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| Source // Steam |
Ah, physics. Where would we be without you, huh? How boring would games be without physics, eh? Why, we wouldn't be able to drag and drop gloopy goo in World of Goo without physics, would we? What kind of world would we be living in without World of Goo?
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| Source // Steam |
Fun Times
Well, to be honest, a world without World of Goo isn't too different to the world as it exists, but the world of video games without the World of Goo would be a world where physics-based games looked more like homework and less like video games, and you may well know how much I dislike physics games that look like homework.
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| Source // Steam |
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| Source // Steam |
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| Source // Steam |
Your aim is to craft some sort of gooey structure that links to a suction pipe that slurps up the blobs you gooey leftovers from your construction, with each level asking you to provide a certain amount of goo, with anything more being a bonus to your score.
The goo moves around the structure and can be plucked out piece by piece and plonked into a new spot, where it extends a gooey connection to its neighbours, thus growing your structure up into the air or over a chasm or around an obstacle, whatever the level demands.
Not all goo acts the same, however, which different coloured goo allowing for different constructions, but ultimately they all strive for the same goal - to be used to build something towards a pipe, one level at a time, for as many levels as there are.
Frustrations
Sounds simple, generally is simple, fuck this level in particular. Ahem.
Some levels in World of Goo have neat twists on the simple formula. This level has us build a gooey tongue for this frog looking thing. The longer it is, the heavier and more off-balance it'll become, and on the floor is a row of spikes ready to rip the structure to shreds.
To combat this, you have a set number of balloons which can be used to hoist the goo into the air, suspending it in the middle of the screen, away from the spikes at the bottom.
Stick the balloon in the wrong place, however, and up it floats, right into the spikes in the ceiling, where it pops and sends the structure hurtling towards the spikes at the bottom, no really, fuck this level.
I'm sure it has an obvious solution, but I'm too annoyed to find it. The wobbly nature of your building efforts mimics the fact that it's all made of goo, but I don't want a wobbly structure when I'm trying to pluck a single blob of goo in motion, or worse, trying to select a balloon quick enough to save from the loss of any goo.
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| Source // Steam |
World of Goo has lots of levels with their own challenges, like bracing against walls to climb our structure up them, or hanging over the edge of a cliff to dangle a gooey rope down to grab hold of more goo to use somewhere else.
If the screenshots are anything to go by, it's got plenty to offer, too, but progress is locked until you pass a level, and even branching paths through the overworld will see you having to go back and complete levels that you probably avoided for a reason.
Final Word
I must have played World of Goo for just half an hour before knowing it wasn't for me. What is it about physics-based puzzlers that I seem to hate?
I suppose I like the fact that this game is hidden behind silly-looking gooey blobs. It has a character and a style that sets it apart, and it definitely doesn't look like homework, but I must be missing something incredibly obvious to be struggling with it so much at such an early stage. Surely it can't be this hard.
And yet that's what I felt far too often. It was hard to select something precisely. It was hard to put it where you wanted. It was hard to know just what the wobbly physics would do once it was placed there, and it was even harder knowing you struggled to the end of the level but would have to do it again because you were one bloody gooey bastard short of success.
There is definitely a physical puzzle in here that is sure it delight or amaze some folks, but it just gets on my nerves. Some small part of me hoped it wouldn't, because of how it looked, but that hope is largely gone.
I think at this point my mind is already made up that I'm generally bad at this type of puzzle game, and no matter what coat of paint is applied, I won't get better. It's sad to say, in some sense, because I've shut myself out of some genuinely interesting games.
On the other hand, it's liberating. I don't have to worry about playing World of Goo any more. I've dabbled with it. I don't like it. I can move onto something I do like. If I ever get the kind of attitude that allows me to lift the frustration out of my brain, I'd probably return to World of Goo - and many other games - to try again. But right now, that's not happening, and that's fine by me.
Fun Facts
There is actually a plot in World of Goo, told through signposts, mostly. I can't imagine it being incredibly epic, but there's an extensive summary of it on Wikipedia, so something's going on.
World of Goo, developed by 2D Boy, first released in 2008.
Version played: PC, 2008.