A shard of a forgotten world.

A glimpse into a realm of adventures relegated to the eldest of memories.

A fragment of true oblivion.

The Worlds Adrift Island Creator was the end all be all for the game, capable of creating your very own worlds and submitting them to Bossa for a chance to see them in game. Among the hundreds of islands, players could build and design the very fabric of the game they loved and explored, and others could download, remix, and refresh older designs as well. I personally used this for a more nefarious purpose, and would download islands I was on currently to noclip through the land and find the locations of all of the secrets and chests hidden within.

Those were the hours so many spent in a fresh, amazing world that from its very foundations was flawed. I made a review of the game as well, but it is only now that I am clearing through old files on my computer to make space for Cyberpunk 2077 that I stumbled upon the 2gb gem hidden within an old steam folder from a near dead drive. As if tucked away with the memories I held, I launched the executable only to find that there are those still uploading islands to this day. Downloading the first island on the list, I immediately went into player view and swung around the island, chuckling slightly as muscle memory and instinct returned. It wasn't until the sun set, and that day night cycle that blended so perfectly reemerged along with a crescendo of the solemn, isolationist music in the background that I let go of the keyboard and just cried. The camera quickly entered a cinematic view as a character very similar to my own stared off the island into an infinite void, no ships or islands or windwalls waiting to be explored or plundered, but instead the memory of adventure and thrill, the memory of repetition and flight, the memory of friends adrift together in that vast world, finding new experiences every island they visited.

Score? 10/10 The emotion and memory from the truly moving adventures people had before its decline is well worth revisiting, and the new additions show that even in death, the scattered fragments of a planet long obliterated are enough to hold such a powerful effect over fans.

Please, please play the Island Creator, even if you have never played Worlds Adrift. I will never deny my anger and dismay that I felt for Bossa at how the game was handled, but as an experimental title from the beginning, it was truly a matter of time. If I had to make a request, it would be that items such as the wingsuit and guitar get added to the player mode of the game to truly accommodate its new place in the memories of those fans.

I recommend Spider-Bran's "A World Adrift" world for its immense attention to detail, and "Smol Island With Smol Pond" for its size and simplicity. Swing City, also by Spider-Bran, is wonderful to try out the grappling system and its complexity.