World of Goo 2 slopping up sixteen years after the original is one of the odder disturbances in the video game dimension this year. It's far too late to feel like a naturally timed sequel, iterating upon a hot-new concept from gaming's nascent leftfield of 2008. As such, it has the aura of an old entertainer forced out of retirement because their classic car collection has become too expensive to maintain.
This is, I'll admit, a somewhat cynical reading of the situation, and whatever the imperative for the Goo's new world tour, World of Goo 2 can hardly be accused of phoning it in. It's exactly the squelchy, silly, and softly satirical puzzler you'd expect from developers 2D Boy and The Tomorrow Corporation. Yet while I admire the craft and commitment of this old master, I'm not wholly convinced by the new act. There's still fun to be had playing in the mire, but World of Goo 2 is also a bit stuck in the past.
For those yet to be immersed in the goo, either because you missed the original or weren't, y'know, born, World of Goo is a physics puzzler from an era when the concept of physics in video games was still running around in its pull-ups deliberately falling over because it made the older children laugh. World of Goo found a more sophisticated use for the technology than Gravity Guns and pratfalling skateboarders, namely a building system that let you construct wibbly wobbly towers and bridges out of black nodules of glop.
The original game basically took this idea and elaborated on it in as many ways as it could, while also telling a wilfully vague background story about the mysterious World of Goo Corporation. The sequel basically does the same thing again, but on a slightly larger, floppier canvas.
As with the first game, the goal of each World of Goo 2 level is to get a set number of goo-balls into an inconveniently positioned pipe. Why do the balls want into such an impractically placed conduit? Nobody knows and I sense it might be rude to ask. But I do know how such sludgy logistics are achieved, specifically by sacrificing some of the goo-balls to build the aforementioned structures. Herein lies the fundamental tension of a typical World of Goo puzzle, building something structurally sound enough to achieve goo transition, while leaving enough balls to spare that you can satisfy the objective.
It's a mechanic that I find…well, we'll discuss that in due course. But safe to say World of Goo 2 doesn't keep things this simple for long. It quickly introduces a range of other goos and goo-adjacent substances. Some of these we've seen before, such as green goo-balls that can be reused, and orange goo-balls that ignite when they come into contact with fire.
But among these old favourites are plenty of new goos too. Indeed, World of Goo 2 introduces an entirely new form of goo – liquid goo! Now, before you ask the astute and incisive question "Isn't goo already a liquid?" Let me just say I am not the arbiter of goo, or the concept of goo. I have been assigned to arbitrate the video game 'World of Goo 2', which is how we ended up in this mess in the first place. But that is not the same thing, so let's leave goo definitions to the pros.
Anyway, this black fluid forms the focal point of many of the sequel's puzzles, with you having to build structures and manipulate objects to facilitate its flow. You might, for example, have to guide the goo to a creature that looks like a small oil derrick with the head of a pterosaur (a combination of words I am confident has never been used before in the history of English literature), which will absorb the goo and then projectile vomit it out of its mouth, eyes bulging in a manner that suggests the creature is distressed by this sequence of events. You can then grab the creature's tongue to adjust the trajectory of the vomit (which may further explain the bulging eyes).
World of Goo 2 combines this with several new types of goo that either influence or are influenced by the presence of liquid. There is a white goo that will absorb liquid and convey it to a new destination. There is also a fleshy pink goo that enlarges when it is full of liquid (yes, the game is fully aware of what this might resemble, for you snickering at the back) and a purple goo that shrinks when it comes into contact with fluid.
I admire the inventiveness with which the designers think about goo. The sequel never rests on one puzzling concept for long before introducing something else, and it's always interesting to see what sloppy mess it'll bring to the table next. The gentle, affirmatory humour of the original, conveyed primarily through signposts, has also made the leap intact. There were several jokes that pulled a hearty chuckle, such as one about a terrible jetpack that forms the crux of a particular puzzle.
There was another joke that didn't make me chuckle, however. Like the first game, World of Goo 2 has an optional objective for especially efficient work, which is labelled 'OCD' or 'Obsessive Completion Distinction'. Frankly, I feel this joke has aged like sun-dried prawns. Not to get too real on you, but I have a family member who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (which is what we all know those letters stand for, for those of you about to go 'well, technically…'), and it's really not a disorder to make light of. It's a stressful, frustrating, sometimes debilitating condition that can lead you to, for example, wash your hands until they are so cracked and raw they no longer function as hands. Anyway, when I saw this was still a feature, I wanted to take World of Goo 2 back to the retirement bouncy-castle and leave it there for another sixteen years.
I will also say that the focus on fluids makes the puzzling more precarious. It doesn't help that a fair number of the liquid-based puzzles are attached to a time element, with you often having to manipulate several objects in quick succession before the available liquid runs dry. This means you tend to use the undo button more than the previous game, which makes it even more irritating that the undo button is a fly that flits randomly around the screen. I'm all for integrated UI in games, but UI that makes itself hard to find seems contrary to its purpose.
Nonetheless, I always enjoyed World of Goo 2 the most when it got away from the "build a bridge/build a tower" style puzzles. Simply because there are only so many times you can do this before it starts to grow stale. Although World of Goo 2's puzzles can be creative and ingenious, they don't provide much opportunity for you to demonstrate ingenuity or creativity. There's never a "eureka" moment while playing World of Goo 2. And while some fudging of a puzzle is tolerated, there's never the sense that you've conjured a clever alternative solution. Ultimately, World of Goo is about structural engineering, and you can only be so creative as a structural engineer before you end up on trial for a bridge disaster.
In short, World of Goo 2 isn't my favourite puzzle game I've played this year. It's a respectably crafted re-exploration of one of indie gaming's foundational texts, and I enjoyed its expanded routine when it wasn't forcing me to play hunt the UI or making light of mental illness. But I am thoroughly gooed out now, and have little desire to play a third. Thanks for visiting grandad. Time to take you home.
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