Comments on: Oh Ye-Of-Little-Faith Special: World of Goo Demo

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:18:54 +0000

Yeah, that chapter closing level got me too – and got me really frustrated because of the interface not really being very good for working with green goo. I kept building up these towers and then accidentally scooping up a bit of structural goo instead of a bit of free-flowing goo and having big chunks come down around my ears. Which exacerbated the problem, because then I had free-flowing goo, structurally integral goo, and dangling bits of structure that I needed to pull off and get back somewhere useful, all within a few pixels of each other. And of course if you mouse over free-flowing goo, it pauses and waits for you to grab it. Which is good most of the time, but not when it’s in the way.

Of course then I discovered I didn’t actually need to be doing any of that. Oh well.

By: mashakos

mashakos — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:29:08 +0000

whoops! a single look at the install directory and there’s my answer. Sorry guys!

fwiw:
WorldOfGooDemo\properties\config.txt

By: mashakos

mashakos — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:27:45 +0000

ok, is there any way to switch from the “pleasant” 640×480 resolution in the demo?

By: bobince

bobince — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:05:58 +0000

Oho! You’re right. OK then – sold.

(Windowed mode has the pointer constraint problem worse than multi-monitor, but at leas you can see the mouse wobble off the edge…)

By: IcyBee

IcyBee — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:54:19 +0000

@bobince

It can run in a window. Just Ctrl+Enter.

By: Colthor

Colthor — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:32:40 +0000

@Hypocee:
Funny, my feelings were pretty much the opposite of yours.

I didn’t much like the Epilogue, mostly because I find it irritating and frustrating to try and get the goo to form cross-pieces properly. It seems like they really don’t want to. Maybe I’m just cag-handed or something, but it made the game end on a bum note for me, sadly.

By: bobince

bobince — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:23:14 +0000

Yeah… okay RPS, I’ll admit you were right, this is pretty decent. I’ll definitely buy it if 2Dboy can iron out the technical issues (resolution, volume control, proper mouse constraint for multi-monitor mode… windowed version would be ideal really).

By: Hypocee

Hypocee — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:25:40 +0000

Sorry man, I was just kidding.

I would have loved more wobbly structure building, and indeed in my comment on the RPS review I state that I don’t especially like the part of the game where it breaks with construction entirely. I would have dinged it if the whole thing were just Black and Green Goos, but when I finished the preorder chapter back in March I was hankering for more. Given the cleverness of the level design on display I could have waited, oh, probably another whole chapter for any more types of Goo to show up.

I’ve played and loved Bridge Builder too – I’ve played it to death; it’s what, like ten years old? It’s not in realtime for that breath-stopping dexterity challenge and it doesn’t have insane challenges where I have to ride massive machinery or blow up most of my structure or hang it from a rope to accomplish the goal.

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 10:06:45 +0000

Yeah. I mean, it’s got to be far less than a minute to do what you have to do.

By: Shadowcat

Shadowcat — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:24:41 +0000

Brokenbroll: Most definitely, yes.

Also, it sounds as if you must have been awfully close to finishing that level without knowing it. If you try again, you’ll see what I mean.

By: Brokenbroll

Brokenbroll — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:36:27 +0000

Does the game get more inventive as the chapters progress? I like some elements of it, but too many of the levels had a very simple theme made challenging by having to do the same action over and over and over. The last level was particularly bad in this regard, I just stopped playing, I had no more interest in slowly dragging the Goo up the tunnel.

By: Shadowcat

Shadowcat — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:41:52 +0000

Hypocee says:
Shadowcat – NO SOUL

Is that because by the end of the first chapter, I merely liked the game a lot?

Let me be clear: the first chapter is charming, witty, beautifully drawn and scored, and altogether endearing. But gameplay-wise, it’s still more or less Bridge Builder with added cute.

My cynicism was with respect to the gameplay stepping up enough to warrant the hype. And it did. After chapter one.

To put it another way, if it had eventuated that all the subsequent chapters were identical in terms of gameplay to the first chapter, would the game still be getting such good reviews, and would you still love it as much as you do?

I find it hard to believe that the answer to either of those questions would come close to a “Yes”, and that is the basis of my worry about the demo being what it is.

I said “mixed feelings” because I also agree that to show very much of what comes after is to risk spoiling some of the experience. But personally I would have been a little hesitant to put down US$20 on the game if I believed I had already experienced the full range of gameplay mechanics on offer.