13 Points on Gorogoa - Jason Roberts - 2017 [PC]

1. Gorogoa gets called a puzzle game but it's more like a game that is a puzzle. It acts as a single contiguous whole rather than a series of challenges like, for example, Portal. There are definite stopping points and sections to it but each new bit feels more like turning the page in a book than reaching a new chapter.

2. Generally, this feels a lot like reading a picture book. Everything is lovingly hand drawn. Many of the scenes are layered and a major gameplay element is pulling one layer off a scene and finding another scene to fit it in. They whole thing feels very papery generally--and I mean that in a pretty literal sense.

3. Gorogoa really leans on its presentation to keep you pushing through. W/ every new thing you find or fiddle w/ and every section of the puzzle you complete, you are rewarded w/ a bit more of the story's narrative which is delivered by graphics alone. The visual style of this has to be good for this to work and it is.

4. The soundtrack plays a huge roll in this as well. It is ambient and subdued but not the sort of music you ignore. It draws you into the stage it sets w/o getting in the way.

5. Gorogoa is not all that challenging.  Or, rather, most of the puzzle sections can be solved by clicking everything indicated as clickable and trial-and-error if it comes down to it. This tests your patience and your ability to put fresh eyes on something you've been looking at for ten minutes in order to find solutions.

6. It is still satisfying even though you don't need to be the cleverest fox on the block to figure any of this stuff out though. Everything you finish seems to lead to a meaningful change in the information the game presents to you. It is not all a bunch of superfluous pixel hunting. You feel like what you are doing, you are doing for a reason.

7. Games like this frequently get marked as being relaxing or casual but I found Gorogoa to be a rather intense experience and I preferred to play it in shorter sessions to give my brain a break. Upon completing a particularly vexing bit of puzzling, I'd find myself letting out a sigh of relief and I'd just be like, "Okay, that's enough for me right now. See you tomorrow, game!"

8. There are a few sections here that require some tricky timing, which I generally kind of hate when I'm solving puzzles, but these ones were satisfying enough once I executed the solution that it did not bother me in this case.

9. There were a couple red flags I noticed in the hype surrounding Gorogoa on its release in late 2017 so I was a bit disinclined to check it out but a decent sale on a certain massive digital distribution platform roped me in and I'm really glad it did.

10. The thing that made me most suspicious was the fact that it constantly was described as gorgeous, first and foremost, and I find that people who write about indie games are, for whatever reason, blinded to a game's problems when it looks pretty enough. (Case in point: Owlboy.) I'm personally immune to this because my eyes are befouled by bad genetics and years of staring directly at the sun. You can trust my opinion.

11. Additionally, people kept bringing up the protracted development process of this game as if that was necessarily a positive thing, like we live in a world where Duke Nukem Forever doesn't exist.

12. I was wrong to be skeptical though and I'm glad to admit I was wrong. I'm growing as a person.
13. I actually pretty much knew that this was going to be great w/in five minutes of playing. Some of the best games games feel like the developer has created a direct and vital connection to the player and Gorogoa is one of those games. It makes you feel as if you are getting to know a person--or at least a person's perspective--almost as much as you are exploring a game world. There's lots of games that create an full and engaging experience but few do so completely and elegantly as this one.