Venture into a uniquely and inspiring knitted world.
At first glance I was sold, Woven is an adventure puzzle game that has me completely blown away. That feeling of being elated couldn't compare to how fast I fell in love with Woven when I first started playing it. This has to be one of the best indie games to date. Family friendly, but not too easy. For adults and children. My daughter and I had so much fun playing this. I just wanted to explain in this brief intro how much of an impact this game had on me. So, now I will jump into the rest of the features and the exciting element of exploration. I hope you enjoy and give Woven a good chance.
Stuffy and Glitch
You start out with an old, rough looking Stuffy, who for now is stuffed, and sewn together to look like an Elephant. What a perfect first animal to pick to start off the adventure. Appealing to kids and adults alike, he is a little faded and limping on one leg. You start to trudge the path that lies before you and before too long you come across an odd looking bug/metal creature lying face down in some type of contraption. As Stuffy approaches this mysterious machine he sees a bird sitting on it, and without hesitation you sing a little tune and the bird flies away. After the bird departs the machine starts to move, wings of a firefly with one single eyeball to see, so Stuffy approaches the disoriented poor thing and stares, this is Glitch. As Glitch comes around, he realizes he has no memory of where he was or of his past events. Stuffy being Stuffy invites Glitch to come along. From this the most unlikely dynamic duo was born.
Shortly after the revitalization of Glitch, they follow the path back down and see another odd contraption. Steam coming up from the stocks with dark grey smoke. In a land full of woven objects, this is not normal. Nonetheless, it had a hole that Glitch can perfectly fit in. As glitch inserted himself into the hole in this machine, the most unlikely thing happened... Stuffy was underneath of what looked like a bird cage, it dropped on him, then all of a sudden this machine starts sewing Stuffy up and gave him more of a new mint hue and fixed his limp! This is a knitting Machine! I was blown away again!!! What a creative game indeed!
A Knitted World
Woven is such a wonderland of hues and mystery. My first initial thought when the game booted up and I jumped in was that the concept of this game was on point. The hills, trees, grass, animals, everything was made from thread, yarn and many more such crafting materials. The ground and the trees, luscious, inviting and very enchanting. Along the way in your journey you have side missions, though they are optional, I'd suggest doing them. One Includes finding all 30 different color schemes and patterns to add to Stuffy, and you can change his color at any knitting machine you find, this usually involves finding 30 different schemes in each level... That my friends is a lot of different colors to customize your avatar with. Trudging on, you will eventually come upon another funky looking machine. Stuffy and Glitch get a little closer and Glitch gets to work. He flies into the socket at the top and some sort of music machine starts to run. You will have 5 separate bars where yellow dots show up to make a tune. Your job is to go up and down in each bar determining if you need to move the hand up or down on a single bar to hit the dots just right - in the same vein as a music rhythm game, and after completion you will get a Blueprint for a new Stuffy! You will have to go back to a knitting machine in order to create your new animal body. In a flash the knitter will spin you a new body! So awesome. Each blueprint brings different animals to life which also have different abilities to progress through the game. If you get stuck, go back to the knitter and try different feet or hands to see if you can get the job done.
Hidden Optional Objectives
In this beautiful world you will find many hidden colors that Glitch can scan. You may then use those colors that you find for your character. There are about 30 different colors in each level. So, there are so many to find. These can be tricky to find. Some are in flowers that you have to stomp open, some are on animals and others like the apple red color was in the tree, I then had to stomp, it fell in the water and I had to run all the way down stream and scan it before the boar ate it. Glitch thinks out loud. So, whenever a prompt pops up to scan, better do it. Glitch know what he is talking about. Find them on the ground, birds etc. Sometimes you have to blend in with other animals with the same color to find more colors after completing the hidden mission. A lot of things to find, a big part of this game is exploring, and it is such an adventure. Caves and Glitch's memories are the other things you have to find. When you find a dark cave, prompt Glitch to use his flash and it will light up the cave and show beautiful bright cave drawings. Usually there are 3 to 4 to find in a level. Glitch and his memories are a little hard to find as well. They are spread all over the levels. From 3 to 5 hidden memories in a level. Look everywhere! You'll be surprised what you find.
Conclusion
This has to be hands down one of the best indie games I have played in a while. This is because of the unique story and concept of building stuffed animals from thread, yarn etc. this is an epic adventure for all ages. You must save this beautiful world from the destruction of metal insects.