A gooey treat
Thanks to indie developer 2D Boy, goo is no longer exclusively the catalyst of countless film gags and childhood pranks. World of Goo is proof of how inventively such a mysterious substance can be put to use, all the while bridging the divide between endearing twitch action and formidable puzzling. With its plain visuals and simple controls, it’s easy to tell that World of Goo holds true to its indie development. But don’t let the mentioning of ‘indie’ repel you from this immensely gratifying and addictive puzzle game.
World of Goo’s story mode takes you across four chapters, each with ten stages. As the saviour of countless chortling goo-balls, your task is to stick them together and draw them out across a 2-D plane, thus constructing a slimy structure. The wiggle of your structure will be increasingly noticeable as you add more goo, so most of your efforts will go towards keeping it from collapsing. You can’t create your structure in a brute force manner, either, because each level has a varying goo quota that you must fulfill to complete the level by leaving some goo unused. Once your structure reaches salvation in the form of a gaping pipe, the remaining goo is siphoned and dispensed into a jar (which is shown in an animation at the end of each stage). Ideally, you want to accumulate the most goo you can by being as conservative as possible with your usage, but that minimum amount is really all you need.
Beyond World of Goo’s simple click-and-stick mechanic exists some complex puzzle solving. Physics plays a starring role: as you pile the goo higher and higher (or in bridge-building levels, extend it longer and longer) you’ll realize the merits of clever thinking in your designs. In levels where the location of the pipe strikes you as hopeless, for example, you may find yourself sketching a plan in your mind before getting down to business. Encouraging forethought is something that's lost on most games, let alone puzzle games, but World of Goo has it down pat.
Due to the nature of the game, in that things rarely go as planned, you’ll also have to make some snap decisions. In levels where the destination follows a vertical route, you have to keep an eye on the symmetry of your structure so that it doesn’t lean too far one way and tumble. Similarly, in levels where the pipe rests at the other side of a valley, there’s nothing stopping you from botching your makeshift bridge, so making one critical mistake can send your neatly tuned formation of trusses to its permanent collapse.
It’s important, then, to be mindful of your surroundings when netting your gelatinous frame together. A wrong placement here or too much weight there can, in addition to collapsing your structure, send your goo balls to their permanent demise. Crevices inlaid with spikes, rotating blades, and fierce winds (and perhaps a combination of those) will all threaten to obliterate your goo without remorse. There are also plenty of exotic obstacles in play that require clever forethought to barge through. For example, one level features a massive lady-goo that’s lodged between two gears that you must ply out by creating a sort of trampoline. Scenarios like these make for a lot of trial and error -- the latter of which exists a lot of -- but fortunately, the game is flexible in that regard. If you blunder in any way, you can click on winged specks called ‘time bugs’ that fly about the environment and warp you a few seconds back in time to when your structure was, more or less, safe. Though sometimes, when your gooey mess has long expired past the point of success, it’s best to just restart the level completely. Since each level usually takes no longer than fifteen minutes to finish, you’ll rarely get frustrated from taking this resort, even if you have to restart multiple times.
In fact, it’s extremely rewarding when you finally figure out a way to create a sound structure to save all the goo possible. However, this doesn’t mean you won’t be getting some assistance along the way. Goo comes in various forms, and as such you can take advantage of their many nuances. For example, green goo can be reattached unlike its grey counterpart, opening up opportunities for further experimentation. In addition, there are a few items that do wonders in levels where you wouldn’t have thought a solution possible, most notably the balloons. You’ll stare in awe when after some tweaking a solution to the level suddenly flashes before your eyes. To outline them in detail would be to spoil them, but just know that World of Goo has a few tricks up its seemingly endless sleeve.
To say that World of Goo follows a conventional plot would be, like most aspects of the game, deceptive. The closest things to any sort storytelling are the brief cut-scenes displaying the goo-balls’ travels to another world, effectively being the next chapter. The most significant narratives, however, are the scrapings of exposition scattered throughout the game’s forty stages. Lovingly written on picket signs by the anonymous “sign painter,” they act simultaneously as vague descriptors of the environment and hints on how to go about piecing together the goo. The signs are non-intrusive and involving, being perfect for a game that doesn't set out to incorporate drawn out explanations of its gameplay. In other words, the reins are always in your hands.
No matter what your disposition towards indie games may be, World of Goo is sure to please. It’s a lesson in taking a simple concept and stretching it – literally – beyond the cookie-cutter formula that so many games of its category subscribe to. Infuse it with a kitschy presentation, and you have yourself mind-boggling magnificence disguised as silly putty.
