Instant fun: harass the townsfolk and launch milk bottles at them
This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else.
First full playthrough of this game after an attempt about 4 years ago, but have been playing this game for a long while as it was one of my favourites as a kid. Got 49% completion rate (lol).
This is easily one of the games I remember playing most as a kid, the tutorial section, the first proper area and the music are particular standouts for me and are what I think of, not just when I think of this game but when I'm thinking about my childhood gaming memories. So essentially, I may be less harsh on this game than I really should be.
There are quite a few things I enjoy about this game though, there is so much to do and a wide variety at that. I finished the game at 49% which is wild to me and there were areas I hadn't even gone to when I was playing and areas that I had never seen before but was coming across for the first time. It makes me think of Bully to an extent as they both have really great worlds that have so much to do, but feel so alive as a lot of things and people can be interacted with in different ways. While I like basically every area in the game, I do really love West Wallaby as it has multiple mini-areas I really like, the football pitch, the market, the church and Wallace and Gromit's home street but there's also an added novelty to me, as a quaint little British town isn't exactly the most common choice for a video game to be set in. As much as I really like a lot of games that have come out in the last ten years or so and I think there's a lot of creativity, especially in the indie scene, there's just something I really like about a game like this existing and feeling like its hitting a niche of sorts but being a pretty big (in terms of relevance) game.
Going back to the game though, the amount of small things as well were really nice, something I remembered shortly into playing was if you have something in the bungun and aim it at the camera, shooting it will actually make it hit the camera. A rock may make the screen shake and a bottle of milk will cause the milk to get all over it. Hidden areas are plentiful as over the game you gain various upgrades that allow you to get to areas you couldn't get to before, its optional stuff but realising that this game technically shared a bit of DNA with a standard Metroidvania was very surprising. This isn't even going into stuff like looking after Gromit's marrow, I used to spend a lot of time doing this when I was younger without understanding what it was I was supposed to be doing but I found out this time its actually pretty easy, its such a nice unnecessary little addition though.
Main gameplay is something though, while there's a lot of different stuff to do (races, collectible hunting and minigames), the two main things are rounding up all of the animals and combat. The game does make you do a lot of both and it can get a little repetitive at times, however the game works in a way that you can do one thing and then something completely different afterwards. Rounding up the animals is pretty fun, the herding mechanic works surprisingly well and there actually seems to be a gradual increase in difficulty as you go along. But not in simple ways like less time or more animals, the developers seemed to really think about it and environments get more complicated or obstacles are put in place to make it so you have to take a different route then what may have seemed like the initial choice (in the Churchyard theres a section where you need to herd the rabbits from one side of this kind of closed in space to the other but there are graves in between and the rabbits can burrow into them and come out somewhere else, this requires the player to herd the rabbits around the grave quickly (as you are on a time limit) and precisely (because if you move to close to a grave then the rabbits will go on it and move somewhere else)). I was pretty impressed with the level of effort that went into this as I did just kind of think it would basically be the same thing every time but instead it stopped having to do a few of these sections from getting too tedious.
Combat is also weirdly in depth as well, there's a back melee attack which I genuinely think I would struggle to name another game that has something like that. Different enemies require different methods of approach too. The gnomes with projectiles are usually difficult to get too close to but also are sometimes put in a platforming section above and a good distance from you, meaning that you may need to find a projectile yourself to shoot at them as they can and will stop you from getting to them. Hedgehogs can get hit once and then land on their back with any normal attack attempted on them not working while they're like this, I had to consult the instruction manual to work out what I had to do but it turns out they can really only be defeated at this point with a slam attack. Badgers on the other hand only seem to take damage from projectiles or the power you gain from defeating other enemies. I don't think the combat is amazing or anything and while there are different types of enemies, most of the time you will see the standard ones that just need to be whacked a few times and then you're good, it may be that my expectations were too low or something, but I was really surprised with how good combat actually was though.
I do have some problems with the game though. The first being the camera, its pretty awful, it gets stuck on buildings and there are often times where you won't be able to rotate 360° which can be very annoying for platforming and combat. Speaking of platforming, while I don't think its bad or anything, I did have two issues with it. The characters are slow and heavy, it makes it feel a little awkward when trying to do things on the quick (most missions in this game have a time limit). The other problem may be more of a me thing but I don't really know, I seemed to be having an issue with getting consistency with certain things but not being able to understand how to hit that consistency. There's things you can bounce on in the game and from what I gather, you have to hold X when hitting the bouncy thing to go higher, I couldn't always do this though. One of the missions is a short, timed one where you have to pick up 100 seeds that are along a path that you need to platform your way through, part of this requires you to bounce high on a shop cover thing and then get to a ledge. The problem I was having was not knowing if the game would take when I tried to bounce and so I had to either choose between not moving particularly far which meant that if the bounce did work, I wouldn't be able to make the distance to the ledge or I could start to move closer to the ledge before the impact of the bounce but then risk the bounce not working and falling onto the ground, which would have resulted in me having to retry from the start of the mission again but not having the time. I think the slow and heavy movement is part of the issue here, as I could see this being less of a problem if moving away wasn't such a commitment. It ultimately didn't really matter in the end as I just didn't do the mission and I didn't have to do something like that again but it was pretty annoying.
Another issue is the partner, I pretty exclusively played as Gromit so to make things easier I'll just refer to either Wallace for day time or Hutch for night time, I don't really think it matters all that much but there does seem to be a difference when it comes to what aspect of the game is currently being played. Basically, Hutch is quite good, he can hold his own in a fight and manages to get rid of a good number of enemies by himself. Wallace on the other hand, is kind of bad, as he's the partner for the rounding up the animals sections he can't really do much. I think the entire time I played, he managed to get two animals, the rest of the time he just stood there and because I was usually herding a few animals or was rushing to try and get a good amount before the time limit ran out, he regularly got in the way. Thankfully I could whack him out of the way with the bungun, but this wasn't always an option and even if it was I still would have just preferred it if he got out of the way. I don't need him to be getting animals himself, I just want him to not be a literal obstacle for me.
One more issue I had and I kind of touched on this when talking about the hedgehogs from earlier, this game generally just lets you get on with it and kind of figure things out yourself, this isn't really something I'm keen on. There were a few different points where I didn't really know what the game wanted from me, whether it was how to deal with a thing in a mission I hadn't even seen before, how to progress (mainly towards the end) and also because I wasn't in the right area to be able to see what to do next. For some reason, the game gives you objectives on the map in the pause menu, but you can only see objectives related to the area you're currently in. The final area of the game is Tottington Hall and the game will have anything you need to do to progress the main story under Winnie's section on the map, this can only be seen at Tottington Hall though and if you've not done everything the game wanted you to in the other areas, you'll need to go back to them. But if you're then in one of those areas and you want to check what to do again, you'll have to go back to Tottington Hall just to see your objective, there are only four areas in the game but having to backtrack for this was kind of annoying and just weird.
Story wise, its mostly the same as the film from what I can remember, I don't mind the film but I don't think I like it as much as I used to and because of that the story didn't really matter to me here. There were some jokes that were quite funny though and I also thought the fact that they animated all the cutscenes was really impressive, a lot of movie tie-in games I played just used footage from the film when they could, but here there were scenes that I think are basically identical to the film and they only used animated cutscenes. I did enjoy a lot of the stuff concerning the townspeople though as they had quite original missions which were fun (getting vegetables for a pie, retrieving holy water from the sewers and protecting someone who wants to check their prize onion), they had funny lines or they had interesting voices.
I really enjoyed playing this and while I didn't encounter even half of what this game has to offer, I still had a very good time and feel content with what I played (it also means that I'll have a reason to come back). Its a really nice feeling that I can enjoy a game, to this degree, that I held in such high regards as a kid.
First full playthrough of this game after an attempt about 4 years ago, but have been playing this game for a long while as it was one of my favourites as a kid. Got 49% completion rate (lol).
This is easily one of the games I remember playing most as a kid, the tutorial section, the first proper area and the music are particular standouts for me and are what I think of, not just when I think of this game but when I'm thinking about my childhood gaming memories. So essentially, I may be less harsh on this game than I really should be.
There are quite a few things I enjoy about this game though, there is so much to do and a wide variety at that. I finished the game at 49% which is wild to me and there were areas I hadn't even gone to when I was playing and areas that I had never seen before but was coming across for the first time. It makes me think of Bully to an extent as they both have really great worlds that have so much to do, but feel so alive as a lot of things and people can be interacted with in different ways. While I like basically every area in the game, I do really love West Wallaby as it has multiple mini-areas I really like, the football pitch, the market, the church and Wallace and Gromit's home street but there's also an added novelty to me, as a quaint little British town isn't exactly the most common choice for a video game to be set in. As much as I really like a lot of games that have come out in the last ten years or so and I think there's a lot of creativity, especially in the indie scene, there's just something I really like about a game like this existing and feeling like its hitting a niche of sorts but being a pretty big (in terms of relevance) game.
Going back to the game though, the amount of small things as well were really nice, something I remembered shortly into playing was if you have something in the bungun and aim it at the camera, shooting it will actually make it hit the camera. A rock may make the screen shake and a bottle of milk will cause the milk to get all over it. Hidden areas are plentiful as over the game you gain various upgrades that allow you to get to areas you couldn't get to before, its optional stuff but realising that this game technically shared a bit of DNA with a standard Metroidvania was very surprising. This isn't even going into stuff like looking after Gromit's marrow, I used to spend a lot of time doing this when I was younger without understanding what it was I was supposed to be doing but I found out this time its actually pretty easy, its such a nice unnecessary little addition though.
Main gameplay is something though, while there's a lot of different stuff to do (races, collectible hunting and minigames), the two main things are rounding up all of the animals and combat. The game does make you do a lot of both and it can get a little repetitive at times, however the game works in a way that you can do one thing and then something completely different afterwards. Rounding up the animals is pretty fun, the herding mechanic works surprisingly well and there actually seems to be a gradual increase in difficulty as you go along. But not in simple ways like less time or more animals, the developers seemed to really think about it and environments get more complicated or obstacles are put in place to make it so you have to take a different route then what may have seemed like the initial choice (in the Churchyard theres a section where you need to herd the rabbits from one side of this kind of closed in space to the other but there are graves in between and the rabbits can burrow into them and come out somewhere else, this requires the player to herd the rabbits around the grave quickly (as you are on a time limit) and precisely (because if you move to close to a grave then the rabbits will go on it and move somewhere else)). I was pretty impressed with the level of effort that went into this as I did just kind of think it would basically be the same thing every time but instead it stopped having to do a few of these sections from getting too tedious.
Combat is also weirdly in depth as well, there's a back melee attack which I genuinely think I would struggle to name another game that has something like that. Different enemies require different methods of approach too. The gnomes with projectiles are usually difficult to get too close to but also are sometimes put in a platforming section above and a good distance from you, meaning that you may need to find a projectile yourself to shoot at them as they can and will stop you from getting to them. Hedgehogs can get hit once and then land on their back with any normal attack attempted on them not working while they're like this, I had to consult the instruction manual to work out what I had to do but it turns out they can really only be defeated at this point with a slam attack. Badgers on the other hand only seem to take damage from projectiles or the power you gain from defeating other enemies. I don't think the combat is amazing or anything and while there are different types of enemies, most of the time you will see the standard ones that just need to be whacked a few times and then you're good, it may be that my expectations were too low or something, but I was really surprised with how good combat actually was though.
I do have some problems with the game though. The first being the camera, its pretty awful, it gets stuck on buildings and there are often times where you won't be able to rotate 360° which can be very annoying for platforming and combat. Speaking of platforming, while I don't think its bad or anything, I did have two issues with it. The characters are slow and heavy, it makes it feel a little awkward when trying to do things on the quick (most missions in this game have a time limit). The other problem may be more of a me thing but I don't really know, I seemed to be having an issue with getting consistency with certain things but not being able to understand how to hit that consistency. There's things you can bounce on in the game and from what I gather, you have to hold X when hitting the bouncy thing to go higher, I couldn't always do this though. One of the missions is a short, timed one where you have to pick up 100 seeds that are along a path that you need to platform your way through, part of this requires you to bounce high on a shop cover thing and then get to a ledge. The problem I was having was not knowing if the game would take when I tried to bounce and so I had to either choose between not moving particularly far which meant that if the bounce did work, I wouldn't be able to make the distance to the ledge or I could start to move closer to the ledge before the impact of the bounce but then risk the bounce not working and falling onto the ground, which would have resulted in me having to retry from the start of the mission again but not having the time. I think the slow and heavy movement is part of the issue here, as I could see this being less of a problem if moving away wasn't such a commitment. It ultimately didn't really matter in the end as I just didn't do the mission and I didn't have to do something like that again but it was pretty annoying.
Another issue is the partner, I pretty exclusively played as Gromit so to make things easier I'll just refer to either Wallace for day time or Hutch for night time, I don't really think it matters all that much but there does seem to be a difference when it comes to what aspect of the game is currently being played. Basically, Hutch is quite good, he can hold his own in a fight and manages to get rid of a good number of enemies by himself. Wallace on the other hand, is kind of bad, as he's the partner for the rounding up the animals sections he can't really do much. I think the entire time I played, he managed to get two animals, the rest of the time he just stood there and because I was usually herding a few animals or was rushing to try and get a good amount before the time limit ran out, he regularly got in the way. Thankfully I could whack him out of the way with the bungun, but this wasn't always an option and even if it was I still would have just preferred it if he got out of the way. I don't need him to be getting animals himself, I just want him to not be a literal obstacle for me.
One more issue I had and I kind of touched on this when talking about the hedgehogs from earlier, this game generally just lets you get on with it and kind of figure things out yourself, this isn't really something I'm keen on. There were a few different points where I didn't really know what the game wanted from me, whether it was how to deal with a thing in a mission I hadn't even seen before, how to progress (mainly towards the end) and also because I wasn't in the right area to be able to see what to do next. For some reason, the game gives you objectives on the map in the pause menu, but you can only see objectives related to the area you're currently in. The final area of the game is Tottington Hall and the game will have anything you need to do to progress the main story under Winnie's section on the map, this can only be seen at Tottington Hall though and if you've not done everything the game wanted you to in the other areas, you'll need to go back to them. But if you're then in one of those areas and you want to check what to do again, you'll have to go back to Tottington Hall just to see your objective, there are only four areas in the game but having to backtrack for this was kind of annoying and just weird.
Story wise, its mostly the same as the film from what I can remember, I don't mind the film but I don't think I like it as much as I used to and because of that the story didn't really matter to me here. There were some jokes that were quite funny though and I also thought the fact that they animated all the cutscenes was really impressive, a lot of movie tie-in games I played just used footage from the film when they could, but here there were scenes that I think are basically identical to the film and they only used animated cutscenes. I did enjoy a lot of the stuff concerning the townspeople though as they had quite original missions which were fun (getting vegetables for a pie, retrieving holy water from the sewers and protecting someone who wants to check their prize onion), they had funny lines or they had interesting voices.
I really enjoyed playing this and while I didn't encounter even half of what this game has to offer, I still had a very good time and feel content with what I played (it also means that I'll have a reason to come back). Its a really nice feeling that I can enjoy a game, to this degree, that I held in such high regards as a kid.
A surprisingly good licenced game published by KONAMI of all people. Jokes aside, its really good and i recommend checking it out if you're a fan of Wallace & Gromit, if you like action platforming games or if you want to play a fun game with a friend in multiplayer!