Simply put this is a boring and unpolished product.
I felt I was given a lot of freedom, but the reality turned out to be quite the opposite. The player is only has to go one set path from level to level with optional stuff to do on the way, such as hunting for fruit and destroying boxes. Sound like fun?
Eventually I stumbled upon the first few types of enemies, after killing a few and running I completed the level, after which I got a summery screen which updated me on my stats and a bonus criteria!?
Acquiring bonuses is a irritating experience. One asked me to kill 50 millipedes, which takes ages and the controls makes it difficult to get any enjoyment out of it. After meeting the criteria I discovered that I get fragments for doing this. How do I use these to help me? Well according to the manual I discovered that "something good happens" when earning these. What this means I don't know, couldn't they tell me!?
Clues are available in the form of notes, these are represented as a glowing dot on the mini map. These give a brief bit of storyline, clues on how to progress in the game. Important locations such as are sometimes shown up as a red dot, but I would of preferred a small arrow to show the direction of the nearest vital location as the mini map is just to small.
Combat system is divided into two sections, third and first person.In third person you can't use throwing weapons. To use melee weapons hold B and use the remote like a hammer banging a nail, three swings in a row does a small combo, unfortunately this attack takes a lot of effort and you will need to do this to kill small bugs.
First person I can throw projectiles by holding the B button and swing the remote, melee weapons can be simply used be tapping B to poke your enemies to death! For some reason poking does more damage then using the normal attacks.
Combat system is extremely basic, just run up to a monster hold B and swing! Sometimes Ray will appear to miss the target, yet due to horrible hit detection it registers. Attacking in first person is a lot easier by just tapping B, but the same problems still exist, to use throwing weapons hold B and flick the remote. How does the weapon select system fair any better?
Ray organizes his weapons into two sections which can be changed in-game from Melee and throwing using the Z button. At first I thought this would make the game easier to play, however as some enemies require different weapons to kill, so I have to go back to the menu, click weapons, click either melee or throwing, chose my weapon and finally select equip. Unlike say Resident Evil 4 where you just could jump straight to inventory then choose what to equip.
Escape from Bug Island does make good use of the motion sensing technology when Ray tries to negotiate thin platforms, using the analogue to more forwards and twisting the remote to keep the indicator in the yellow section, in addition he must avoid getting hit my environmental hazards.
This is the possibly the best part of the entire game, later the difficulty will result in this becoming as tedious as the rest of this pathetic attempt at entertainment. The Camera is positioned in a third person prospective and its works quite well, but I have noticed it clips through Ray when near a wall.
Does the first person camera view fair any better? None. Entering this mode makes the camera go all over the place, unless I had the remote pointed exactly in the middle.
Graphics are at best serviceable, the environments lack diversity, detail and it has a short draw distance. All humans look plastic and don't convey any sense of emotion. At least the enemies in the game look genuinely creepy. Its just rained by crappy hit detection and awkward controls.
All enemies in this game will run straight toward Ray to attack, the problem with this is that in Indoor areas, especially caves monsters will frequently have pathfinding problems. So its easy to trick the stupid artificial intelligence. Considering this a next generation console, its shameful that the developers didn't fix these problems before releasing this. Quality assurance is lacking.
Cutscenes are extremely poor, I've seen better on Nintendo 64 with zero physics and bad voice acting, clipping issues and boring animations. Music and audio isn't much better, there are about three music tracks and they loop over and over again. The bugs sound like I would imagine. They did at least attempt to include sound it the remote, but it is of such poor quality I turned the remote speaker off.
Escape from Bug Island does have a very long, but boring story with many fragments to collect. It will take around twenty hours to complete, but you're not going to have fun doing it. Half way through they recycle previous levels and throw in harder enemies and objectives. Bottom line it's a waste of time and money.
Strengths: Creepy enemies, environmental noises
Weaknesses: Horrible controls, bad hit detection, poor voice acting, crap music, annoying menu system, awful music, uninspired storyline