World Of Goo 2 Review: An Inventive Return to Goo with Some Flies in the Ointment

A gelatinous puzzler that keeps the fun fresh with a steady stream of new goo.

• Developer: 2D Boy

• Publisher: Tomorrow Corporation

• Release Date: August 2, 2024

• Platforms: Windows, Mac

• Available On: Epic Games

• Price: TBC

• Reviewed On: Intel Core i7-11700F, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, Windows 10
  
  

The original World of Goo was a delightful adventure of gooey engineering, packed with endless novelty over its four-hour journey. Each level introduced a new type of goo or a twist on the bridge-building puzzle formula, challenging players to guide a gaggle of gurgling balls to the nearest pipe. World of Goo 2 follows in its predecessor's footsteps, eagerly throwing new toys and goos at players to keep them on their sludge-coated toes. This pursuit of novelty doesn't always hit the mark, but when it does, it really does. For those who have spent the last 16 years yearning for more sticky structure-building, World of Goo 2 is here to deliver.

The Goop-tastic Gameplay

As in the first game, your goal in each level is to get a set number of goo balls to a distant pipe, often suspended in the sky or hanging precariously to one side. Using different types of goo, you’ll build shaky suspension bridges and wobbly towers, all in an effort to "rescue" as many of the gooey blobs as possible. Special awards await those who can beat certain times, use a limited number of moves, or save a high number of the gloopy boys.

However, things are rarely as straightforward as in games like Bridge Constructor. Your building materials are quirky, googly-eyed weirdos, and they aren’t confined to a single species. Familiar goo balls from the first game make a return, like the flammable matchstick-headed goos that cause fiery chain reactions, or the green velcro-like goos that can be reused repeatedly. Balloons also come back, their floatiness helping to stabilize your crane-like creations.

But many other goos are new. There are translucent "conduit" goos that act as hollow straws to slurp up any liquid they touch. There are cheesy yellow gooboids that create a solid surface, pink goos that grow and stretch when wet, and pale blue goos that contract when wet, making structures scrunch up like a melting crisp packet in a campfire. By the fourth chapter, the game turns into a series of goo-based gags, playing with gravity, golf balls, and genre itself.

The Fluid Simulation

The fluid simulation is the prime puzzle provider here. Pools of black liquid need to be slurped up and transformed into goo balls. Streams need to be redirected with little water cannon squid heads. Some fluids provide power to thruster-mouthed beings that propel goo boats or balloon-supported jet packs. Fiery lava presents its own problems—and sometimes solutions.

This indulgent stacking of puzzle elements is both impressive and sometimes a bit much. Where one player might revel in the multitude of different goos, another might feel a sense of missed opportunity, imagining a game with twice as many levels making fuller use of all the goo-based possibilities. But that's not the game 2D Boy seems interested in making. World of Goo 2 is as quickfire and jokey as the first game, obsessed with rapid reinvention. Complaining about too much novelty in World of Goo 2 is like going to a ball pit and complaining about too many colors.

Thematic and Musical Journey

The game retains its ludicrous stakes and thematic progression. Levels transition from calm islands to stormy nights as hundreds of thousands of years pass between chapters. The music ramps up from delicate flamenco guitar to epic horns to apocalyptic choral chants, matching the increasing complexity (or madness) of the goo puzzles. It’s an upward launch into gooey lunacy familiar to anyone who played the first game.

The developer’s characteristically light satire is also back. World of Goo Corporation is rebranding, and early cutscenes show humanity rushing off to shop "sustainably," but not before littering the ground with their children's plastic bottles. The game’s tongue-in-cheek signposts return, insisting that the erectile pink goos are perfectly normal despite their throbbing veins.

The Hits and Misses

But not every level is a delight. Time-constrained levels can feel out of place, creating pressure that disrupts the otherwise leisurely pace. Levels with limited light sources or constantly moving environments can also be frustrating, making the game feel more fiddly than fun at times. Thankfully, you can skip any level without repercussions.

There are other annoyances too. The screen auto-scrolls when your cursor is near the edge, with no option to turn this off, making precise clicks difficult. The white flies that act as an "undo" button are also tricky to click, often hovering near the edge where the auto-scrolling kicks in again. This can make playing with a mouse and keyboard awkward, although a simple undo key would alleviate much of this friction. Hopefully, this is something that can be patched in.

Final Verdict

Despite these frustrations, World of Goo 2 offers a satisfying, engineer-like "LEGO" trance. Some of its annoyances feel intentional, as the game’s whole shtick is a certain amount of unpredictability. The physics simulation is as much at the mercy of wild fluid or the impact of goo balls as it is of gravity alone. In this sense, the misclicks and fumbled balls exist as stray irritations, while the fiddly levels are a byproduct of the game's inventiveness that elsewhere produces wonderful moments.

For anyone eagerly anticipating this sequel, rest assured that World of Goo 2 keeps up with the frenetic creativity of the original. If you're after another silly ride in a lazy river of black goo, then jump on in. The goo’s fine.