At the moment, it's 10% off at 13.49 USD on Steam.
First impressions
- Unreal-based, so controls are fairly straightfoward
- interactive areas look like chalk art and stand out against the game's cluttered maps
- so far progression is completely linear and a bit predictable
- saves are handled through checkpoints that occur too infrequently for my tastes
- the puzzles gain in complexity as the player journeys onward; one solution was so f%*+ing obvious I'm ashamed of myself for not catching it sooner
- graphics are decent and there is no HUD to speak; though why there should be, I have no idea...
- don't try to climb clusters of objects, the maps can glitch and trap a player forcing a restart
I wished I knew nothing about the title going in, but that hasn't taken too much away from the game. It's not a bad title so far, though a few things are annoying me (I'll cover these once I finish).
Final thoughts
The game takes about four hours give or take and there's possibly a "New Game+" available after completion, but I doubt I'll play through it again anytime soon.
Papo & Yo pitches itself as a casual, whimsical game, but things get hectic and frustrating well before it ends. Players will be expected to rapidly navigate cluttered enviroments where collision detection might not always function as intended. Several times I had to restart simply due to an actor getting stuck to a wall or piece of debris, which brings me to another major issue: checkpoint saving.
I'm sure a lot of console titles use checkpoint systems, but this is fairly uncommon on (non-platformer) PC games and for good reason. Combine this with unskippable cutscenes and you're looking at one angry player. Thankfully, reloading doesn't happen to often unless one of the characters mounts themselves to nearby scenery again...
Speaking of scenery, the game's set in a surreal South American city where nothing's up to code. The graffiti and overall style just weren't that impressive, but the last three areas stood out. Character graphics were pretty solid, even though the animations were occasionally lacking.
The music and sound design really fit the setting; nothing outstanding, but they did their job without any obvious flaws.
The story's largely based off the creative director's family problems, which makes the game more of a psychcological title than fantasy or surreal. Papo & Yo is a bit predictable, but it floats and even gains a bit of elevation through the finale. Check it out when you can, but try to catch it on a sale--more than 10% at least.