Gorogoa (Xbox One)
Gorogoa’s name isn’t meant to sound like it comes from any one language, and in a similar vein the game itself tries to tell its narrative entirely with visuals rather than text or dialogue to pursue a similar universality. Originally envisioned as an effort to create an interactive graphic novel, instead these choices do lean towards it being more like an interactive art book mostly because the lack of commitment to strong story elements leads to a plot without much to grasp onto. This doesn’t doom the puzzle-solving experience and the plot isn’t entirely empty, but in some ways this effort to be broadly accessible does come with a cost.
Gorogoa begins with a young boy observing a large technicolor creature appearing in the city, and pretty quickly the interpretative nature of the tale comes into play. Does he fear the beast, or does he wish to contact it? Answers do exist outside the material but in-game there is at least one thing clear, a set of five colored fruits are connected to this beast and the boy sets out to try and find them. However, this task ends up being a lifelong pursuit, the small wordless story checking in with him at various points in his life as he tries to find the fruit. On some level this perspective of one man across his entire life does seem to emphasize the toil of this work, Gorogoa finding him at lows like after injuring his leg or trying to research while stuck in a rough living situation while also showing him at more peaceful times in life like his old age, that effort to find the five fruits still guiding his actions even then. Some more metaphorical representations perhaps better convey this persistence quest and how it can feel almost indefinite despite its clear goal, some non-specific religious underpinnings easy to glean once you start putting the pieces together.
However, the actual plot substance feels rather minimal because its reliance on interpretative imagery and a weakly defined lead character. This isn’t necessarily an issue so much as a missed opportunity, the game feeling like it would rather you focus on the lovely illustrations that give some sense of meaning despite not plunging too deep into some personal narrative. Individual frames can be gorgeous and stunning in their vivid coloration and intricate patterns while still serving practical purposes in the game’s puzzle-solving activities. This is sort of vital in a way since arranging these pictures is actually at the heart of the game’s gameplay format, the details key to figuring things out and finding out how to progress.
Gorogoa does not have you playing as the boy the story centers on but instead you rearrange the world he occupies to assist him. On screen you are presented with a box split into four quadrants, different images able to occupy these panels. Similar to a game like Framed, the exact placement and contents of these panels is key to continuing the tale, so in Gorogoa you will have to lift and move the panels around so objects in them can interact. Sometimes this can be as simple as juxtaposition, the boy able to walk between two panels so long as their images connect, but at other times a panel may have a hole or window that serves as an opening when you drag that panel over another image. This can end up altering the images as they combine into one, the right type of hole able to turn something like a compass into a clock face. A good deal of Gorogoa’s problem solving ends up boiling down to the application of these two forms of interaction, and thankfully they’re not static in how these relationships work. While putting two panels that are clearly part of the same scene next to each other isn’t much of a puzzle, identifying that a piece of train track can serve as a ladder so long as it is lined up right is more in line with the usual Gorogoa puzzle format.
An issue does arise a bit from the fact that the game mostly comprises of this puzzle type though. It’s not hard to start to get a feel for the fact much of the panel rearranging is going to be about connecting visually similar objects across panel or using an opening to pare down a picture into a new functional shape. A lot of Gorogoa will be about clicking images to zoom in or out of them to set up those two kinds of interactions, a hint system where a pulse shows you where you can click at least meaning you don’t have to click everywhere to look for where to zoom in but it’s often not hard to figure it out naturally. It can feel like a good deal of the experience is dominated by this specific approach, but Gorogoa isn’t without some clever twists to these ideas that ask you to think about them a bit more deeply, especially during the cases where items start to truly interact repeatedly through panels rather than having one quick interaction. Mostly it can feel like the visual trick is often the focus more than figuring out what you’re meant to do, but Gorogoa does squeeze in some complexity here and there where multiple panels offer a wider range of variables so some more time is spent contemplating an action rather than just testing what can be done and often figuring things out without much thought as a result.
Gorogoa is also a rather short game, likely to clock in around 2 hours of playtime even if you do take your time appreciating the art or clicking around to try and find the interactive parts. The issue with the length is more that Gorogoa’s interactivity isn’t given that much room to grow. It certainly had some space within its available content to be more complex, but a lot of the ideas in how objects across images can be related to each other feel like they’re solid but not exceptional enough to be the full extent of where the concept goes. One portion of the game involves a series of framed photographs that are navigated within one panel, each one offering different images as tools for interactions and it feels like Gorogoa is starting to expand the kind of interconnectivity you need to be able to identify to succeed, but by also limiting variables in most panels you’re often not even giving too much to consider so many puzzles go by without much contemplation. In some ways that speediness lets you get to more impressive sights, but it also means your part in arranging this experience feels like it isn’t as rich as it could be.
THE VERDICT: The beautiful artwork of Gorogoa is not only there to be appreciated but also works as your tool for problem-solving, but it does serve its purpose better as something to look at than to interact with. Much of what you’re asked to do with the pictures are rather straightforward despite being surreal if you stepped back to describe it, but if thought of as an interactive art book it at least primes you to consider specific details closely and seeing the connections is a bit nifty. Its few moments of true puzzle design inspiration still aren’t riveting though and a wordless narrative doesn’t provide too much to bolster it, but Gorogoa’s quick progression at least makes progressing to new artwork interesting if not always mentally stimulating.
And so, I give Gorogoa for Xbox One…
An OKAY rating. The beauty of Gorogoa’s art should not be overlooked, especially when visuals inspired by mandalas produce a dazzling sight that is often unfortunately bound by a single panel to fit within the game’s interactive framework. There are moments of more modest beauty and the artistry certainly should be the primary area of a player’s focus to get the most out of the experience, but that’s also where the art book comparison comes back into play as it can feel more like you’re presented impressive images but not enough to draw more meaning out of them beyond their occasional use as a puzzle piece. If the narrative had a clearer or stronger message then it perhaps could have a more compelling unifying idea to guide it than the abstractly inspired task of gathering fruit for a colorful creature, but it would be disingenuous to say the visual storytelling is hollow since it does emphasize the lifelong toil of its lead character well enough. Old Man’s Journey, despite some issues with its interactivity, feels like it manages the blend of visual storytelling better with something more clearly defined with similar limitations to Gorogoa, but Gorogoa’s four panel play style does at least never overstay its welcome even if it can sometimes feel like it’s not doing anything too compelling with the puzzles on offer. Every now and then a new type of interaction between panels will arise and inject enough life into the idea that it doesn’t grow stagnant but it also leans too many times on the easier solution types or doesn’t do enough to hide intended solutions so that they’re too quickly figured out. Perhaps designing more elaborate puzzles would involve a greater degree of practical art and one strength Gorogoa has is that it can usually make a scene feel natural and independent of its puzzle-solving context, but already with a few things like multi-colored ladders it breaches this so perhaps a greater commitment to their gameplay purpose could draw out more thoughts from the player than thinking what they see is pretty and that a simple interaction was rather nifty.
Gorogoa had an artistic vision and creator Jason Roberts definitely brought it to life in a visually stunning manner, even the panel rearrangement adding an interesting element to how it is perceived. More vision feels like it is necessary to bring the story and interactivity to life though, the player needing more focused moments to bring out deeper meaning from the boy’s journey while the puzzle solving needed more expansive consideration in terms of how panel interactions can be evolved beyond the few standbys the game likes to lean on. Being quick and rather short means it’s not a bad experience to just play on through to see all the sights, but the interactive illustrations are more compelling for how they look then how they play or what they could mean.