Paradise Bay Review

Developer: King.com Limited
Price: FREE
Version Reviewed: 1.2.1
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

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You’ve probably already played a game like Paradise Bay. Whether that’s through one of G5’s many island dwelling sims or through a more mainstream source such as Farmville, Paradise Bay is going to seem familiar. It’s from King though, the experts of adding a dose of magic to a tried and tested formula. While there’s no sign of a match-3 sequence here, that magic is sticking around.

Not that, ultimately, Paradise Bay isn’t all about busywork. You’re attempting to make an island even better than its initial, appealing foundations. This is mostly down to you completing task after task, keeping villagers happy and watching as the place expands.

Frequently, each task requires a number of steps to be taken. For instance, you need to grow cotton to turn it into thread, to turn it into a fishing net, in order to fish anything. There’s a lot to keep track of but Paradise Bay rarely feels overwhelming. Instead, it’s really quite relaxing at times. You can always achieve something in a short space of time through setting off a timer.

Because, yes, there are a ton of timers. Pretty much everything involves you waiting for a timer to complete or opting to skip it through using premium currencies. That’s understandably not going to appeal to everyone. This is far from a high octane game and it is positively riddled with what many would consider to be the curse of freemium gaming.

For others, myself included, it’ll click. Being able to slowly work towards unlocking new areas and briefly participating in conversations with the islanders shouldn’t be as satisfying as it invariably ends up being. It’s the kind of game you can and should check into regularly throughout the day, Odds are you’ll end up achieving a lot more than you expected.