A Hole Lot of Charm
Donut County is an interactive experience that gets by almost entirely on it's charm. The game itself is exceptionally simple - put some stuff in a hole, the hole gets bigger, put more stuff in the hole. The game is backed by a down tempo soundtrack packed with relaxing acoustics that meshes perfectly with the simplistic pastel-esque graphical style. The story follows human Mina and her coworker/boss BK (a raccoon) swallowing the entirety of Donut County and it's anthropomorphic citizens with a hole from a phone app (as you do). Each stage serves as a small vignette giving you some insight into the life of a different Donut County resident. For the most part these characters are your standard quirky millennials packed with internet humor (expect to see characters literally say "LOL"). This may serve to annoy some, but generally I think they tend to work here and capture the spirit of today's youth and young adults pretty well. As the game progresses both the gameplay and messaging show a bit of surprising depth by some late game additions.
This whole experience is wrapped up in a 2 hour (or less) package and once it's done there isn't anything else to see really. Part of me appreciates that the game knows not to overstay it's welcome; however, another part of me would have liked to see the mechanics expanded on a bit and/or something to add replayability. There are a handful of achievements to obtain and a cute trash-o-pedia that describes all the things you've swallowed with the hole in a humorous manner. In the end Donut County offers a very fun and charming experience but as a value proposition I would advise looking into something else or waiting for a deep sale if you don't want to drop $13 on an experience you can blow through in a quick sitting or two.
