Survivor Live

Reality TV, though often heavily exaggerated, captivates over half of U.S. adults every week, according to CivicScience. StoryTaco.inc decided to take this idea and turn it into something a bit more interactive, and deadly. On Air Island: Survival Chat is a live survival show on a remote island where viewers decide what characters should do. The game is set up like a livestream, similar to TikTok or Twitch. Donations can be sent to the characters, and there’s a chat log and everything. On Air Island: Survival Chat does warn of triggering topics before the start, so I can only recommend this game for players 16 and up. After a somewhat slow start introducing all the characters, things get worrying. And I’m not just talking about the ads.

Decisions, Decisions

There are seven characters participating in the live show, each for their own reasons. Coming from all walks of life, there’s a scientist, a survivalist, a rich girl and more. You start off playing as Lee Hanse, an aspiring idol. Since On Air Island: Survival Chat is a gatcha game, decisions cost items. These donation items include hearts, clubs and diamonds, meaning tease, help and meddle respectively. You can earn these by watching ads and spending the coupons you get as you play the game. It seems that ads are, unfortunately, the best way to get donation items. Players will have three decisions offered every so often to direct Lee’s actions. Sometimes only he is affected while other times the people around him are also affected. Rarely an event happens no matter what decision you make. For example, Lee meets two mysterious people who ask him to go with them.

Whether you encourage him to accept or refuse, he still gets dragged to a bathhouse and forcefully stripped. What’s worse is that you kinda see it. Every significant event your decision-making unlocks rewards you with a black-and-white manga-like image. There’s several of these for every character, and they’re very well drawn. However, despite the characters all being in their 20’s, the art style makes them look like children. This unintentionally adds to the disturbing feeling you get when see Lee stripped of his clothes. The sad part is this kind of thing happens often in much of Asian media. Just an early warning if you decide to play this game.

Cluttered Screen

Though On Air Island: Survival Chat is supposed to be scary, it doesn’t stay that way for long. This is mostly due to the occasional donations from NPCs that temporarily take you out of the story. I know this is supposed to resemble a livestream, but couldn’t the donation notifications be more off to the side? Trying to read what characters are saying only to be randomly interrupted gets annoying fast. Plus, the English translation could use some work. There are several misspellings and grammar errors, not to mention just plain awkward sentence structure. I understand that translation can be difficult, but a bit more effort could’ve been put into this. Coupled with the fact that you have to watch ads for basically everything, this game becomes one huge headache. Don’t get me wrong, the concept of On Air Island: Survival Chat is interesting, it just needs a tune up.

StoryTaco.inc could really capitalize on the fear aspect of their game. The way it is now, however, it’s just clunky. Making people uncomfortable doesn’t mean they’re going to be afraid. More immersion balanced with the livestream aesthetic would really make On Air Island: Survival Chat that much more nerve-wracking. A few stylistic choices, along with updated English translations, would add to the overall feel as well.