GNOG

The tone of GNOG is utterly charming; you fiddle with ugly-cute toy heads, pressing little buttons and switches, to ultimately unlock the secrets of the heads. It's breezy and charming and if you want a game to chill to, then it's a good choice, short as it is. The two downsides are the uneven nature of the puzzles, some of which require careful observation to solve and others of which involve just poking at the puzzle until it solves itself, and the iffy controls, which can be a bit frustrating at first. Ultimately minor, though, compared to the fun you get out of it.

GNOG is yet another puzzle game whose main focus is its visual style. A visual style so unique and quirky, it made me think the puzzles were more difficult than they actually are. Early on you solve puzzles by trial and error, until you figure out how the puzzles work. From then on you go through a checklist of "what can I interact with", mess around with the simpler puzzles, and keep an eye out for solutions to the more complex puzzles you'll encounter. If a puzzle seems only solvable by trial and error/brute force, there's a solution to it pasted somewhere on screen. It does become more annoying and challenging once you can no longer jump between puzzles, but attention to detail and some trial and error will get you through it. It took me three hours and change to finish the game, with some puzzles being a breeze while others were more difficult. Regardless, the ending seems to have come out of nowhere, since I didn't track how many puzzles I had left Frankly, I could have played a dozen more. The main gripe I have with this game is that it never gave me a sense of achievement. Most puzzles are either solved by trial and error or by spotting the solution on screen, and the few that aren't, are too quirky for the outcome to actually bring me any enjoyment, or a sense of achievement.

Arty game, well made, enjoyed playing, but it was quite easy - it is more for children than adults.

It's hard to knock on GNOG. As an exploration of color and shape, it's executed flawlessly. As a game, not so much. The game is a collection of similar unrelated stages. Reasoning your way through them will only take you so far and what starts as a psychedelic and relaxing exploration hits a frustrating wall. You'll eventually resort to clicking blindly, looking up a walkthrough, or putting the game down altogether. The Lab-O and Hom-3 levels are particularly egregious, but it's a consistent struggle. Controls feel derived from a mobile port, and are particularly frustrating with the Vive motion controllers. You'll mostly need to hold trigger to activate while moving your arm in a wholly unrelated direction for all interactions. It's probably better on a flat screen, or even better a tablet, where the act of tapping blindly wouldn't feel as silly. One to watch rather than play, I'm afraid.