get yourself into a situation where you leveled up a useless skill only to find out that all other skills have become so expensive, that you’re now stuck with your current skills. There’s no way to reset your character and respec so you better know what you’re doing. I’d recommend using a guide for this as the game does a poor job communicating this mechanic properly and it’s quite likely that you will end up soft-locking yourself if you level up the wrong skills. Another aspect to keep in mind is that you can take up to 2 companions with you and experience is shared among all group members. That’s why you should always ask yourself if for some missions it might be better to go alone and sack all of the EXP whereas in other missions, you might need the help of your comrades. Again, there is a sort of hardcore community for the game online and you will probably find help if you need it. Let’s just say that the skill system has not aged particularly well in my opinion and has led to needless frustration on my part.
However, there is one aspect of the game that has aged like fine wine and which was really novel and cool for a game of that era. I’m talking about the crafting system. Crafting in Evil Islands is special as it features a more modular approach than any other game at the time. Each item you can equip has a pattern and material. For instance, a leather vest consists of a leather vest pattern but can be constructed from all kinds of different leather. That means, you can take all items to the local blacksmith, dismember them and reconstruct them using other materials. On top of that, you can enchant items with various magic effects. These are also just another element of the item which means that you can also disenchant magical items and put the spell on another item. I still think this is a super simple, but cool mechanic.
I think this is pretty much all I have to say about Evil Islands at this point. I have to admit that I never really finished the game due to the level of difficulty that was just a bit too much for me as a kid. As I mentioned earlier, leveling yourself into a corner by spending EXP on some useless skills can happen easier than it should and is probably what happened to me as a kid as well. Additionally, even though the writing seemed rather fresh and interesting at first, I remember the game’s pacing losing some of its momentum after a couple of hours. There are stretches of the game where nothing really happens on a narrative level which was a little disappointing after the strong first impression. Still, I would say that if you like unconventional but innovative RPGs of the past and don’t mind the usual jank of early 2000s games, you should check out Evil Islands. It’s an experience unlike any other and quite the impressive game considering that it was developed by Nival Interactive, a small and relatively unknown Russian developer. It’s a bit sad that rarely anyone remembers this game as it definitely deserves some acknowledgement for the cool things it set out to do.