World of Goo:Review

They are sticky, they are slimy…some say they are even cute…it’s GOO for most of us. Like I promised this is the review for one of the most interesting, captivating and addictive games I played in years. It’s World of Goo. It looks like you don’t need millions and millions of dollars to make a great game and a good idea sometimes is enough. If in this period when Far Cry 2 , Fallout 3 or Red Alert 3 are out I play World of Goo…well…it says enough. This game has all the elements to be great. It’s fun, which is very important for a game and it’s competitive. This two elements are at the basics of all good games and I don’t mean only video games,. It’s a general rule from board games to sports and World of Goo has them both…that’s why it is so awesome.

It basically is a puzzle game based on physics. You start with a certain number of goo balls with which you have too build a structure, like a tower or a bridge to reach your goal. This goal is a little strange, you have to take the remaining goo globes to the pipe…it seems that a goo is fulfilled when it reaches this pipe. This is kind of the story of the game, the journey of Goo around the world, from one pipe to the other. This journey is split in 4 chapters and the epilogue, divided in 48 levels. All the extra goo balls that you take to the destination are sent to World of Goo Corporation, wich is kind of the multiplayer of the game. It is a palce where the players meet over the internet and have to build the biggest tower with their extra goo. The players are represented by clouds with their name, nationality and tower height. In the right top corner is dispalyed the place which you are in real time. This is the competitive part of the game. Now for the fun part. “As the sun set over the last of the hills, one of the Goo Balls seemed to say that life sure seemed like a giant physics simulation, but as he fell into the spiky death pit below, he knew it probably didn’t matter – love the Sign Painter ”. This Sign Painter is a real funny guy. He leaves signs all over the levels with funny and useful …signs.

The game has a cartoonish look in a Dr. Seuss-like art style but darker. The soundtrack is real good and combined with the visuals make a very nice, unique, athmosphere. As you advance through the levels they become more and more chalenging. At first you might think that the game is to easy but as you advance you’ll see that you have to use your brain. The best part is that every level has its own distinc personality and you don’t get bored.Fot example in one level you have to rescue the goo from a stomach and help them fly away to the next island…or chapter. The handfull of diferent goo types help too. There are the basic black goo that when you use them, they stick in place, the green goo that you can move after the original placement and can rearenge the structures build with this kind of goo, the yellow ones that stick on every surface, red goo that is flamable or the goo bombs. From the simple idea to lead a bunch of goo balls from point A to the pipe over a dangerous terain 2D Boy managed to create a superb game that I recomend to enyone. One more thing… don’t forget about the gravity. I’ll give it 9 out of 10.