wrote a review for this one ages ago when i was still casually involved with gaming journalism stuff (s/o to annapurna for still allowing me to play the game at e3 2018 without an appointment and just by knocking on their door lol). my feelings towards the game since that review have been modest - it does a lot that i like, but the package as a whole doesn't deliver and since i hadn't played it since its launch, i figured i would give it another go to see if my opinion would change.

the second half of this game is stronger than the first one and rather than go for the "suck everything up with your hold" tactic, the game wants you to solve puzzles by sucking things up, but then utilizing those objects to interact with the level and these are the moments where the game shine. the whole trash king segment in general follows this route and personally, i love the arcane kids feel the tech and music showcase here.

years later, i like this game, but i don't love it like i had expected to and those looking for an "reverse katamari" are going to be letdown (because this is not what this game is), but i do advise to pick this one up when it is cheap on sale and spend the hour or two it will take to 100% it - it's a fun ride

BK, a raccoon working at a donut shop, opens up holes all over town. The residents, along with all of their belongings, get sucked underground, where BK and Mira must figure out a way to get everyone back to the surface. And stop the real enemy behind these mysterious sucking holes.

Visuals

Donut County uses a low-poly graphic style and a bright color palette. I really enjoyed the way it looked. It definitely fit the quirky tone of the game. Although at times, some objects and animals were hard to figure out what they were suppose to be.

There’s a variety of environments and characters, and there’s always something to look at as you’re sucking up everything in sight.

Sound Effects + Music

I honestly didn’t pay too much attention to the background music. It’s fine. The track that plays when you finish a level did bring a smile to my face, because it just has this silly vibe to it. I can’t really describe it, but you’ll understand if you hear it.

There’s no voice acting at all, and minimal sound effects in general. It’s a pretty quiet game, but that didn’t bother me. You did get different sounds when interacting with certain objects, but it’s not constant noise.

Gameplay + Controls

Donut County is really straight forward. You move the hole around under objects to make them fall in. As more and more objects get into the hole, the larger it grows, and the bigger objects that can then be swallowed. There are some puzzle elements to it as you move along. You’ll need to use certain objects in the hole to trigger other events, and it was always fun to figure out what that might be.

I played on my PC with an Xbox controller and it was fine. I do think this game lends itself better to touch screen, since you’d have more direct control over where the hole was moving. But there’s no time limit, so it doesn’t matter if you miss an object and have to readjust. Except maybe for the final boss battle, which was unexpected and a ton of fun!

Replayability

Donut County only took me about two hours, maybe, to complete. There are a ton of achievements, some you get just for progressing the story, others are for side tasks. For whatever reason, none of the ones I completed triggered. In fact, the app doesn’t even register the game as played at all. I’m not sure if that’s an issue with the game or with my computer. But I don’t plan on playing again to earn those achievements (including the ones I should have gotten in the first place).

Overall

Donut County is a really fun and quirky game with a silly story and memorable characters. It’s a great way to pass a couple of hours, and will definitely bring a smile to your face.