Introduction
World of Goo is the big brother of rather fun indie game Tower of Goo. It's also the runner up in the indie games competition that was won by Audiosurf. It's taken this long for them to release it. Apparently it's on Steam, but I got it (pre-ordered for nearly a year) off their website for about £11.
Gameplay
At heart World of Goo is a puzzle game. It's wrapped up in allsorts of mad gooey cartoon fun though. Each level has a simple goal - get your goo balls to the pipe that will allow them to progress on their goo oddyssey. Getting them to the pipe isn't always simple though, but does generally involve using your goo balls to link together into structures that will allow them to climb towards their goal and ultimate freedom. For such a simple premise they've found a surprising amount of variety and character - I'm half way through and at no point have I thought 'oh no, not another one like this'. New types of goo appear every few levels to keep things lively, and changes in musical style and environment graphics make each stage different from the last.
Unlike most puzzle games it's very rarely frustrating. The puzzles are usually fairly clear as to what you need to do, and the one or two that weren't I worked out through trial and error. Mistakes can be spectacularly catastrophic, leaving your structure collapsing and goo flying everywhere, but are very easily rectified by clicking on an angelic goo ghost, several of who hang around, and rolling back a few moves. Even the slightly frustrating bits are made palatable by the cutely surreal character of the game.
Sights and Sounds
The graphics are drawn 2D, and look great for it. The style reminds me of Tim Schaeffer, and compliments the bizarre style and story perfectly. The goo balls follow a nice physics system that seems to work without you noticing, and that all looks very natural (insofar as living balls of goo look natural) too. The sound is kept to a minimum of squeaking and popping goo, but that's good as the music is great.
Stuff that sucks
Erm...
It's digital distribution, which might not be appealing for everyone. Xfire doesn't like it yet. That's about it really. They've done everything really well. I suppose it would be nice if it made me more sexually appealing.
Conclusion
This is a great little puzzler. I'm not a massive fan of puzzlers, but this has me chuckling along with glee. It's not that long by the looks of things, but for £11 it's movey very well spent.
Score :
opps
