izigame.me

I am extremely torn to say this. I am still planning on playing it to completion because of the ups of the game, but I _cannot_ recommend it, at least not at full price. While it is on sale, $15 or so, definitely worth the money. At $30, you can get a lot, lot more gameplay and polish out of other indie games.
It really hurts because I want, with every fiber of my being, to love this game. I think the dinos' designs great. I love the concept. I think the farming is decent. I think the music (while slightly limited) is enjoyable. I think the exploration is fun.* I think the variety of things to collect are great! **
Just... It has some pretty crushing flaws that keep me from giving it full marks.
The smallest critique is that the humans kind of look like old wooden dolls brought to life. It is the tiniest, because that's just a personal preference thing. The other things, though, I feel the reviews even address, outside of mine.
The game has three areas, three seasons, and one town. Already rather small for a farming sim going up against things like My Time at Sandrock, or even its older, less polished predecessor, My Time at Portia.
There is an acceptable amount of the focal aspect of the game: dinosaurs. Huge marks on that one, for me. It's what I came for, and I'm here for it. However, the variety is primarily carnivorous theropods, raptors, thyreophora and ceratopsians. So, while there is a lot of variety, they all are branches of four aspects of the very vast quantity of dinosaurs out there. While they are in the code--there are no sauropods, the only hadrosaur is the mascot, etc. I do like some things they left in details-wise, such as both Compsognathus and Archeopteryx both appearing in the same area (as fossils have been confused for one another, before) and how it addresses whether dinos are loners, pack or herd varieties. It really does seem like they _care_ about the game. Again, part of why it hurts so bad that I can't recommend it.
** There are many other things to collect, which is nice, but there is no difference between carrying several of them in replacement of others, besides one aspect of individual dinosaurs' charts. I can go through most of the game on carrots, onions and potatoes, without ever collecting another crop. Further, while the farming works fine and does what it needs two, it does mean that not much farming is truly necessary, barring a couple cases I will address in the following section.
One of the two hugest issues, glaring, and a major part of the not recommending to others, is this: there is a lot of waiting, for waiting's sake, in the game. I don't mind it in some ways, as you shouldn't get everything immediately, or it'd kill the playtime. However, some lore-based quests have you waiting for one crop to grow, or one person to appear (who may only appear once every five or six thirty minute game days.) This doesn't really add to the fun, especially if you are at a lull on other goals at the time. In fact, sometimes it added tedium that legitimately had me debate dropping the game mid-playthrough. The other time it really bothers me is when it is fully RNG-based waiting. There is a place you can repair that requires an item: Pampas grass. It is insignificant, inconsequential and a decorative prop like many others. However, it shows up so infrequently I only saw it around three times in a full game year. If you don't have enough money to buy all you need on that day, you just get stuck waiting again, with no guarantee it will show for weeks.
* The other huge issue, and the one that had me almost stop a stream, one day, is that, while you can refer to a wiki, I was trying to play blind, and then... some of the quests give you so little direction you have no idea what to do, where to go, or what you need, or when you need it. Some are like "find ," and while you can infer which region (i.e. which of the 3 I mentioned earlier) they are in, the area is narrowed down to "not at their house" and nothing more. I spent at least a game week, I think, looking over the same map, walking circles, only to not find them, and on occasion, since it had been so long, forgetting to bring the necessary item, which may outright not make them spawn at all. It was deeply infuriating, and felt pointless. These seem to be the only times a person does _not_ appear on the map screen (which makes sense in-story, and on the gameplay meta, but feels confusingly arbitrary from any other context, especially player-side.)
There are other things, such as recipes, which you just literally have to guess, unless it is one you are outright given. It can be any from 1-15 of an ingredient, for multiple ingredients, with no hints or guides, to my knowledge. It might have them, but, frankly, outside of achievements, the cooking feels almost pointless. They give buffs, which is cool, but they feel entirely irrelevant to every other aspect of the game, besides temporary perks.
Similar with decorating. You can't decorate an inside, so some of the furniture seems odd, since it is outside-only. Everything is snap-to-grid, so precising decor, even matching the way they are used in places such as town, are off the table. Also, it just didn't seem as compelling as something like My Time at Portia, which added perks to decorating your house that influence gameplay, sometimes a noticeable amount. It is a necessary aspect of a game like this, but it just feels rather uncompelling in this circumstance. None of the furniture, to my knowledge, does anything unless you can sit on it. I never even bothered cleaning my whole farm out of scraps and rocks.
The mission board missions (to get resources and, more importantly, money, though you can also farm and sell if you prefer) feel very redundant, because they are literally find or deliver , or bring . Little else happens, and that limited variety of item names that appear makes them feel extremely cookie cutter.
The three environs are decent for what they are in what I will conclude my major criticisms on. However, they are vast enough to get frustrating to explore (see: above) and small enough to feel like big play rooms. They have fixed, designated spots most dinosaurs appear (with a few changing during seasons, or moving somewhat wildly across the map to add a hint of welcome flavor.) There are houses you can sleep at to, I suppose, keep your exploration to a certain area, less interrupted. However, since you need to go tend to your dinosaurs and crops, you still are going to have to return home every day, anyway, so it feels a bit superfluous. The shops are _mostly_ predictable, except the person who makes outfits, who is the only one who can expand your inventory, and requires fiber and money, which might mean you have to wait a bit between purchases, even days, to try and get a pocket upgrade. The characters feel pretty classical NPC with a few boxed up dialog, minimal lore-based reward for friendships (though there are item and recipe rewards,) and I didn't even do much shopping outside of three of the stores, even still, two of which I could avoid for ups of a month.
Why I really wanted to love this game, but only ended up liking it is 1. dinos, 2. farming sim and 3. heart. The game has heart. It just feels more like a concept demo of a fuller game. You can, if you really press, get 30-40 hours out of it, but sadly, a lot of that is literally waiting or walking in circles. BUT it has heart and charm. I could see a fleshed out, polished sequel that takes the criticism to heart and addresses it being something I'd gladly recommend at the same price. This is the hardest thumbs down I've ever felt it important to give, because I love what there is, it just isn't much for the $30 price tag.