Skyros Isles

A young man washes up on a remote island chasing an old rumor of treasure, and the place does its best to kill him for it: dense forests, tall mountains, dungeons full of monsters and rigged traps. The game plays this up as a straight action-adventure right up until it admits, with a shrug, that the real point is the island's abundance of well-endowed, willing villagers.

The setup is simple enough. Somewhere under all that scenery is an ancient treasure, and the hero has to cut, dodge, and climb his way toward it across hostile terrain that clearly wants him gone.

Day to day, that means wandering the island's open areas, fighting off its monsters, poking through its dungeons, and running into the local women, who tend to be a lot friendlier than the wildlife. Combat and exploration form the backbone, with the usual sandbox freedom to just walk off and see what's over the next hill instead of following a strict path. A quick-swap item system and the ability to run keep the moving-and-fighting part from feeling like a chore, which is about as much credit as the game asks for on that front.