World of Goo 2 is the return of the legendary puzzle game. Review

Played on PC

In 2008, the gaming industry changed forever with the release of Braid and World of Goo. Puzzle games created by independent developers and released not only on computers, but also on consoles, have opened the door for numerous creators who previously could not even think that release on closed platforms was possible without outside help. It’s interesting that this year the creators of both games decided to make themselves known. A few months ago, Braid, Anniversary Edition was released – a re-release of the legendary platformer with improved graphics and a lot of comments from the developers. And in the case of World of Goo, a full-fledged sequel was released.

The pullers are back in business

The first part went on sale sixteen years ago, so the audience of World of Goo 2 can be roughly divided into two halves: those who are not at all familiar with its predecessor, and those who completed it a long time ago. They tried to make the sequel interesting for both categories of users – the first received the same brilliant puzzle that World of Goo had in 2008, and for the second they prepared a pack of references and “Easter eggs” like introductory levels, very similar to those in the first game.

The first levels immediately set you in the right mood – this is the good old World of Goo

World of Goo 2 belongs to that category of sequels with which everything is clear when looking at the name. What could you expect from such a game? Probably a sequel with a similar structure and the same gameplay, but with minor innovations. And so it happened – World of Goo 2 is very similar to the first part, only almost everything is done better. The graphics are more detailed, the physical model has become more modern, and the puzzles are more intricate and varied thanks to the emergence of new types of pulleys.

The essence remains the same: we get to the level, move the camera to find the pipe, and try to bring as many balls as possible to it. These balls are called strings, and they are interesting because they can be used to build structures. You grab the ball with your mouse, bring it to one of the sides of the existing building and see transparent stripes – if you release the button, the pulleys will turn these strips into a structural element along which they can move in the future. Thus, here you build towers and erect bridges that allow the vipers to overcome obstacles or help other creatures.

Even the level selection menu is designed the same as in the first part

⇡#New dangers

For the second part, they came up with dozens of unique levels – after all, over the course of a decade and a half, the World of Goo developers have accumulated a lot of ideas. In some places you simply build towers, in others you erect them so as not to touch the circular saws on the sides of the map, in others you build bridges for drag vehicles, and in others you use these bridges to help large creatures that look like big-eyed jelly move around. Sometimes you use balloons to raise or lower some structures or their elements, sometimes you bring jelly monsters to sharp obstacles so that they cut them.

New types of gummy products appear all the time—some familiar ones (like the green gummy ones and the aforementioned balloons) and completely new ones, including ones that change in size due to liquids penetrating them. Many levels use cannons – if you “charge” them with liquid, they will start shooting bullets over long distances. This allows you to both get to the pipe to complete the level, and wake up and pick up other balls if the level designers decided to hide them somewhere.

It is usually useful to water the structures of the pulleys

In the sequel, they left the idea with OCD – the desire to save all the cravings is still jokingly called obsessive-compulsive disorder, and after completing the level you can find out how many poor fellows you missed. On the same screen with the results, medals are given out for speed completion and the minimum number of moves. The conditions sometimes seem impossible – sometimes you can’t see the missed pulls at point-blank range, sometimes you can’t complete a location in five seconds – but for fans, the presence of precisely designated goals will only be a plus. Anyway, we’ll have to wait another twenty years for the third part, and we can get some “achievements.”

And if some levels are difficult for you and you don’t want to spend time on them at all, you can skip almost every episode – except for the final tests in each chapter. There are a couple of protracted, long and “stuffy” missions here, but they do not spoil the overall impression – in World of Goo 2 there are many more excellent levels than unsuccessful ones. However, even with them you encounter some inconveniences from time to time. For example, it is possible to rewind time to correct a mistake or return your fallen tower to its normal position. But to do this, you don’t need to press any button, but look for the front sight on the screen and click on it. The search itself is annoying, but it is complicated by the fact that sometimes a white fly flies in front of a bright object in the background and is not visible.

Towing vehicles will have to travel not only on land

Another problem is related to the extreme zoom of the camera. You can move it away with the mouse wheel, but after a split second it will return to the opposite position. Some locations turned out to be large, and from time to time you want to look at the entire map in order to better plan your actions. Especially if there are time trials when your critters are in danger due to the oncoming lava. In most cases, changing the position of the camera is not so necessary, but such a limitation sometimes seems too artificial – if we are allowed to change the degree of zoom with a wheel, then we would be allowed to leave the camera in this position longer.

You get used to all this, and the duration of World of Goo 2 is not so long that you have to suffer for a long time due to inconveniences – the main thing is that the levels turned out to be fun and varied. Especially in the later chapters, where the game not only throws up new challenges and related challenges, but almost begins to juggle genres. When you start the fourth chapter, you immediately forgive the project the previous level in a moving train that seems endless. And the story here is the same… unusual and dark as in the first part. It is told using the same methods: through short videos and inscriptions on tablets placed at each level.

It’s a pity to harm such creatures, but sometimes you have to

***

From personal impressions of World of Goo 2, and from discussions on the Internet, you can understand how oversaturated the video game market is. If many years ago the appearance of World of Goo was an event and all these years they remembered it every now and then, discussing the development of the industry and important stages in its history, then World of Goo 2 seemed to go unnoticed – just another indie game, that’s all. It has excellent fluid physics for the genre, a bunch of great puzzles and a lot of different situations, but there is nothing outstanding or catchy in it, like there was in Hades or Celeste. This is just a new World of Goo, nothing more and nothing less.

The authors of the sequel probably didn’t expect anything more – it’s impossible to repeat the success of the first part, because if back then such games were new, now they are fighting with each other for the attention of a potential buyer. Therefore, the authors did not reinvent the wheel – they took their own idea and developed it, adding new types of balls and coming up with dozens of unusual situations in which these balls find themselves. New audiences may find something interesting in World of Goo 2, but first of all, the sequel exists for fans – those who were in school during the first part, and after that changed three jobs, got married, divorced, raised children, and so on. . For them, this is a great opportunity to feel nostalgic – not just to shake off the dust from the first part, but to play something new, but at the same time so familiar.

Advantages:

• The familiar gameplay hasn’t aged at all;
• Dozens of unique levels with interesting puzzles;
• Funny new types of strings;
• Charming visual style, including a coolly designed menu that references the first part.

Disadvantages:

• Rewinding time is not always convenient;
• At some levels you want to move the camera away and fix it in this position, but it doesn’t work;
• A couple of unsuccessful and drawn-out puzzles.

Graphic arts

It may seem that the first part looked the same as the sequel, but this is far from the case. In the sequel, they not only made the environment more attractive, but also significantly improved the water physics.

Sound

Wonderful music – just like in the last game. Well, the interjections shouted by the drawers are just as funny.

Single player game

Several dozen levels – not all successful, but there are significantly more good ones than bad ones.

Estimated time of completion

7 o’clock.

Collective game

Not foreseen.

General impression

A wonderful return of a much-loved puzzle game. It won’t have the same impact on the industry as its predecessor, but it will give you plenty of nostalgia.

Rating: 8.0 / 10

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