Review Insights · Google Play
Isle of Arrows - Tower Defense
Studio Gridpop Inc · 1,913 ratings · ★ 4.0
4.0
★★★★★
1,913 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 29 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"game"
18 negative reviews mention this · 62% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this game comes off trying to be a unique tower defense game but its overly complicated for no reason. go play the better td games" - Roarthis
2
"tower"
7 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this game comes off trying to be a unique tower defense game but its overly complicated for no reason. go play the better td games" - Roarthis
3
"defense"
5 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this game comes off trying to be a unique tower defense game but its overly complicated for no reason. go play the better td games" - Roarthis
4
"tower defense"
5 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this game comes off trying to be a unique tower defense game but its overly complicated for no reason. go play the better td games" - Roarthis
5
"towers"
5 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "It's fun for a bit, but eventually you'll get to spots that feel impossible to win. No coins, only a few weak towers, and increasingly difficult waves." - Trebor Lewis
6
"better"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this game comes off trying to be a unique tower defense game but its overly complicated for no reason. go play the better td games" - Roarthis
7
"games"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this game comes off trying to be a unique tower defense game but its overly complicated for no reason. go play the better td games" - Roarthis
8
"playing"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Honestly I really liked this game initially the campaign was challenging but fun. It was a unique and creative take on the tower defense genre. Since completing the campaign I've been playing the daily challenge which used to be fun but rec…" - David Redd
9
"single"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Don't waste your money on this game, it is far too reliant on rng to be any fun. I think this is on purpose to hide just how little actual content is in this game and I'm honestly surprised they are actually charging money for it, consideri…" - Joseph Fox
10
"luck"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Don't waste your money on this game, it is far too reliant on rng to be any fun. I think this is on purpose to hide just how little actual content is in this game and I'm honestly surprised they are actually charging money for it, consideri…" - Joseph Fox
11
"water"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "it needs a single spawn point 50 and 100 round game type. or maybe even unlimited. just harder every round. the randomneess and 3 spawn points really make the late game more frustrating than fun. it could also use some floating towers than …" - Caleb Bailey
12
"tiles"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "it needs a single spawn point 50 and 100 round game type. or maybe even unlimited. just harder every round. the randomneess and 3 spawn points really make the late game more frustrating than fun. it could also use some floating towers than …" - Caleb Bailey
📋 All 29 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
this game comes off trying to be a unique tower defense game but its overly complicated for no reason. go play the better td games
Honestly I really liked this game initially the campaign was challenging but fun. It was a unique and creative take on the tower defense genre. Since completing the campaign I've been playing the daily challenge which used to be fun but recently just feels really unbalanced. Almost everyday it's invasion or another combination of unwinnable modifiers. Recent experiences have highlighted the games faults while draining the enjoyment out of the aspects I used to really enjoy.
Doesn't work, just a black screen now.
The game is half cooked. So much of the game is designed without reason other than to make more content, it's not compelling, just repetitive.
Originally I gave this five stars but at later levels it was so RNG-dependent it became ridiculous. Burning Embers is unbalanced. and the last level of gauntlet for the architects is unwinnable even with the best RNG. Dropping to one star poor game design.
I love tower defense games, but this one is not very fun, not very much variety, just boring TD. Oh well, I'm sure the developers are satisfied with my purchase, I am not.
Don't waste your money on this game, it is far too reliant on rng to be any fun. I think this is on purpose to hide just how little actual content is in this game and I'm honestly surprised they are actually charging money for it, considering how frustrating the game is. I've beaten about 90% of the "campaign" (heavy use of quotes) and in all of those it felt more like I got lucky pulls instead of playing the game well. I beat one of the fire levels pulling only a single fire tower.
too much rng!!! It's hard to be strategic around luck.
Tried to refund about five minutes after downloading and I get an error that says it's not supported by the policy. Time to dispute a charge.
I had fun for a while, but now I'm at a point where it's 100% rng and 0% skill. I've been stuck on the same gauntlet level for over 3 weeks. Not a fun game anymore, just self torture simulator.
don't buy 1 deleted all my saves 2 some gauntlets are impossible above 4 stars and even getting to 4 stars is pure luck only the 3 first gauntlets are fair
No tower defense game can work if everything is totally random. Add more strategy, and the game might be worth playing. Also, the position of towers makes no sense half the time. Game is not fun at all.
Could be great. There is unfortunately zero strategy and 100% RNG. It ends up being a frustrating waste of time. Rogue like elements would increase the value of the game, anything I have unlocked has never been seen in a dozen playthroughs. Perhaps a draw two then pick one, discard one would be better. Allowing for planning and placement of the second and third routes would be enjoyable instead of the existing random placement. This game has serious potential. Absolutely do not buy as it is.
Not recommended. The dev abandoned this game long ago. Poorly balanced and probably no play tested. Ends up being a lame grindfest to get that just right draw order to win.
0 skill involved in figuring this out. It all comws down to how lucky you draw pieces. terrible game
devs aren't listening to the players. not enough resources available. game forces me to lose. rng is super annoying with all the water tiles.. it was the lack of an undo button that caused me to uninstall. buh-bye!! there's better games out there
Annoying
Way to overrated the game has a hard time with turning the objects to and gives an illusion of freedom it's far from free extremely linear and completely RNG based not really good for a tower defense.
It's fun for a bit, but eventually you'll get to spots that feel impossible to win. No coins, only a few weak towers, and increasingly difficult waves.
some map combinations for the daily match are entirely impractical. starting to feel like sloppy oversight. I play daily and just knocked my rating down to 2 stars.
it needs a single spawn point 50 and 100 round game type. or maybe even unlimited. just harder every round. the randomneess and 3 spawn points really make the late game more frustrating than fun. it could also use some floating towers than can be placed in water with no other tiles having to be destroyed.
after months of playing it's not really a bad game but too much rng. about the only thing that's lacking on it is an endless mode like gauntlet & normal categories options. it would definitely give me something more fun to do because i dislike the gauntlets and the daily challenges are underwhelming. with these different options game would definitely be 5*. also can you please fix the random crashes lol they still randomly happen.
kind of stressful and feel weak towers
I was expecting better considering the high review score. The basics are really, really solid, but it relies so much on RNG/luck. Corner pieces when you cant practically place them anywhere, constant water tiles filling up the isle', constant lack of bombs, free traps or towers placed on the exact wrong places, the wheel, dice, etc take stuff away. This just feels like grinding without earning stuff to progress. Edit: I played some more and I hated it, the RNG is ridiculous. Changing to 2/5.
It's a slick game but I feel it would be much more enjoyable if the difficulty was lower - or even if it ramped up a bit slower. As it is, I'll put in a ton of time to get to wave 25 or so on a level, and then suddenly get demolished over 2 waves. It takes too long to get to the point where I find out my setup isn't good enough to pass.
Somewhat enjoyable but the fate of each game rests too much on rng.
didnt enjoy it
The game relies too much on random (tile) generation for my taste. This can't be called a strategy game, but more like "how much luck do you have" game. Positive is that it can be played offline, it's a single purchase without any micro transactions. Since it's promoted as the strategy game I strongly disagree that heavy RNG is "strategic".
I find the RNG aspect of this game disappointing. The number of times I lose because every single tower or trap i get is attached to a water tile, or I never get the path tile I need is way too often. I wish there were more single tower tiles, and they weren't as rare as they are. As it is right now It makes it feel every match ends up with a similar layout, and there is little room for creativity with tile/tower placements. Due to the water tiles making it so restrictive.
Sentiment summary
72%
Positive (4-5★)
9%
Neutral (3★)
19%
Negative (1-2★)