Donut County Review
Played on Xbox One (base)
Developed by Ben Esposito
Released 28th August 2018
Before this nominee for Best Mobile Game of 2018 was called Donut County, "Kachina" was a passion project that Ben Esposito worked on in his free time while working on The Unfinished Swan. The game progressed from being an idea for a game jam to an 'authentic' homage to the Hopi culture, all before being a cherished, whimsical indie game. So cherished in fact, that when a mobile game called Hole.io copied Donut County's core mechanic and reached #1 on the App Store, it was framed as a cheap Donut County knock-off and nothing else.
Story
The story of this short, sweet and rounded game is both ridiculously fitting but also intriguing. Amphomorphic animals of a small town called Donut County ordered doughnuts to their residences, only to find out that they got delivered an ever-expanding hole instead. This hole gets progressively bigger across the whole narrative, reaching sizes big enough to swallow entire homes and trap the town's residents down there. As wacky and comical as this story and premise are, it persuaded me to continue playing this 2-hour game till the end. The narrative flashes between what's occurring above ground with the destructive hole, and 999 feet below ground where the residents find themselves furious at the one who's at fault: BK, a raccoon.
Gameplay
The gameplay is very tranquil accompanied by its delightful soundtrack and hilarious physics-based, swallowable objects. Your main goal is to be a hole and expand in size until you wiped the whole closed-off area. You start your engulfing with smaller objects like bricks and doughnuts, and proceed to chairs and fireplaces, before being able to swallow cars and whole buildings. The game also offers new mechanics so as to not get bored and open up puzzle possibilities, from having a heatwave flow out of your hole to light something on fire, to catapulting objects to knock something or flip a switch. Though not required, these gameplay additions were pleasant to an already enjoyable game.
Bossfights
This game somehow fits in a boss fight. Even though it's more to serve as a comical reason to switch up the gameplay, it is done well and enjoyably. The boss itself is quite simple and can be done first try, however, it could've interpreted more gameplay mechanics than just the catapult as all the other features were great. As for the design and music of the boss, it excels and is so goddamn fun.
Characters
The characters are all quirky and charming. The humour in the dialogue between Mira, the only human in Donut County, BK and more, is fantastic and got a good couple of chuckles out of me. The timing of the jokes and the design of the County's inhabitants are amusing throughout that it upsets me that this game is so short.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere is phenomenal. The poly-shaped environments are all vibrant in their own different ways, from a colourful theme park to a snake-filled ranger outpost, I was shocked and awed at my soon-to-be destruction zone. The music was done really well, both gifting a sound of zen and a Lofi beat that swayed your head left and right. There were a couple of areas that looked very similar to each other but that didn’t detract from the game’s value.
Story- 9/10
Gameplay- 9/10
Bossfight- 7.5/10
Characters- 8/10
Atmosphere- 8/10
Great
Just play this, you'll be doing yourself a favour.
