Editors’ Choice Games

Luma Island

Review by Angie Kibiloski

In the 2 weeks since it released on Steam, Luma Island from Feel Free Games has been getting a really positive response from gamers. I played the demo awhile back, and was so excited to see it had finally come out in its full form on November 20th. Of course, I’ve clocked many hours since then playing this cozy farming, crafting, and adventuring sim, and I think everyone who enjoys exploration and relaxing base-building should check out this title.

Luma Island will feel like home to gamers familiar with Stardew Valley, Fae Farm, or any leisurely cozy games where you have to gather resources, complete tasks, design your homestead, and discover what hides in every nook and cranny of the game world. In this particular iteration, you’ll be making your home in a tiny camper van, parked at the top of a little incline surrounded by lush foliage, with a view of the nearby ocean shore. You’ve retreated from city life to enjoy the slower pace of a quiet, scenic island. You’ll soon meet the residents of the sleepy little harbor village nearby, unearth secret puzzles and treasures just about everywhere, and discover that this island holds much more than you initially thought.

The 1^st biome you’ll explore is the Farm, which in itself is pretty extensive. This includes the area around your camper, a long shoreline, a spooky cave, a mysterious temple, and a lot of trees, bushes, and rocks to traipse through. Once you acquire your tools in the tutorial, you’ll be all set to start chopping trees, smashing rocks, picking mushrooms, catching fish, and gathering treasure in the area immediately surrounding your camper. You’ll also need a trusty whip to defeat enemies, but fortunately you have to seek those out in the cave and temple, so you’ll be safe if you stick to the main farm area until you’re brave enough for adventuring. Throughout the Farm biome, you’ll come across several puzzles which require you to find buttons, activate ancient stones, and even go on a fun little chase. As you progress, you’ll unlock more biomes, like the Forest and Jungle, with new resources, puzzles, and enemies to discover.

When you tire of exploring the various landscapes around Luma Island, there’s always something to do in town. The villagers you meet will help you get established on the island, with DIY recipes and resources for purchase, coin to trade for your own gathered materials and crafted goods, and little quests to integrate you into their community. So far, I’ve found that these mostly consist of searching for artifacts or making items for various people, and fixing anything that’s been broken around town. Some villagers will have shop stands scattered around town, where you can sell anything you have in your backpack, which has blessedly infinite storage by the way, and buy everything from crops and livestock to flowers and metal bars. Town is also a great place to find treasure too, in the form of little loot piles (which respawn) or treasure chests (which do not).

Aside from the little quests that villagers task you with, you’ll have a main quest line that depends on which of the 7 career paths you choose when you 1^st arrive in town. A great one to start with is Cook, so you can start building out your homestead and farm right around your camper van, and you won’t have to go too far afield or tackle underground dangers quite yet. Plant and harvest crops, make delicious food, and sell it in town, easy peasy. Don’t worry if you don’t find your 1^st career very thrilling, you can add as many as you like, though each additional one will cost you coins. I added Treasure Hunter as my 2^nd path, since I was picking up all the loot piles anyway, but you might be more interested in Brewer, Fisherman, Blacksmith, Jewelrycrafter, or Archaeologist. Whichever you choose, you’ll follow the task prompts in order to progress your skill level and unlock new DIY recipes and dialogs with corresponding villagers who share the same profession.

Now, once you’ve grown comfy on your home farm, it’ll be time to venture deeper into the mysteries of the island. The temples in the various biomes will give you some dungeon-crawling fun, with booby traps, lurking enemies, puzzles to solve to unlock doors, and important treasures and resources that can’t be gathered elsewhere. The caves are more for stone and gem mining while avoiding enemies, which are giant spiders by default, but thankfully there’s an Arachnophobia Mode for players like me, who are terrified by 8-leggers and would much prefer battling ghosts instead. Both areas are necessary for game progress, so even though you don’t need them right away, don’t neglect them for too long.

Let’s talk about the namesake of Luma Island, the adorable, collectible Lumas. These are 15 fantastic creatures that you can hatch to be your companions and helpers, by finding rare Luma eggs hidden around each biome. These are randomized, so it’s down to luck which friends you get to meet as you adventure. My 1^st Luma to hatch was a snail on a skateboard, and he is the cutest little buddy! I admit that I like him better than my 2^nd Luma, a little mustachioed beetle dude, and there’s a few others who I’m crossing my fingers I’ll hatch next. I was also given an adorable puppy when I claimed my Treasure Hunter career, who sniffs out buried treasure for me to dig up. There are more dogs, and cats as well, which you can purchase from the pet shop in town, and you can eventually hatch all 15 Lumas if you play long enough. You can even purchase more of the same eggs you’ve already hatched, in case you want multiples of a particular Luma for some reason.

Finally, there’s a multiplayer option for you to add up to 4 friends into your game, to come help you farm, gather, craft, and battle. I’ve watched a couple streamers host multiplayer sessions, and it seems like a really great way to efficiently progress through multiple career paths, as well as cooperatively beat the temple dungeons and fend off spiders or ghosts in the caves. Personally, I’m a solo gamer through and through, and I actually appreciate exploring on my own, and taking my sweet, slow time to make progress and enjoy the journey. Even though there are day and night cycles, there’s really no time limit on anything, and no pressure to speed run the storyline. If you love teaming up and getting the job done faster, however, this option has you covered.

I absolutely love Luma Island, and fully intend on enjoying every chill minute until I eventually finish the game. Cozy games which aren’t all about farming, with an almost equal weight placed on exploration, and a bit of dungeon-crawling adventure added in are right up my alley. Throw in a plethora of pets in the form of the cute Lumas, a lovely art style, relaxing soundscapes, and a no-stress game pace, and this is the perfect way to spend a few hours on my days off. I highly recommend checking out Luma Island on Steam or LumaIsland.com. It’s only $19.99, and worth every penny.

Minimum System Requirements

OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)

Processor: Intel i5 (64-bit)

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 1060

Disk Space: 7 GB