From indie developer Limbolane Games and publisher Fellow Traveller, Great God Grove is a plunge into a world where gods, peculiar people, and spry messages collide in the face of an impending apocalypse. This adventure-puzzle game blends humour with light-hearted exploration, as you’re armed with a vacuum for sucking up words and spitting out solutions. With some noteworthy mechanics and a charming world, the journey is still not as divine as hoped.

When gods go off-script

You play as a peculiar mail carrier caught up in a divine mystery as you assist Inspekta, the God of Leadership, in investigating the disappearance of King, the highest-ranking deity. King’s sudden vanishing act has left the world’s gods and people in disarray, with only a powerful Megapon vacuum gun and a pile of scathing letters left behind. Each god you encounter, from the god of teamwork to the god of love songs, has a distinct, exaggerated personality, which makes for entertaining interactions and brings a comedic touch to your mission to save the world.

Most of your journey takes place in a charming, top-down 2.5D view where you roam around, talk to characters, and explore the world. But when it’s time to converse with the gods and key encounters that drive the story forward, the perspective shifts to a first-person view, emphasising their larger-than-life personalities. Adding to the fun, scattered throughout are full-motion videos featuring the Inspekta’s minions as puppets, who deliver amusing commentary on the world. These puppet segments, styled like retro VHS tapes, add an unexpected, offbeat twist to the game. Though this aesthetic may not perfectly match the setting, the puppet magic is welcome and delightful.

Great God Grove is full of whimsy and dialogue that has personality thanks to purposeful misspellings and playful language. Early interactions, like helping a postman with a stolen love confession or mediating disputes among divine beings, reveal a world where even end-of-day drama takes a backseat to light-hearted, quirky moments. This approach makes the narrative feel more like a collection of humorous vignettes than a high-stakes apocalyptic story, which can be both refreshing and a bit underwhelming. While the humour and character designs are delightful, the main storyline lacks depth. The lack of a strong, engaging central plot to propel you forward means the game’s stakes can feel low and not sustain interest.

There’s also a potential layer of accessibility issues stemming from the intentionally misspelled dialogue. While it adds a unique lure to the game’s atmosphere, this style may be challenging for non-native English speakers or players unfamiliar with English nuances. The dialogue-heavy interactions, while enjoyable, sometimes drag on, disrupting the story’s flow. Overall, the narrative sets a fun, good-natured tone with strong character moments, but it doesn’t quite deliver a story that will drive your playtime.

Great God Grove Review – World of wordcraft

Wordplay apocalypse

Great God Grove sets itself apart with its creative gameplay mechanics, particularly the use of the Megapon—a device that lets you “suck up” words from conversations and “shoot” them back to solve puzzles, influence other characters, or simply create a bit of mischief. The word-based puzzle mechanics offered are fun to mess around with initially, inviting you to experiment with language in imaginative ways. Still, the puzzle-solving mechanics can at times be unclear. It’s almost point-and-click absurdity at times where you’ll really need to think about the world you’re in to find the solution. For example, I was once stuck with moving on a maniacal townsperson seeking a blood sacrifice. After searching the area for a while, the answer was to play on this person’s insecurities about being “smooth” by using the “ruff-ruff” from a nearby dog to make them run away. Navigating the game’s eccentric logic can feel more trial-and-error than skill-based.

“Great God Grove sets itself apart with its creative gameplay mechanics…”

The game leans heavily on dialogue-based progression, requiring players to collect specific words from one character and then present them to others to solve problems. While clever in theory, this back-and-forth mechanic can become tedious, as some puzzles require multiple trips between characters just to gather the right words in the right sequence. An example of this frustration is in trying to console Ms Matternacht; while many words seem like they should work, only specific phrases elicit the desired response, making tasks feel restrictive and limiting. A more intuitive system for dialogue progression, or at least a hint system, would have helped ease the confusion.

There’s also an issue with dialogue pacing. Characters often engage in lengthy conversations, with text that appears in short, two to three-line bursts. This setup requires frequent clicking to advance, which can feel cumbersome, especially when conversations are packed with exposition that doesn’t necessarily drive the story forward. In a game centred around adventure and puzzle-solving, these prolonged dialogues can disrupt the flow, causing you to disengage from the otherwise intriguing world. Yet, there are also moments where the dialogue system shines; for instance, the yes/no mechanic in the first-person sections is cleverly implemented, allowing players to respond positively or negatively through simple directional controls, adding a tactile layer to dialogue choices.

All in all, Great God Grove has unique gameplay that shows real creativity, though select mechanical choices detract from the experience. Streamlining dialogue or bolstering the intuitive approaches to its word-based puzzles could have transformed the game from a fun concept into more polished gameplay.

Art of the divine

Visually, Great God Grove is vibrant and nostalgic, evoking a hand-crafted, cartoon-like world reminiscent of shows like Camp Lazlo. Its bold yellows, teals, and oranges create a warm setting, capturing a tone that aligns well with the game’s narrative. The world feels like a pop-up storybook brought to life, with character designs that are both endearing and odd, capturing a distinct visual charm. The character designs themselves are standout, with a puppet-like cutout style that feels fresh, as if each character is a part of a handcrafted diorama.

The UI, however, doesn’t always complement this aesthetic. The Megapon’s menu can clutter the screen, overlapping with dialogue boxes and other elements that detract from the visual experience. Unfortunately, resizing text in the settings didn’t fix this problem in my playtime. Tweaking the UI could have made for a cleaner, more accessible interface, allowing the artwork to truly shine.

“The character designs themselves are standout, with a puppet-like cutout style that feels fresh, as if each character is a part of a handcrafted diorama.”

Playing on PC there was a serious, though rare, framerate drop in first-person sequences, which required a reset or enduring the slow frame rate to get through the dialogue and eventually exit. These technical hitches, while not game-breaking, do detract from the overall polish and can pull you out of a good time.

The audio design in Great God Grove is well-executed, with Louie Zong’s jaunty soundtrack enhancing the game’s spirited world. Tony “ERGO” McVaney’s sound effects are similarly well-suited, adding spice and a touch of comedy to interactions. I really appreciated the Animal Crossing-style voices. Characters like Marsha, who communicates with a voice-over saying “booger” sped up to sound like a cute mouse or creature add so much to the appeal.

6.5

Decent

Positive:

Creative wordplay mechanic
Fun and colourful world
Playful audio design

Negative:

Not a strong story
Puzzles can be confusing
Accessibility and technical concerns

Great God Grove brims with charm and originality, offering a fresh take on word puzzles and gods among people. Its offbeat humour and playful design will draw you in, but clunky mechanics and a fairly straightforward narrative may leave you wanting more cohesion and polish. With a little more divine intervention, Great God Grove’s quirky moments might have ascended to a truly special adventure.

Great God Grove Review – World of wordcraft

Reviewed November 12, 2024 on PC