Gorogoa

I feel like your ability to enjoy Gorogoa is likely to depend on your ability to enjoy games as toys - that is, as something to play around with just to see what happens. (Or alternatively, and more probably, your willingness to follow a walkthrough.)

This is a logic puzzle game, and a very, very inventive one at that. You are presented with a 2x2 grid and some images that you can drag between them. You can zoom in and out on details within the images and then separate and restack them as necessary to create what you need to (moving a frame from one picture to another, filling an empty space in one image with detail from another, rearranging them to create pathways between them for characters to walk across, and so on). There is enjoyment to be had in just mucking about with this and figuring out what's possible while breathing in all of the details from this meticulously crafted, hand-drawn world and its occasionally psychedelic, occasionally quite moving imagery - but as I eventually turned to a walkthrough to figure things out, I frequently found myself wondering how on Earth somebody is meant to work out these solutions without some guidance. It's a little reminiscent of '90s point-and-click adventure games and their 'use the hammer on the fridge to get the key, somehow' silliness - the puzzle solutions here are never that wacky, and always make absolute logical sense, but I have to imagine that you're also far, far less likely to stumble upon the right answer by trial and error. The imagination behind them, jumping through settings and time periods and concepts at a pace that's absolutely breakneck if you know where you're going, places a hell of a strain on the player to match that imagination, to recognise links between scenes that the untrained eye would never spot.

If you can get over that hurdle, Gorogoa is beautiful. The care and love that went into making it is obvious - I can't think of too many other games I've played that were so obviously developed by just one person, their vision undiminished by being shared with others - and while I can draw links to other games (some of its simpler mechanics are similar to Framed, its meditative atmosphere made me think of Quell Memento a few times, and it occasionally captures the same sublime uplift that the best moments of Journey did), I ultimately can't really think of anything else quite like this. A really impressive, surreal, and - for now - seemingly quite overlooked debut for Jason Roberts (aka Buried Signal). It'll be interesting to see how - indeed, if - he follows up this labour of love.

Solid puzzle game. Lovely looks and sounds. Could have been better with added length and complexity. What if halfway through it changes to 6 or 8 tiles? Some moving themes. Not entirely sure if there is a specific story intended, but it felt like someone scouring his memories and experiences to spark creativity and innovation.

[PL] W niecałości - całość. Rozpaczliwe, kabalistyczne próby scalenia rzeczywistości mają to do siebie, że przynoszą odwrotny efekt. O pamięci i powracającym czasie.