Pile O’ Games — Gorogoa
Gorogoa illustrates why I think video games are the most exciting artistic genre. The way narrative is communicated through gaming is an entirely original concept that cannot be replicated. Many games rely on traditional storytelling tactics such as cutscenes and voiceovers, however Gorogoa is significantly more esoteric and leaves much to the player to find out for themselves. The strange locations you explore leave you wondering what is going on and how it all fits, but the game only answers a few of those questions. Despite all this, did I enjoy it? I did! It is a short and relatively simple game, but immensely enjoyable all the same.
The thing that immediately grabbed me with this game was the art style. Not to be hyperbolic, but it is genuinely incredible and unlike anything I have ever played before. It has this superb watercolour style that almost looks hand-drawn, and when that is combined with the four boxes, it seems like an interactive graphic novel. And whenever the boxes combine due to you solving a puzzle, it is awesome every single time. It is like you’re watching a painting come to life before your very eyes. It doesn’t have vast, awe-inspiring vistas, but instead each moment is filled with intricate little details, a lot of which play a part in solving puzzles. That blue book that is resting on another book If you click it, you may be able to zoom up to it, and it may then reveal itself to be the key to completing the section. You can tell a lot of love and attention has been poured into every frame of Gorogoa.
The gameplay seems very simple on the surface, but the way it uses the mechanics is devious. It is essentially a point-and-click game where you find which area of each section you can interact with and try to work out how it corresponds with the overarching puzzle. But where the deviousness comes in is in just how you interact with the quadrants. There will be moments where you’ll have to pull the top layer off of a quadrant and combine it with another quadrant. Or you’ll be required to zoom in to another section, peel that off, and then zoom out from the quadrant you have peeled off and turn said quadrant into something completely different, then combine THAT with another section to solve a puzzle. It can get very involved, as you have to remember where you saw something that matches what you’ve uncovered and put them together. Thankfully, it never got to the point where I felt stupid and had to look up any answers. But neither was it braindead; every time I solved a puzzle, I felt like a wrinkly brained genius. There is a fine line in puzzle games when it comes to difficulty, and Gorogoa threads that needle expertly.
The story, such as it is, isn’t necessarily focused more on telling a coherent narrative. It starts with a boy seeing a giant god (Gorogoa?) and learning how to make an offering to it. It quickly delves into magical realism as you use seemingly disparate sections from people’s dreams, paintings, and other things to assist the boy on his quest. There is no dialogue; everything is pictorial so what the boy and the other people you see are thinking or feeling is very much up for interpretation. This extends to the ending. One could argue that it is too vague, but I thought it gave just enough connective tissue to the puzzles to be enjoyable.
I can see why someone might consider Gorogoa to be pretentious and barely a game. It’s not the most interactive game, and there’s so much left for the player to infer that I wouldn’t blame anyone for calling it boring and dry. But I loved it. I found the art, including the soundtrack, to be arresting, the gameplay simple yet very fun, and the ending fascinating. I very much recommend Gorogoa if you fancy a puzzle game with an artistic edge to it.
8/10
Next up: Recettear
