The year Octodad was born is 2010. It was born as a development by a group of debutantes, who were still students at the time. They presented their brainchild at one of the indie festivals. Then the game gained admirers: at first there were not many of them, but it still allowed us to conduct a very successful campaign on Kickstarter for the project’s scale. The 24 thousand dollars raised were mere pennies compared to the TOP game projects. But in this case it allowed the developers to create a sequel, the demo of which was shown at the Sony presentation during E3.
The sequel has already reached a new level, having moved from the category of trying their hand at amateur developers to serious commercial game projects. In fact, at first experts even doubted, how much the users will enjoy Octodad: Dadliest Catch. However the success of the game surpassed all expectations.
How to defeat… gamepad
From the demos it is more than clear that the gamers are in for a very tricky gameplay. In order to make the character to perform some actions, even such simple ones as walking, jumping, putting on a tie or holding the posture, one should put forth a lot of effort and show considerable skill. The control system in the game with little to compete with its complexity.
For this reason, experts call it both the strongest side of the game, as well as the weakest. The player can only manipulate one of the three limbs of the character at a time: either the ‘arm’ or one of the two ‘legs’. While controlling the ‘arm’ is relatively uncomplicated, getting the character to move in space is quite tricky. He walks with the help of the mouse: the height of the “legs” elevation depends on the holding time of the corresponding button.
Much easier to pass Octodad if there are two players. In this mode you can control four tentacles of the character, that is two “arms” are added to the legs. Control options are distributed to the players in random order. Therefore, at first, you will have to spend some time to establish the interaction.
And with the help of such complicated options, there are missions full of filigree tasks to be performed. Particularly in the presence of humans, Octopope makes every effort to conspire. Because under no circumstances should anything be broken. Any damage to the item in the game location – it is a penalty points, a certain number of which is considered a loss. Connoisseurs note that failures do occur, but it rarely happens more than once.
Nevertheless, the tasks are not easy. On one level, the character must maneuver between fragile columns, on another, pick up an item from the farthest corner of the shelf. Each gameplay episode is a real challenge for gamers, but they pass these tests with pleasure, because the process is accompanied with a lot of funny situations.
Octodad: Dance, Basketball and Cthulhu
The tasks to be performed during the game progress from simple ones like maintaining a lawn or a garden, to complicated ones like playing basketball, dancing on a glowing floor, overcoming a playground that’s a serious obstacle course and so on.
The gameplay is designed in such a way that you won’t get bored for a minute. Especially because the game is not designed for long time spent on its passage. In total, it is unlikely to take more than four hours.
While playing, gamers are strongly advised not to ignore Steam Workshop. Many interesting additional quests can be found there.
The game’s scenario is above praise, not only in terms of constantly maintaining interest in the process, but also in terms of wit. The developers amusingly play around with mass culture stamps and narratives. Cthulhu, for example, can be spotted in the design of the church’s stained-glass windows.
The game’s unconventional concept and witty script are the real merits of the game, for which fans are willing to put up with even a colossally awkward control system.