GNOG from KO_OP and Double Fine Presents is a quirky and colorful puzzle game where you get to interact with peculiar trinkets that you can interact with to find out what makes them tick. Want to learn more? Then check out our GNOG review!
Controls are simple. You move a cursor around with the left analog stick and rotate each toy a bit with the right analog stick. The X button is your main button for interacting with things. The L2 and R2 buttons are for completely turning a puzzle around so that you can see what’s on the other side. The game will show you how to do this during the first handful of minutes after you get started.
The game is very colorful, triptastic and weird, but in a good way! You’ll need to grab, poke, push, pull and twist the components of each toy before you can open it to see what’s lurking inside. And once you open it, then you’ll still need to solve a few extra puzzles before your time with that toy is over! There’s a nice variety of toys to explore, and each one is good for a short experience.
It’s hard to review the game without spoiling the toys, so I’ll talk a bit about the first toy and only the first toy. For FRG-Y, which you can clearly see is of a frog theme, you’ll need to find a way to unlock the toy to get to the inside of the box. What do frogs like to eat? Insects and bugs. A butterfly would certainly fit the bill, right? You’ll then notice some butterflies here and there which you can click on to activate. After this, things start to “click” as you move an illustration on the back of the toy with several scenes to interact with. All toys have a particular moment where you start to get the hang of things and ideas just start to flow, which goes to show the excellent game design for this release.
GNOG features 20 trophies in total, all of which are Bronze. Several of them are awarded for completing each of the puzzles in the game, while others are awarded for specific actions that I won’t be spoiling in here. Rest assured it’s a varied list that will keep you busy for an extra bit on top of the main experience. Overall, you’re looking at a couple of hours at most with GNOG to see everything the game has to offer.
I enjoyed my time with the game for my GNOG review. It’s a colorful and charming release with some clever puzzle toy things you can interact with for a couple of hours or so as you try to find the solution to each micro puzzle that will, in turn, contribute to bringing you closer to the larger puzzle at hand. The game can be played either on PS4 as is or you can jump into its PS VR compatible mode to really get into the puzzles as you manipulate each toy, so that’s a nice bonus for those of you who own Sony’s latest hardware add-on.
Disclaimer
This GNOG review is based on a PS4 copy provided by Double Fine.
