The design is consistently smart, putting subtle clues in place, attracting your attention in the right direction. Each new screen immediately looks daunting, but then quickly reveals its opportunities. This is where it becomes most overwhelming that this is 2D Boy’s first game. Of course, puzzle games are loved or lost based on the balance of challenge and infuriation. And it’s here that World Of Goo has its best surprises. But obviously what’s most essential is the puzzles. And it’s important to get a sense of the passion and effort that went into every element, allowing this to be so much more than another cute puzzle game. I go into all this detail because, well, they did. And of course, if you bought the pre-order, you’ll get the package that switches all their cries to swearing – something of which we clearly approve. Babbling mostly nonsense, I’m convinced one cry is “UNATCO” in the strangest tribute to Deus Ex I’ve encountered. Move one and it makes the loveliest “pa-lip!” noise. Clear-white Goo acts as water, forming only one bond, and dangling downward.
There are many different types of Goo Balls encountered throughout, each with distinct properties (some can be plucked from structures and reused, others are rendered inert once used, others might be helium balloons, more still are explosive, and so on), and while visually distinctive, their unique sound effects play a big part in remembering which is which. The use of sound is impressively intelligent.
On a number of occasions I’ve task-switched out of the game to do other work and left pieces playing. Minute-long pieces loop so neatly that the tunes never become repetitive or irritating. (Perhaps if you asked me to pick between this and Samarost 2, I’d be in trouble). It’s the best in-game music I’ve heard since… I’m struggling here. This is all the work of 2D Boy, and – look, I’m well aware how much this already bulges with mad enthusiasm, but believe me, play it and you’ll understand – it’s just gorgeous. There's an internal logic to these developments, the game structured around a year of passing time, cycling through four seasons, and four technological ages. And like so much with the game, if you’ve seen the first chapter, you haven’t seen a quarter of what it’s going to do with its art design. Its 2D appearance is deceptive, with multiple layers moving independently to create an organic world that ebbs and swells like a tide. The cute, fuzzy design is reminiscent of something halfway between Tim Burton and Tim Schafer. The most obvious of these elaborating factors is the art. This is a game that constantly reinvents itself, reimagining the possibilities, evolving and throwing out surprise after surprise. I would have been so delighted with four chapters of the same. Both Tower Of Goo – the experimental semi-game that tested out the physics behind this all - and Chapter One gave me an idea what to expect.
So I thought I knew what the game was about. Building on top of the core – an engaging and engrossing puzzle game - they’ve created something of elegance and elation like little else. The core puzzles (build a bridge to traverse a gap, climb your way to an overhanging pipe, avoid dangerous spinning cogs to reach an awkward spot, and so on) are the frame on which vast amounts of joy is draped. If you played the previously released Chapter One (as part of the pre-order bonus), you’ll have a good idea of the basics. Now apply four hundred million gallons of imagination. The goal in the majority of levels is to see particular balls of Goo reach a pipe opening, into which they are satisfactorily sucked. Connect enough of them together and you can build towers and bridges along which unconnected Goo can saunter. Small blobs of Goo, when put near one another, form rigid bonds. That this is a tiny indie dev’s first release – it is beyond belief. World Of Goo is so stunningly designed, so beautifully illustrated, so precisely programmed, and so completely adorable that any of the greatest development companies in the world would be proud to release it. This isn’t just the small matter of being one of the best games of the year, it’s also the emergence of a stellar new talent in gaming.
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