izigame.me

Many many years ago there was a cool website called Experimental Gameplay Project, that, as I didn’t even realize at the time, was full of university projects (specifically of students from Carnegie Mellon University). There were lots of short but very memorable and fun little projects, some of which were just silly fun like Attack of the Killer Swarm, On a Rainy Day, Gravity Head, Tower of Goo or Super Tummy Bubble! (which is basically Suika Game decades before the actual “Watermelon game”) and some were more mysterious and strange like The Crowd. The team behind this project would later form Tomorrow Corporation, but even prior to it, they’ve collaborated on other projects. One of which was done by a mostly two-man team at 2D Boy. The game was a fully realized idea previously shown in Tower of Goo – World of Goo, which was released in 2008 to huge critical success and become one of the earliest biggest examples of independent developer success stories (at least from the critical reception perspective).
Yet, despite the success, following that game up with a direct sequel would’ve been strange. It felt like a more or less well developed idea and its “story” was quite simple. So it made sense that Tomorrow Corporation worked on different puzzle titles that continued some of the themes and ideas, but played very differently. However in 2024 World of Goo 2 was released on several platforms (but with odd exclusivity deals on PC). With the latter being finally over, I was able to complete it and while I have enjoyed it quite a lot, I have to say its existence still feels strange.
The basic idea of World of Goo is about using different types of “Goo balls” to build simple connecting structures, as they stick to each other following simple sets of rules unique for each type. Building towers, bridges, weird flying or swimming contraptions all of which could collapse from their own weight or poorly thought out placement of elements. And because the basic concept is that simple, most of the puzzles are built around unexpected and fresh ways of utilizing the basics. If you have played the original game (or the Tower of Goo), you know what to expect in general and I didn’t feel any noticeable differences between the titles as far as the behavior of constructing things out of Goo Balls goes.
However, even though things are instantly recognizable and some of the Goo Ball sounds and mechanics seem to have been unchanged ever since 2005, there are plenty of smaller tweaks and updates and even some new mechanics. Visually the game looks richer, though I wouldn’t necessarily call it “better”, because both titles are more about visual design then technological prowess and the first title, despite being from 2008, still looks great. Still, it does look quite beautiful. The music and audio is in a similar situation – most of the soundtrack is comprised of new arrangements for the already fantastic tracks from the original game, so whenever you like the new takes on them more or less will be up to personal preference.
One big change is that the ability to undo your actions by touching the white flying bugs is now always present and is only limited by how far the “undo history” will allow you to go, but otherwise any action can be undone. And there are several really cool new types of Goo Balls that look nice and feel nice. There are, in fact, quite a few levels in the game where the general puzzle idea and layout is similar to a level from the original game, but now with a twist which usually involves using the mechanics of the new Goo Balls. Unfortunately, for whatever reason the freeform building level that was present in the original game has not been revisited. Though instead the game supports modding (including Steam Workshop) and custom levels.
What’s strange about this whole release, though, is that it doesn’t quite feel like the developers themselves were sure they wanted to make a sequel. The “story” this time feels especially unfocused and lacks any real theming like the original game, apart from some meta commentary of sequels. The game repeats the twist with one of the chapters being somewhat different, but now goes extremely hard into it by jumping genres. Yet, none of the ideas explored there are particularly great and jokes often fall flat. On top of it all, it feels like none of the biggest issues and most common complaints from the original game were addressed either. It’s still hard to grab the Goo Ball you want when there are several types of them sliding around in groups. Controls still can betray you at the most inopportune time. You have even less control over where the idle Balls are, since there is no whistle in this game, so in levels where you must destroy part of your structure, you can only hope that you don’t lose too many Balls. And a few levels are just terribly designed with no understanding of where the goal even is. I have not finished one of the optional challenging levels because of how frustrating it is too.
So, it is kind of a remake, but kind of a sequel. And it doesn’t really feel like a fully thought out completed experience, the way the original did. But it’s also a wonderful puzzle game with lots of fun levels and in many ways it is an improvement over the original. It’s strange. I definitely liked it and can easily recommend it to others, but I would also probably recommend playing the original first anyway.