Recent reviews by Timmac

Even though the game has simple mechanics; eat and drink, The Isle is a fantastic and immersive approach. On top of it the developers are very responsive and seem to continue pushing updates to improve the quality of life overall. Running as packs with your friends or trying to stay low on your own, you will be pulled in and lose track of time very quickly. I suggest you give it a shot and with time, The Isle will continue to impress.

Let me start out by saying, this game is right now in Alpha. That means gameplay is subject to change and anything you might see in the game now could be gone in a few weeks.

I came into this game not knowing anything about it, just a buddy that told me to try it out. I did, and I'm having a blast.

I was trying to write the Pro's and Con's to the game, but when I think about it, every part of the game can be thrown in both.

The community, which can be an absolute nightmare, is very rewarding once you find people you trust. Now keep in mind, I've already had this community coming into the game. I can imagine it is even more rewarding if you find people you can actually trust. The people in this game write the story for you. This is what people complain about, but define your gameplay experience. You are surviving, and the people are your number one threat. Keep your distance if alone, and get a damn place to put your stuff ASAP. I would suggest learning the game on a low population server. Don't expect a good time jumping into a server with 100+ people. You will die a lot, and frequently.

Building: great for making a base you can defend, but a nightmare for getting a lot of people into it. If you want your base to be secure, you're going to need to need a LOT of material. You're going to need a lot of metal doors. If you build your place out of wood, you will need to make sure any wooden walls are not exposed to important places inside your base. A couple explosive charges and someone will be in your base and looting everything you worked hard to get. Our base has multiple levels with doors at the top of stairs. You can't blow through ceilings, so at the top of the stairs we have 3 or 4 metal doors (if the stairs are on the outer wall you don't need to protect one side.) All of the important stuff you want to keep is at the top.

Building explosive charges is expensive and time consuming, so the more layers of protection will make it that much harder to breach. Only the person who puts the door down can use it. This is annoying. We've had to make multiple layer paths into the base in order to accommodate for each new player from our community who wants to join up. Then only a few people can actually get to the top levels without needing help getting access (opening those doors). I hear they are adding access codes which will allow multiple people to use these doors. This will make fortifying much better and until then this part of the game is a hassle.

Resource gathering, go with people. Go armed but only bring things you don't care about losing. It might even help making a small base to retreat to or a place to dump your stuff down in intervals.

Know your surroundings. If you know there is a clan that has a huge base and is very active. I wouldn't go knocking on their door to see whats up. They probably already know you're there and will kill anyone coming up to their place. This is what our group does, and we guard the resources near our base. We communicate a lot and we guard our territory very heavily. Don't expect to take over a territory alone. You'll need to scout and use your in game voice to discover things to help you out from other players. If an airdrop is near you, expect a firefight. They have explosives that you can't learn on your own or from blueprint drops. You need a research kit and loot/learn one of these explosives to learn how to make the charges entirely.

We are the end game. Our group has managed to make a name for ourselves, and the entire server knows who we are and where we're located. While it kind of sucks hitting the ceiling and having pretty much everything we can get. The only option is to raid bases and take other's stuff while defending/fortifying your own.

The game promotes aggression to the core so expect an aggressive community.

TL;DR - Stay with friends, make friends, build a strong base. Learn everything. Be smart. Stay safe. Be prepared for anything. Expect madness. You will die... a lot.