World of One Review – A Moody, Planetary Puzzle-Platformer

<p>Sometimes&comma; the world gets pretty dark&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve dreamed of leaving everything behind and moving to a deserted island or Northern wilderness cabin&period; <em>World of One<&sol;em> takes it a step further by putting our moody protagonist on his very own world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>World of One<&sol;em> is a dark&comma; brooding puzzle-platformer by the indie developers&comma; Grimwood Team&period; You play a troubled man&comma; living in his own dreary&comma; private world&period; Each level exists on its own planet&comma; and unlike many traditional platformers&comma; the protagonist can explore them in either direction&period; Often&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll find that you are picking up a piece of the puzzle only to run back in the opposite direction to solve it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The <em>World of One<&sol;em> monster artwork is incredible&comma; and I love the gurgling sounds they make as they amble across the planet&period; The developers made monster combat challenging but not frustrating&period; Early on in the game&comma; you wield a very slow shovel as a weapon&comma; and you&&num;8217&semi;ll die with just one attack from a monster&period; You can attack with your shovel two different ways&period; You can either make a quick&comma; horizontal jab or a slow uppercut&period; Try to attack one type of monster with the jab&comma; and you&&num;8217&semi;ll be dead in a heartbeat&period; Use the uppercut on him&comma; and you&&num;8217&semi;ll be fine&period; A taller&comma; swifter monster is too fast for the uppercut attacks&period; These two monsters are often combined in the same area&comma; creating an interesting challenge&period;You must pull them away from each other and use their respective attacks on them separately&period; Otherwise&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll definitely die&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126947" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126947" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-126947" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;23233119&sol;4&period;jpg" alt&equals;"World of One&comma; Grimwood Team" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126947" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">World of One&comma; Grimwood Team<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In fact&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll die a lot in this game&period; There are several Steam achievements awarded for not dying&period; According to Steam&comma; no one has yet beaten the game without dying more than seven times&period; Usually&comma; constant dying in platformers gets frustrating for me very quickly&period; There are enough checkpoints in <em>World of One<&sol;em> that I did not throw a single fit for dying&period; I cussed a lot&period; I died 170&plus; times&period; But I always immediately hopped right back into the action&period; I never had to backtrack to the point that it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t fun for me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The are three chapters in <em>World of One&period;<&sol;em> Each ends with a tough boss fight&period; The bosses are all massive&comma; glorious beings&period; Fighting them made me feel the way I did beating old Zelda GameBoy bosses&period; The first few attempts at beating each boss were spent learning its patterns and methods of attack&period; Once the pattern was memorized&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;d die at least another 10-15 times before the boss was defeated&period; But the deaths in <em>World of One <&sol;em>have a quick turnaround time&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d die&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;d almost instantly respawn at the beginning of the level&comma; not waiting for long loading times or cutscenes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The developers obviously put a lot of time and effort into the small details&period; During one of the first levels&comma; I encountered an abandoned theme park&period; After solving a quick puzzle&comma; I boarded a moving Ferris wheel&period; As my passenger car reached its highest level&comma; the carnival music died down&period; When I moved closer to the ground&comma; it slowly picked back up until it was once again full volume&period; I went around the Ferris wheel a couple times&comma; enjoying this little feature&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126946" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126946" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-126946" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;23232858&sol;The-One&lowbar;big&period;jpg" alt&equals;"World of One&comma; Grimwood Team" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126946" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">World of One&comma; Grimwood Team<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The <em>World of One<&sol;em> controls are straightforward and easy&period; No complicated menus or inventory systems&period; A controller is recommended&comma; so I didn&&num;8217&semi;t try to play with a keyboard at all&period; You move with the joystick&period; RB and RT are your two different attacks&period; The inventory never consists of more than three items&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Almost every level of the game features a telescope&period; When you find the telescope and interact with it&comma; the camera zooms out to give you a view of the entire planet&period; These scenes are breathtaking&period; I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t help but take a screenshot every time I peered through a telescope&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve been using the images as desktop wallpaper&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t get enough of them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>My only real complaint with <em>World of One<&sol;em> is how unnatural and awkward the animation of the protagonist seems to be&period; His hair doesn&&num;8217&semi;t move when he does&period; His arms seem kind of robotic and stiff&period; The world around him moves with more fluidity&period; One common monster somersaults back and forth while attacking&comma; but the protagonist just stands there&period; He slowly strikes the monster with a shovel&comma; stiff-armed and inorganic&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;126949" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-126949" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-126949" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;06&sol;23234354&sol;20170621220951&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"World of One&comma; Grimwood Team" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-126949" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">World of One&comma; Grimwood Team<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I also wish the story would have been more clear&period; It seems like it might be a beautiful&comma; tragic story&comma; pulling heartstrings in the same way <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;pinstripe-review&sol;">Pinstripe did earlier this year<&sol;a>&period; I left the game feeling like I didn&&num;8217&semi;t fully understand what had happened to the protagonist&period; We see glimpses of his memories throughout the game&comma; but not enough to make us truly understand and empathize with him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>World of One<&sol;em> sells for only &dollar;6&period;99 on Steam&comma; and it provides many hours of challenging gameplay for the price&period; I enjoyed the attention-to-detail&comma; stunning landscapes&comma; and brooding theme of the game&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a creative&comma; engaging release from a small indie development team&comma; and I&&num;8217&semi;m looking forward to what they will create next&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center"><strong>A PC review copy of <em>World of One<&sol;em> was provided by Grimwood Team for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;