Review - Gorogoa

A strange creature passes by your window. Now it is your job to find the five fruits of legend. Gorogoa is a new puzzle game that combines brilliant artwork with a set of puzzle mechanics that deviates from any other game I’ve seen. The art alone would sell the game, with it’s attention to detail and well maintained aesthetic. With the inclusion of the unusual mechanics, this game ends up being a great gem.
Gameplay occurs in a four square grid. The player has up to four different images that they can move through, interact with objects therein, and move from one grid space to another. Where this gameplay really shines is in its use of perspective. Sometimes, the player can pull one image away to find another, completely new image beneath it with a doorway or window of the previous image left behind. In addition, blank spaces in images can be overlapped with other images to change it and effect the world. Combining all of these mechanics together creates a puzzle game where the world is constantly changing itself in new and strange ways.
The puzzles are not often difficult, but have enough to them to make the player stop and think about what they’re doing. I loved the puzzles as they were a breath of fresh air in a genre that is often filled with reusing the same stale mechanics. It is also to be noted that the puzzles do not get boring over the course of the one and a half hours of gameplay. This is really achieved by having five distinct chapters to the game. In each chapter, the puzzles focus on a different aspect of what you can do with the system, whether that be overlapping panels to create new images or placing images side-by-side to combine them. By having such tightly focused chapters, Gorogoa is capable of exploring all of the aspects of their unique mechanics without being overly long.
While the mechanics are great, the real centerpiece of this work is the art. I have nothing even remotely bad to say about the art style. It is a beautiful game. The aesthetic is fully realized with no unruly deviations and the world is so detailed that it comes to life in each panel. The contrast between more muted and realistic tones for real-world elements and vibrant, bright colors for the more mythical elements was a great design choice as it solidifies the mystery of the mythical elements. There is no fault in Gorogoa’s aesthetic. If that’s all that you’re looking at this game for, it is well worth the price.
Now, as always, for the narrative. Surprisingly, at least to me, Gorogoa does have a story. It is told almost exclusively visually with a few instances of seeing into a person’s thoughts. The plot is very vague, but I read it as following a single person through the course of their life. You meet this person as a child and then are given glimpses into the person’s future which include both the state of the individual and the repercussions of their actions as a child. It seems to focus on loss, regret, and an attempt to regain the past.
While there is a story, it is not a terribly key element of the game. That’s not a problem at all. Gorogoa puts all it’s chips into visual art and it seriously pays off. The vague story really acts to pull the player further into the world and make the artwork seem more alive. Both the mechanics and the story are subservient to the aesthetics in this piece and they turn out brilliantly.
As an aside, the publisher of this piece is worth a mention. Annapurna Interactive is a relatively new publishing company that came onto the scene in late 2016. Since then, they have worked on a little over a half dozen pieces. Almost every piece is, in some way, intriguing from working to bring Kentucky Route Zero to console or publishing Edith Finch and Gorogoa. Annapurna is a company to watch. They seem to be intent upon bringing new and innovative elements to gaming, not only in mechanics but also in narratives. If they remain as intentional as they seem to be now about their creations then Annapurna will likely be a pioneer in gaming art on all fronts.
Overall, Gorogoa is a brilliantly made artistic masterpiece. The art is vibrant, alive, and a fitting centerpiece for such a work. The puzzle mechanics are, in my experience, truly unique and fully realized in the course of the game. Those points alone are enough to warrant picking this game up. It does have a short play time, I beat the game in just one and a half hours. However, don’t let that deter you. Every minute is worth playing. This piece is well worth it’s fifteen dollar price tag because you will not find anything like it anywhere else. If you like puzzles or you enjoy art (and who doesn’t, really?) then you have to check out Gorogoa.

Buried Signal, Gorogoa. Annapurna Interactive, Dec 14, 2017.

Video Review


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