Otok Review
Are you ready to relax and get creative? In this chill game from VuVuu, you can decorate your island how you please with the buildings and nature given to you. With gorgeous graphics and a simple playthrough, you’ll enjoy relaxing in Otok. However, there is much to be desired when it comes to variety.
Easy to Play
When you first open the game, you see an empty square, a theme and the basic instructions of how to rotate and place the buildings. Those short instructions summarize the entirety of your playing experience with Otok because it is meant to be about relaxing. There are no mini games or extra things to do within Otok, just building your tiny island.
All control has been taken out of your hands through randomization. The size of the island can range from a 4×4 island to a 12×12 island, in no particular order. The islands have texture, with hills, dips and fragments missing. There are currently only three themes in the game, which are medieval, plain and adobe. Each theme comes replete with its own buildings and structures, along with features of nature that stay the same. At the start of each new island, the size and theme will flash across the screen, and you can get to placing. The buildings and elements of nature will also be randomly generated, so it is difficult to create a specific setting. However, it does let your creative juices flow and makes you build worlds you wouldn’t have originally dreamed of.
Just the Basics
I had a couple of questions while playing. Can I change the color of the buildings; can I see the next placement? Usually, the answer was no. Since there are no side quests or tasks to complete, you can instead focus on the experience of playing Otok. You can rotate both buildings and the island to better build your masterpiece, but there is no ability to change colors or move objects once they are on the map.
The simplicity in Otok makes the game more enjoyable, but results in less of a long term game. The lack of goals or levels to clear made it easy to just focus on relaxing. But since there is nothing to work towards outside of building your island, it became hard to play for long periods of time. I found there were only so many islands I could make at once without feeling like it was too repetitive. I was also sad to learn that there is no way to save or revisit the islands you love outside of screenshotting them on your phone, making it difficult to show off your creations.
With the different styles and sizes that Otok randomizes, you will never run out of islands to create. The randomization keeps it interesting and makes it engaging to change your original design a hundred times over. However, it is not really meant for long term play so much as to just sit and enjoy every once in awhile.
While Otok is a cute and fun game to play, it is not great for long term play. If you are searching for a soothing game to play in your off time, this is perfect. But if fast paced games with goals are more your style, this might be one to bypass.
