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Woven Review (Nintendo Switch)

Game: Woven
Genre: Adventure
System: Nintendo Switch (also on PS4, Steam and XBox)
Developer/Publisher: Alterego Games B.V.| StickyLock Studios | PR Hound
Age Rating:  EU 7+| US E10+
Price: US $19.99 |CA  $30.44 | AU $ 30|£17.99 |€19,99
Release Date: 15th November 2019

Review code used, with many thanks to PR Hound!

Woven is an adventure game in which you explore a woollen world where stuffed animals once lived in peace. The world of Woven is a world of textures and colours. Everything you see is made out of cloth, stitched or knitted. Felt, cotton wool, leather and plaid: it’s all colourful and looks extremely good.

But this world isn’t just inhabited by stuffed animals. Something more is going on, there’s a secret to uncover. You will have to overcome obstacles, challenges, setbacks and secret paths. Exercise the grey cells and be amazed by the visual wonders the game presents!

Limping: an instant connection

Starting my game of Woven I met Stuffy. Stuffy is an Elephant that has clearly seen better days: his seams are torn, stuffing is popping out and one of his limbs is partly torn off. He limps along, and I felt an instant connection!

You see, I’m one of those people that seem to attract little accidents. Falls and collisions that mostly appear when I try to do something remotely active or athletic. A week ago I had my latest mishap which left me with a knee that is currently the size of a small melon making walking a challenge. I’ve been shuffling along all week, and seeing Stuffy do the same instantly endeared him to me. Oh you poor thing! Here, let me help you!

Pretty soon, Stuffy meets Glitch. And Glitch isn’t soft and textured, no, he’s made out of metal. Where did he come from? And why is he all alone? The two unlikely companions strike an instant friendship and go on an adventure. First order of business is making Stuffy whole again, and then Glitch really wants to reach the moon. He has no idea why, but feels like he really has to.

The soothing voice

Stuffy is a bit hesitant, because this means going through dark tunnels and caves, and Stuffy isn’t the bravest of creatures. But they both feel that it’s much better to be in this world together, so where one goes, the other follows.

Unexpectedly though, there is another companion on this quest. A disembodied voice, a narrator who translates what Glitch thinks. He gives hints here and there, or offers observations of your progress. Sometimes a seemingly random remark, of how beautiful the surroundings are. He wonders out loud who made this amazing world, and where all the other creatures like Stuffy are.

All of this is done to rhyme, and in a very pleasant sounding English voice. And the subtitles are available in various languages as well: Dutch, German, French and Spanish.

It’s a very interesting idea to add the voice and the rhyme to the game, and I found it really adds to the gameplay. It helps to create the world, where it’s your job as the player to guide Stuffy and Glitch to their destiny and help them to unravel the mystery.

Adventure game with lots of puzzles

Woven is very much a puzzle game where you will have to exercise the grey cells. Usually when a game is a pure puzzler the storyline isn’t very important, but in Woven it is. Then there’s adventure too: what will be beyond the dark cave once Stuffy conquers his fears? And what’s with Glitch’s memories? What are the iron moths doing pulling apart the stuffed tree? Did I just spot the metal legs of a spider just after Stuffy and Glitch went into the cave?

Woven LadiesGamers.com

And the only way to solve the puzzles and go anywhere you need to in Woven is to collect and make the right combinations. This is a game completionists will love: every area you explore has a number of patterns to collect, caves to find and five of Glitch’s memories. And more importantly to progress, dotted around the landscape you will discover music machines that will reward you with new animal blueprints.

The machines have four reader arms to read the dots on the paper, and the paper scrolls by in a set pace. The dots can scroll by on 8 different lines, and your four arms have to be set by you at the right time to read them.

Woven LadiesGamers.com

I was instantly reminded how Alterego, the studio that made the game, is Dutch: a very typical sight the tourists love in the Netherlands is the barrel organ (or ‘ draaiorgel’ in Dutch). It too reads the sheet music by feeling the dots, as the animal form machines in Woven do. At first it gave me quite a challenge to set the arms at the right place in the right time, but it got easier after a while. Good thing too, as you need the new animal forms. Because with the new forms comes new abilities.

Changing form, color and pattern

Having to push over a block? Stuffy’s elephant paws won’t do, but if you give him pig’s arms, they’ll do the trick. Scaling up a mountain? Antelope legs do the trick. Want to get passed the huge snake? Who would have thought he is a fashionista who only lets you cross when Stuffy’s patterns mirror his?

Woven LadiesGamers.com

Luckily huge sewing machines are strewn across the landscape and Glitch can operate them. You can choose the animal form you want and mix things up. Use the feet of the antelope but need the soft touch of the cat? Just make a cat with antelope feet.

Play with the patterns to your hearts content. Use leather in various colours, or go for the daisy pattern. Make Stuffy blend in by making him entire in the grass pattern. And he doesn’t have to be the same all over: there are 5×3 patterns to stick onto Stuffy.

Woven LadiesGamers.comTo make progress you have to collect animal blueprints, collect patterns (though you don’t need them complete), try to complete Glitch’s memories and solve the puzzles set before you.

Inventive and cleverly made puzzles

In the partnership of Glitch and Stuffy, Glitch is clearly the brains of the operation. He gives hints of what option to use. The feet Stuffy needs, if he has to push or stomp. You control this by using the ZR button combined with the R-stick.

Woven LadiesGamers.com

Glitch has moves too, like lighting up the room, operating the knitting machines and scanning for patterns. This is done with the ZL button and L-stick. And at times, a soundtrack and sounds.

Now I’m no puzzle genius, and I did find them a challenge at times. This is because at times cause and effect can be a bit farther apart but mostly because the puzzles are very cleverly made. I’m sure puzzle buffs will get ahead much faster then I have, but I have truly loved every minute of my journey with Stuffy and Glitch.

Woven LadiesGamers.com

The music and the sounds in the game are great, adding to the atmosphere. First the sound of the trees and the sheep, later on in the game more ominous sounds. I’ve already mentioned the textured world: just walking through it and marvelling at the craftsmanship in designing it all is amazing.

In the caves that you find you will see the history of Stuffy’s kind, their hardship and what happened to them. Glitches memories will tell about the story behind the metal insects. And the Narrator adds what you need to know. A perfect partnership.

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Conclusion

Let’s recap here: a small development studio, an amazing looking game that has lots of depth to it. A great story line and puzzles that exercise the grey cells. An added element of narration making it even better. Main characters that instantly make you feel protective. A long enough adventure with the right price tag. And even when I have other games waiting, Woven is taking over my entire spare gaming time.

I think you know what I’m going to say next: this game deserves all the attention it’s surely going to get. For me, it just has to be the highest praise, this is one of the best games I have played this year!

Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up

Two Thumbs Up Rating

 

 

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