Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island was provided by Polygon Treehouse for review. Thank you!

This review was created using an LCD Steam Deck. OLED testing will be carried out at a later date.

While the concept of a shipwreck is a familiar trope in survival games, Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island offers a different experience. Rather than expecting players to run around punching wood while scavenging for food, it is a more comfortable exploration game with light puzzles. And the fact that it runs well on the Steam Deck is just the cherry on top.

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island kicks things off with our playable character, Alex, on a boat with a charming captain. After a short cutscene, things turn out poorly for the crew, and the ship is wrecked in a mysterious storm. Alex finds herself on a bizarre island filled with magic and Greek mythology. As you can imagine, this is a problem for Alex, who has yet to learn where the captain is or if she can return home.

The island is full of lost people who have no idea how they got there and no way to return home, so Alex is stuck for the time being. The game begins in earnest after finding the lighthouse to spend the night in. Players must explore the mystical island with Alex, meet the many strange inhabitants, make connections, and learn how things work in this world.

I appreciate Polygon Treehouse for not making this a survival game, and Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island favors a more relaxed experience. While a day and night cycle is in effect, that only impacts the inhabitants’ actions. Some won’t talk to you in the evening and prefer to spend the nights at home, while others are only available at midnight. Alex does not need to eat, drink, or sleep, although sleeping is essential for passing the time, so you can talk to people during their waking hours.

As Alex is a newcomer to the island, the inhabitants don’t blindly trust them. After all, they barely trust each other anymore, although they do not know why: just one of many mysteries to the strange island. That means you can’t just barge into their private homes until they know you well enough to visit them.

Navigating the island takes a lot of work. Alex moves slowly, favoring a slow jog to explore the surroundings. Fast travel through portal doors becomes available once befriending residents and trading ambrosia fruit for the necessary keys, significantly improving the experience. Ambrosia Island is not very large, but it is brimming with secrets, requiring additional tools or special seals to discover, and both are picked up by helping the locals.

This creates a nice gameplay loop where you return to previously locked parts of the map and find new things. Exploration, fetch quests, and small puzzles are Mythwrecked’s bread and butter. Sometimes, all I want to do is sit back with a simple video game, and this game is more than up to the task.

The eight island inhabitants are all from the Greek pantheon, brought to life in a modern and… dare I say—weird way! For example, Hermes looks like an overgrown cherub in a big diaper, Ares is a grouchy, one-eyed guy with a passion for gardening, and Hephaestus is a hip, grumpy bloke with plenty of love for his forge.

I have to shout out how Mythwrecked approaches its characters, as it showcases how building relationships can be challenging. Most people don’t tell the first person they meet their life story and the contents of their clothing drawers, and Alex has to earn their trust to learn about them. Players will unlock more dialogue options through kindness and helping these characters recover their memories. I recommend people keep autoplay off and fast messaging on, as the auto dialogue advances pretty slowly, even at maximum speed. There are snails in the Animal Olympics who move faster than the dialogue in this game. Characters also make odd little noises, like Animal Crossing, while talking, which I found irritating, but unlike Animal Crossing, the characters have real depth.

As much as I enjoyed getting to know Mythwrecked’s mystical cast, I had far less attachment to Alex as a character. That wasn’t the game's fault or writing, but I got frustrated with her internal monologue, constantly commenting on everything. This is probably my frustration from my experience with Farmagia’s characters in my last review, but I was more interested in knowing the inhabitants than learning about Alex.

The gameplay loop is easy to fall into despite the simplicity of the tasks. You can save through the many benches scattered across the map, and these are frequent. I wonder why Mythwrecked doesn’t have a dedicated save function in the menu. The game has controller support, and I had no problems with any of the controls on the Steam Deck. I am also happy to report that Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is a polished experience. I only experienced one crash while experimenting with TDP limits, which was my fault. I did not encounter any bugs, although Alex occasionally got stuck on the terrain for a few seconds.

Mythwrecked’s gameplay is repetitive. There is no getting around that; I imagine it would bore many people. Between that, the sluggish player movement, and my indifference towards Alex as a character, it has flaws. I also wish the game didn’t have so many loading screens when moving between parts of the island. Despite those issues, I couldn’t help but get engrossed in the game. I enjoyed the slow burn, even with the repetition, and the music gave it a relaxing vibe.

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island was just what I needed after some rough days.

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island - Steam Deck Performance

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is a very recent title, and its relative lack of press has made its Steam Deck verification murky. However, it is now rated Verified, and I am happy to say that my experience with it on the Steam Deck is positive!

However, Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island doesn't have any graphical options to tweak. The only relevant option players have is changing the screen resolution, which offers little difference in performance. This is a prime example of a game that doesn’t scale well with TDP limits, and to maintain the smoothest performance, I recommend keeping it unlocked.

Recommended Settings

While our options for tweaking are severely limited, the good news is that the performance is solid! With an unlocked TDP and 60hz refresh rate, I maintained a steady 60fps in nearly all cases. There are minor framerate dips while the game saves, but this is a common issue for many games, so I do not regard that as a significant problem.

The battery drain is reasonable despite the unlocked TDP. It might not be the most beautiful game, but it has some pleasant environments. I ran around as fast as Alex’s tiny legs could carry her across the map to test the performance, and the battery draw maxed out at around 12 watts. This was usually during the more active parts of the Orchard, especially the balcony where Hera and Zeus lurk. The average battery draw hovered around 11 watts, giving an overall life of under 4 hours on the LCD Steam Deck. I imagine the battery life on the OLED model will be significantly better, but I found the battery life pretty impressive nonetheless.

Battery Saver Settings

If you need to squeeze a bit more battery life from the Steam Deck while being the Greek pantheon’s errand girl, you can save some battery by locking the refresh rate to 40hz. I still recommend leaving the TDP unlocked, but with the lower refresh rate and Half Rate Shading turned on, I found the power draw to drop to an average of 10 watts without sacrificing performance. That extra half-hour battery life can help in many cases, so the option is there if you require it.

I tried my usual methods of determining how well the game played at the lowest TDP possible, but my results could have been better. Capping the TDP resulted in many stutters, especially during loading screens, and while the battery drain was significantly lower, it wasn’t worth the performance degradation.

Accessibility

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island is available in English, French, German, and Spanish - Latin America.

As accessibility options go, it is more of a deserted island than one filled with Greek deities. Players can adjust the screen resolution, toggle vibration, toggle camera shake, turn on V sync, change the font color, toggle dialogue autoplay, and change the speed of dialogue scrolling.

Conclusion

I went into Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island with modest expectations, and my needs for a comfortable gaming experience have been met. Despite my ambivalent feelings towards Alex, I was invested in the story. I enjoyed the dialogue minigames and getting to know the characters, and I kept laughing every time I spoke to Hermes. How that guy flew on those tiny wings is anybody's guess. I enjoyed the little collectathon mechanics, such as finding furnishings for my little home in the lighthouse, and when I needed a break from the game, I could sit on a mat and listen to the audio cassettes.

The lack of challenge and simple gameplay won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but it is relaxing enough to play and a solid Steam Deck performer. If you have time to kill and want to explore an ancient Greek island without many stakes, Mythwrecked might surprise you.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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