World of Goo

Today, we will take a look at another favourite of mine. The developers, 2D boy, summarize their game like this:

"World of Goo is a physics based puzzle / construction game. The millions of Goo Balls who live in the beautiful World of Goo don't know that they are in a game, or that they are extremely delicious."

And that's what it is - this is not just a game, this is a fictional world with a great story, beautiful cartoony 2D graphics and phenomenal gameplay. Your goal is to get delicious balls of goo to a pipe, which is usually on the opposite side of the level. You do this by making a bridge, tower or another similar structure, with the help of which remaining goo balls can travel to the pipe. Of course there are many variations to the theme and I can assure you that during the course of the campaign you won't get bored. The pipe takes them to the World of Goo corporation, where you can build a huge tower and compare it to other builders from around the world.

Image courtesy of http://workingexamples.org

The amount of attention to detail in this game is amazing, especially for an indie developer. Even though the graphics are beautiful and physics are all-present everything runs smoothly, even on a lower-end machine such as a netbook. The game menu is special and a great introduction to the world. Gameplay runs flawlessly and each mistake is your own fault (I've never failed due to a bug or glitch). During the game you get surprised by many treats, but... I won't spoil the game for you. Let's just say they'll make you open your mouth and stare. Oh, and for perfectionists there is OCD - a goal to complete every level without wasting a single ball of goo.

There is so much to say about this game that I could go on writing about it for hours. If you want to read more glowing reviews, just do a Google search. The simple truth is that the game is great in all aspects. Things that should be mentioned to do it justice is a great learning curve (difficulty increases through the game and there are levels where you are forced to flex your brain quite a bit) and one of the best executed stories in years. You won't feel sorry for the time you invested in this game, which is rarely the case with today's games. I cannot recommend this game enough, and if you can spare the money, you should definitively buy this game - for your own goo:)

One of the available trailers.

Installation: via the Software center or this site (this is also the official site where you can download the demo version). The price is around $20.