In December, it is customary to sum up the outgoing year, ignoring almost all the releases of the last month. This is also true for 2017, at the end of which came Gorogoa - the result of many years of work by Jason Roberts (Jason Roberts), alone working on the project of his dreams. And it will be a pity, if one of the best puzzles of our time, many will miss.
For the first time about Gorogoa it became known in 2012, and to release the final version Roberts planned for several months after the announcement. But new ideas did not stop visiting him, and the visual component had to be changed from time to time - almost everything here is drawn by hand. Some episodes from the game were deleted forever, some slightly or completely changed. But the main idea has since remained the same - it's a puzzle about moving four tiles to solve puzzles.
At the very beginning of the passage, the player is shown a boy who peeks out the window and sees a huge (but beautiful) monster arrive in the city. The guy starts frantically flipping the pages of his book and finds in it the image of people who are offering gifts to this monster. Did he know about the arrival of the creature? Did you prepare for it? Or all so successfully coincided? Everyone will decide this for himself - much in this story will remain unanswered.
The boy goes to another part of the room and looks in the pantry, then freezes. The player has nothing more to press - the camera can neither be moved nor removed, but the character can not be directly controlled. The picture with the guy is located in one corner, and in the next one you can see the roof of the house with the door leading somewhere. Instinctively, the player tries to move the panel to another place, and then magic begins - all objects move with the panel, and the front door remains in place.
It is necessary to put a panel with the "cut" door on the image with the boy in the pantry, as the hero starts to move again and leaves the roof, although he was just at home. He goes further, collects gifts for the offering either to the deity, or simply to a dangerous monster and falls into different time epochs. And the first puzzle with the door is the simplest and elementary. And after it you meet so many great puzzles that the reason for the long development is obvious.
The key idea of Gorogoais the close interconnection of all objects in the world around us. And every mystery confirms this theory. The thing that lies on the table, fell to the floor or hangs on the wall, may be part of something completely different, if you take a step to the side and try to dock one panel with another. Up to the final, the game remains true to its style, admiring at every step the ingenuity of its creator, but any example, unfortunately, will be a spoiler.
Surprisingly, here is how logically every puzzle is made. Simply moving pictures at random is unlikely to lead to the desired result, especially if the screen has four panels with the ability to move the camera. Gorogoa isbuilt in such a way that after a series of fairly simple riddles the player seems to start speaking in her language - he quickly notices potential solutions and finds the connection of objects with each other. Therefore, the seemingly difficult episodes become easier, if before I understood the rules by which everything works.
At the same time in each chapter there are new original ways of using the simplest gameplay mechanics. It was also possible to say about the delightful The Witness- like the whole game is engaged in drawing lines on plates and walls, but divided into several zones the island offered a dozen different types of riddles. Gorogoa is executed approximately on the same principle, and how smoothly there is a transition from one time period to another and how beautifully some frames are replaced by others, causes only genuine delight.
The easiest way to compare the game with an illustrated book, completely devoid of words. The story is told through pictures and clouds, which show the thoughts of people. In the best traditions of indie games, nobody will chew up the story and explain what is going on, but this is the case when the details are not particularly needed. You made conclusions for yourself, shared your opinion with your friends, and if you did not understand anything at all, you still had an excellent evening and do not regret about the time you spent.
I would like to complain about the short duration, but the unique gameplay mechanics can be easily spoiled by a long history. Depending on the sharpness of the passage of Gorogoawill take from one and a half to two hours, and after the final credits will certainly want more. But for this couple of hours there will never be silly riddles or episodes in which nothing happens. Here you constantly admire beautiful images, enjoy small victories in solving puzzles and look at small details, trying to fully understand the author's intention. It is not excluded, by the way, that after the first passage, he will want to start the second immediately, in order to find answers to the questions that have arisen.
The fact that Gorogoa will be something special, it became clear even after its first demonstration. Exciting demo version, victories at several independent games festivals, interest of investors from Indie Fund, the appearance of the publisher in the person of Annapurna Interactive - all pointed to the highest quality of the game. The result is unlikely to disappoint anyone - Gorogoa turned out to be a real work of art worthy to be on the same level with the famous Braid , Inside , Fez , The Witness and other masterpieces.
Rate: 9 out of 10
