Gomo

Gomo seems to be a game that relies solely on its visuals, considering each puzzle only takes you at most a minute to solve, and some only a few seconds. Sadly, that visual style isn't very appealing, at least to me, and everything you see in this game feels thrown together. From the type of puzzles you're tasked with solving, to what's on the screen, to the puzzles' lack of difficulty. Everything feels as if not a lot of effort went into it, nor a lot of thought. There is a premise to the game, but most of the puzzles you solve and the screens you're going to visit have nothing to do with that premise. All this game consists of is going to a new screen, picking up the one item you can pick up, using it on the one thing you can use it on, go to the next screen, rinse and repeat. Gomo isn't atrocious by any means, but it's so lacking in effort, that playing it you wonder why you even bother. It does try to be humorous, but the humor is so bad, I didn't even chuckle. The most hard hitting gag this game seems to have, is showing a sheep floating midair, tied to a balloon. Gomo just feels like the type of game one guy makes on his own time, releasing it for free. Not a game a serious studio would ask money for.

I bought the game because I liked the illustrations. It might be a nice game for people who are not used to puzzles and/or point n click adventures, but for me, it was actually kinda boring. Even the plot often didn't really make any sense but was rather a collection of random events tied one after another. Two stars for the illustrations only. (I don't like to give bad reviews in general and hope the developers are not mad about it.)

The parallels to the games of Amanita Design are obvious - the "story" is similar to Samorost (kidnapped dog) and the game was, like Machinarium, published with the help of Adobe Air. However, in comparison with Machinarium, the latter does many things better. The puzzles are either primitive (most of them), illogical or user unfriendly. The user unfriendliness also applies to the user interface. Items can not be combined with each other. There are no save games; one can only continue a current game. A progress in the current screen will be lost then; it has to be done again. The translations are incomplete, as they are mainly done for the menus only. As for the humor, it falls flat, at least for me. I also dislike to have to search for tiny objects on the screen; this is a point that has been criticized so often in the past. It has been stated before that the game might appeal more to children, though they might also be angered by the issues mentioned. On a side note, there is a bug that if you restart the game, one item will be missing, it is however possible to continue without it. I like the graphics of the game (though they are less detailed than Machinarium). I found the sound and music also to be quite OK, even though the latter is repetitive. The credits are also nicely done. The short duration didn't bother me as much as the other points. It was certainly nice to see the game's style in action once, but as for the puzzles the game clearly falls behind many other adventures. Since the developers are currently working on a successor, I hope they are aware of the rather mixed reception and create something that can hold up to expectations. 2 1/2 stars from me.

First of all, I bought it on sale, so I didn't have big claims. For the rest is a nice game, relaxing. Music and graphic are pleasant, puzzles are simple and there is a general humor along the story, that I like. Summing up, if you find it on sale, my counsel is to try.

Nice art, cute action/behavior. Really small on screen and very difficult to see what is interactive.