Reviewed on Linux, Macintosh and PC
→ January 30, 2014 Octodad: Dadliest Catch is very much my kind of game. The central conceit of an octopus masquerading as a human is pure absurdist genius, and a premise worthy of even the most coked-up ‘80s sitcom producer. And as the name suggests, Octodad is married with children, and must maintain the façade of being a regular Joe even at home. It’s a great set-up for genuinely amusing gameplay and a surprisingly sweet story.
Dadliest Catch doesn’t give any context initially, instead dropping us straight into Octodad’s wedding day. It’s a deliberately bizarre place to start, and a good training ground for the controls. Each one of Octodad's tentacle legs is controlled independently; your body flopping about as you lurch drunkenly around, while objects can be picked up with a single, snaking arm. It’s actually quite intuitive, and you’ll have your tux on and attempt a nonchalant walk down the aisle in no time.
Unlike other games from a similar lineage, such as QWOP or Surgeon Simulator 2013, Octodad’s humour isn’t derived from an arcane difficulty or overly elaborate controls, but from physical comedy, pure and simple. It’s just innately funny controlling Octodad as he staggers and stumbles. If John Cleese were an invertebrate, his silly walk would look something like this. Dadliest Catch revels in the inherent humour of its concept, littering areas with physics objects to get caught on or to clamber up, or liberally applying that slapstick staple – the banana peel – to its environments.
Octodad is a lovable lead character, too. His every burble is translated to hilarious effect during conversations with his family, or when he’s steeling himself to action, and it’s complemented by great sound work. Think Futurama’s Zoidberg and you’d be on the right track. I burst out laughing when he started burbling a ditty to himself at one point.
One too many glasses of crab juice.
A side effect of the focus on comedy, however, is that Dadliest Catch is just not that hard; Octodad is far happier being the goofy, easy-going friend that makes you laugh than it is trying to be your demanding drill sergeant who delights in testing your will to go on.
That’s fine, of course; I’d prefer to be charmed than frustrated, but it’ll only take a couple of hours to play through the story.
What is here is great, however. There’s plenty of variety in objectives, and no one idea outstays its welcome. You’re whisked from mowing the lawn and making coffee at home to climbing through freezer cabinets and shopping for soda in a supermarket, and on to a terrifying trip to the aquarium, where posters featuring a stern-faced scientist and the text “Our biologists know a fish when they see one” threaten to expose our hero as the cephalopod in disguise that he is.
So meta.
Each level presents its own riffs on the core gameplay. Climbing an obstacle course in the aquarium is a highlight, with ladders, bridges, and zip-lines, but it’s just one location within the complex. Elsewhere, there are mini-games to test your tentacle-eye coordination, ventilation shafts to thread through, and the answer to the age-old question: “Can an octopus posing as a human climb an escalator that’s determined to go down as quickly as possible?”
And the follow-up question: “Can an octopus disguised as a human in a hammerhead shark outfit fool eagle-eyed biologists?”
It’s charming and funny, but I would have loved to see developer Young Horses push the ideas a little further, perhaps through optional side-missions that introduced a steeper challenge.
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wish there were more levels!
Steam Workshop support may help address the question of longevity, and completionists can seek out the ties hidden in each level and attempt to beat the developers’ best times. There’s also the option to play through the game controlling Octodad cooperatively with up to three friends, which is an inspired inclusion.
Dadliest Catch does go out on something of a sour note, however, with a poorly judged final mission that’s action-focused and punitive, in contrast to the more breezy vibe of other levels. It’s also a nightmare with a keyboard and mouse, so I strongly recommend that you play this section with a controller. On the flipside, the conclusion to the story is well worth sticking around for, and if you’re anything like me you’ll probably want to immediately re-live your favourite moments.
More...
→ January 30, 2014 Octodad: Dadliest Catch is very much my kind of game. The central conceit of an octopus masquerading as a human is pure absurdist genius, and a premise worthy of even the most coked-up ‘80s sitcom producer. And as the name suggests, Octodad is married with children, and must maintain the façade of being a regular Joe even at home. It’s a great set-up for genuinely amusing gameplay and a surprisingly sweet story.
Dadliest Catch doesn’t give any context initially, instead dropping us straight into Octodad’s wedding day. It’s a deliberately bizarre place to start, and a good training ground for the controls. Each one of Octodad's tentacle legs is controlled independently; your body flopping about as you lurch drunkenly around, while objects can be picked up with a single, snaking arm. It’s actually quite intuitive, and you’ll have your tux on and attempt a nonchalant walk down the aisle in no time.
Unlike other games from a similar lineage, such as QWOP or Surgeon Simulator 2013, Octodad’s humour isn’t derived from an arcane difficulty or overly elaborate controls, but from physical comedy, pure and simple. It’s just innately funny controlling Octodad as he staggers and stumbles. If John Cleese were an invertebrate, his silly walk would look something like this. Dadliest Catch revels in the inherent humour of its concept, littering areas with physics objects to get caught on or to clamber up, or liberally applying that slapstick staple – the banana peel – to its environments.
Octodad is a lovable lead character, too. His every burble is translated to hilarious effect during conversations with his family, or when he’s steeling himself to action, and it’s complemented by great sound work. Think Futurama’s Zoidberg and you’d be on the right track. I burst out laughing when he started burbling a ditty to himself at one point.
One too many glasses of crab juice.A side effect of the focus on comedy, however, is that Dadliest Catch is just not that hard; Octodad is far happier being the goofy, easy-going friend that makes you laugh than it is trying to be your demanding drill sergeant who delights in testing your will to go on.
That’s fine, of course; I’d prefer to be charmed than frustrated, but it’ll only take a couple of hours to play through the story.
What is here is great, however. There’s plenty of variety in objectives, and no one idea outstays its welcome. You’re whisked from mowing the lawn and making coffee at home to climbing through freezer cabinets and shopping for soda in a supermarket, and on to a terrifying trip to the aquarium, where posters featuring a stern-faced scientist and the text “Our biologists know a fish when they see one” threaten to expose our hero as the cephalopod in disguise that he is.
So meta.Each level presents its own riffs on the core gameplay. Climbing an obstacle course in the aquarium is a highlight, with ladders, bridges, and zip-lines, but it’s just one location within the complex. Elsewhere, there are mini-games to test your tentacle-eye coordination, ventilation shafts to thread through, and the answer to the age-old question: “Can an octopus posing as a human climb an escalator that’s determined to go down as quickly as possible?”
And the follow-up question: “Can an octopus disguised as a human in a hammerhead shark outfit fool eagle-eyed biologists?”
It’s charming and funny, but I would have loved to see developer Young Horses push the ideas a little further, perhaps through optional side-missions that introduced a steeper challenge.
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wish there were more levels!Steam Workshop support may help address the question of longevity, and completionists can seek out the ties hidden in each level and attempt to beat the developers’ best times. There’s also the option to play through the game controlling Octodad cooperatively with up to three friends, which is an inspired inclusion.
Dadliest Catch does go out on something of a sour note, however, with a poorly judged final mission that’s action-focused and punitive, in contrast to the more breezy vibe of other levels. It’s also a nightmare with a keyboard and mouse, so I strongly recommend that you play this section with a controller. On the flipside, the conclusion to the story is well worth sticking around for, and if you’re anything like me you’ll probably want to immediately re-live your favourite moments.
More...
