 A fun, rewarding, and original gaming experience in every respect! |
| Review Date: November 7, 2008 |
| Reviewer: A Gamer, |
This is a puzzle type game unlike any other. You basically work against the laws of gravity and physics while trying to get your balls of goo from point A to point B by building structures with them. The imagination and creativity that went into this game is unbelievable. The 2D graphics are gorgeous and the music, atmospheric. Although somewhat vague, there is a story that ties the puzzles together and it adds some humor to the events that unfold as you progress, especially toward the end. This is a game that has to be played to be fully understood because it is hard to describe. I thoroughly enjoyed this and didn't want it to end. I still go back and play some of my favorite levels.
One final note: This ia a computer friendly game. Easy to install, small file size and most importantly, no DRM. |
Great Goo!
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| Review Date: November 6, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Benjamin Snider, |
Intro:
The game, as amazing as it sounds, was created by two people who used to work at EA. In general the game can be described as a physics puzzle game and has been compared to the Fantastic Contraption flash game, among others. It is, however, a game unlike any other and offers excellent gameplay, beautiful art, and epic music. It received the "Design Innovation Award" and the "Technical Excellence Award" at the 2008 Independent Games Festival.
Gameplay:
The game is controlled entirely by the mouse. Building goo towers is as simple as dragging and dropping goos to form links with other goos. The goal of every level is to get goos into the Goo Corporation pipe, but the similarities between levels really stop there.
It is amazingly satisfying to build up a giant tower, bridge a huge chasm, or explode a bomb all with simple goos. Add to the game the puzzle aspect and the many "aha" moments you will experience and it becomes intellectually fun and challenging as well.
Story:
The storytelling used throughout the game is done mainly with the help of the sign painter, a mysterious person(maybe?) that proceeds you through each level and offers hints, tips, jokes, and unveils story elements. There are also some great cutscenes and dialogs that serve to advance the story, and are riddled with the great 2D Boy/Tim Burton art inspiration.
Graphics/Sound:
I should also mention what a huge impact the sound is on the overall setting of each level, and how great the music and sound effects are in general. I find myself listening to the music outside the game it is so good. It certainly has a Danny Elfman feel to it in parts, and in other parts it is pure 2D Boy.
The graphics also benefit from a Tim Burton influence greatly. They help to set the tone of the overall story and really immerse the gamer into the goo world.
The variety and ingenious design of the goo balls add both to the gameplay and the overall visual impression.
Play Time/Replayability:
This game took me about a week of causal gameplay to finish. There are a total of 48 levels collected in 4 chapters and one epilogue. The replayability is helped by OCD challenges for each level, which are a sort of achievement system for those perfectionists out there. Some are very difficult to get and require thinking far outside the box.
Another feature that helps replayability is the Goo Corporation where players can build a tower from the extra balls they collected throughout the game. I ended up with something like 600+ balls after beating the game, so you can build a truly giant tower. Connected to this feature is the in-game and website leaderboards. In the Goo Corporation sandbox, as you build your tower, you are presented with the heights of fellow players' towers and are goaded to build higher and higher. Likewise on the website you can see all the top tower builders in the world. The current highest is around 40m at the time of writing, which is truly a stunning height.
Final Recommendation:
I totally recommend this game for everyone. Children and adults alike, everyone will enjoy this game, and you don't need a supercomputer to play it like other modern games. The minor annoyances such as not being able to switch resolutions, among others, are easily overlooked to experience all this game has to offer. It provides an excellent story telling experience coupled with amazing visuals and sound. This, for me, is the best indy/casual game of the year, and very nearly the best overall game of the year.
Best of all you don't have to buy it to see for yourself, as you can get a demo including the entire first chapter at:
http://media.beanstalkgames.com.s3.amazonaws.com/demos/wog/WorldOfGooDemo_Setup5.exe
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Don't Pirate This One - Its cheap and not from a conglomerate
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| Review Date: November 15, 2008 |
| Reviewer: John Paul L. Finan, Wisconsin, USA |
Have you ever seen a US Cellular commercial? If not, you're lucky because you're missing a stomach turning spectacle. The ads are engineered to pluck your heartstrings with some totally corny and improbable emotional story. After wiping away your tears at the heartrending scenario, you realize that they were just trying to sell you a lousy cell phone. They used a touching story about helping grampa find meaning in his life to pitch me a cell phone plan? I want my emotion back! What a rip off! I don't appreciate being tricked into caring about some dumb product.
"World of Goo" will not do that to you. There's just nothing fake about it to leave you feeling disappointed or underwhelmed. It is authentically beautiful in every way. The gameplay is utterly unique. The story is silly and fun and well written and creative. The graphics are expressive, colorful, and buttery smooth on my average computer. The music is hauntingly catchy. The sound effects are perfect. The two independent guys who released this game (their first, according to the press) are far cooler than the conglomerates that just churn out sequel after sequel after sequel these days, changing nothing but the graphics of their tried and true formulas. We need another run-and-shoot game like we need another smallpox epidemic.
"World of Goo" is just FUN. I stopped playing and now I'm overtired because it's three AM and it's past my bedtime but I couldn't bring myself to turn it off until now. I guess I can't really imagine how the game can go on for weeks like some of the other titles you can buy, but World of Goo is only $20 - that's less than half what most video games cost. If it's not the hugest imaginary world ever, that's not a big deal.
Bottom line, if you can operate a mouse, I promise that you will get $20 worth of fun out of this game. |
Awesome and Original
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| Review Date: January 4, 2009 |
| Reviewer: demon, Brooklyn, New York |
Love this game, and give it 5+ stars. The physics are awesome, and the game itself is addictive and totally original, and serves as an inspiration for future coders.
I do want to note one point though. After each level you can report your score to the 2D Boy site - this is set to 'on' by default. That was not an issue for me, but I since found that the publishers specifically did this to check game ID against user IP in order to get an estimate of how many versions were pirated, and the game itself is DRM-free specifically for this reason.
The results were made public, and claim that this game had a 90% piracy rate - that is to say that 90% of the installations out there are supposedly pirated.
One huge problem with this, which they do acknowledge but not sufficiently: my IP is dynamic (and so are millions of other users) and I used to watch it change numerous times a day, every day. That means after owning this game for a month, these `pirate' researchers are going to have a result of worse than 99.99% piracy just from me and my single legitimate copy of the game. (I have since switched off reporting scores, but too late now).
This 90% piracy figure has spread like wildfire, and it is highly irresponsible for the researchers to allow this flawed half-truth to be perpetuated. More unfortunately, it will now be used to justify the invasive and destructive measures used by EA and DRM software like SecuROM.
I would've thought ex-EA employees who authored this game would have had a few more clues than that, but apparently not.
Again, love the game, but really not impressed by this flawed `research'. DRM punishes legitimate users and does not stop pirating. I don't buy any EA titles any more after having SecuROM disable a USB combo drive and some older software, and eventually having to wipe and reinstall my entire o/s to get rid of it. Anyone who says DRM software is harmless are liars, and furthermore, when I buy a game, I own it - not after 3 installs only, but forever, otherwise I should get a full refund if I return the software once the installs are used up. Period.
I am strongly against pirating software and those who support it by buying pirated copies, but if there has been anything that's pushed me towards changing my view, it is SecuROM and EA.
Sorry for the rant, but it really did put a damper on what is otherwise an excellent game, as well possibly being an icon in game design in the future.
Buy the game, you'll love it, but please disable the score reporting unless you have a static IP. |
Impressive
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| Review Date: December 19, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Alex Ferrugia, |
Brilliant and VERY creative. World of Goo is a predominantly physics-based problem-solving game developed by two ex-EA employees. This game is unconventional and the first thing you think as you launch the game for the first time is "what is this?--this is really weird." Then twenty minutes later you're hooked.
Pros:
- Extremely creative game with an interesting story line
- Great graphics/sound and overall high-quality experience
- Very smooth, no bugs detected, no game crashes, etc
- Unlike any other game you've played before
- Cheap!! ($20)
Cons:
- None other than I wish the game was a little longer.
Bottom line: Definitely worth a shot for $20. |
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