Thank you 2D BOY for sending us a review code!

World of Goo 2 is the sequel to the well-received and interesting game, World of Goo. Both games in this duology are cartoonish, physics-based puzzle games in which you connect various specials of spherical sentient slime ("Goo Balls") together to form structures like towers and bridges to traverse a series of levels. It's a pretty simple premise, really, as most puzzle games tend to be. What makes games like World of Goo 1 & 2 stand out is their execution.

As bizarre and loosely formed as it is, World of Goo does have a story of sorts. The first game chronicles the rise and fall of the World of Goo Corporation, the consumerist mega-conglomerate where everyone shops for popular products like drinks and makeup. World of Goo 2 picks up with World of Goo Corporation's revival, now with new green sustainability initiatives! The Goo that is the lifeblood of the corporation has once again arisen from the deep alongside massive shifts in the planet. All these events bring new terrain, new creatures, and, of course, new Goo Balls.

There is an incredible variety in the types of puzzles you'll be asked to solve. For example, one new species of Goo Ball sucks up and transports fluids, like liquid goo or machine coolant, which can then be shot out from new goo-spewing creatures. Another new Goo Ball connects into new rock formations, allowing you to redirect lava flow or make support platforms. World of Goo 2 also sees the return of ivy goo (Goo Balls that can be removed and reused), fuse goo (matchstick-looking Goo Balls that catch fire and burn down), and albino goo (goo balls resistant to all forms of burning), among others.

Another new feature of this game, available only on Windows, macOS, and Linux, is a level editor. According to the in-game screen, it's the same level editor the developers used to create every level in the game, so in theory, you should be able to create anything you see while playing. On PC, the levels can be shared via Steam Workshop.

Like its predecessor, World of Goo 2 is broken up into 5 chapters, each with different environments. One of the key gameplay differences is in the challenge goals. In World of Goo 1, your incentive for completing each level with as few Goo Balls as possible is that the extras would then be usable to build a mega structure. World of Goo 2 instead has 3 optional "Obsessive Completion Distinction" (OCD) achievements for completing the level in under a certain number of moves, a certain amount of time, or with the retention of a certain number of extra Goo Balls. These achievements are no walk in the park to reach, either, with the leftover Goo Balls requirement usually being almost 3 times as many as what I usually got from just attempting to complete the level as best as I could. There are also a number of "challenge levels" which are not required to be completed to progress the story. These levels were so difficult that I only successfully completed one or two of them.

In actuality, every level is optional; every single one can be skipped with no penalty other than that the Completion percentage shown on the save profile will not increase. All levels, including optional challenge ones, must be completed to reach 100%. But for someone who is having serious trouble figuring out one or two puzzles, being able to skip them without penalty is a nice addition. The game also has a feature where, after a few moves, finding and clicking on the firefly on screen will rewind the level back to a move or two previous to your current state. In other words, this is a puzzle game that is approachable regardless of skill level.

The dimension in which it is less approachable is in its moral aspects. Some of you may have read the highlights above and wondered how a game about building bridges out of goo could possibly have such a lengthy "Moral Warnings" list. It's almost comical just how many caveats I had to put in there. In the bulk of the game, there are only two real instances of note. The first comes about from a new Goo Ball variety called "Grow Balls". Structures made of grow balls, as the name suggests, grow when they come into contact with liquids. One pre-made grow ball structure in one level is...tower-like in shape...and then grows. A sign in the level tells players, essentially, to not comment on the potentially suggestive nature of this. The other moment is in a cutscene where the cartoonish denizens of the game rapidly age before the player's eyes. During this scene, as they decay, their eyeballs fall out. It's a little grisly.

All of the other moral considerations take place in one chapter of the game that centers around playing fake "sequels" to World of Goo. One of these is World of Goo 17: The Black Stain, a noir detective point-and-click adventure game. Yes, this game takes place as part of World of Goo 2. It's so jarring in how out-of-place it is to the point where I couldn't help but laugh. This section, however, includes everything you'd expect to see in that genre of story, and then some. For starters, the main character Cliff Spanner, Private Detective, comments on the physical beauty of his client in a way that is mildly suggestive. The characters in this sub-game smoke (but they smoke sparklers) and drink at bars (though the bars seem to only serve milk). Cliff Spanner, Private Detective has to go to one of these bars as part of his investigation and uses a handful of euphemisms when talking to the bartender to find out if the person he is looking for is romantically coupled with the lounge singer. Said lounge singer has visible cleavage. When Cliff Spanner, Private Detective, goes to question her in her dressing room, it turns out that she is actually a he, dressing up in drag to perform. Their exchange ends with the drag performer slapping Cliff Spanner, Private Detective, on the butt (to his clear displeased shock). One character is murdered during a blackout and left in a pool of his own blood; another character is described as having been murdered in a much more grisly way. The first murder victim is also a glutton and gay, repeatedly rubbing the upper thigh of Cliff Spanner, Private Detective, in a way that makes him very noticeably uncomfortable.

Speaking of uncomfortable, I should mention the graphics. The graphics during gameplay are perfectly fine; the goofy, colorful style matches the tone the game is aiming for. The cutscene graphics, on the other hand, were a little offputting for me. It's the same as from World of Goo 1, so if you like it, you like it. Personally, it reminds me of the utterly unsettling YouTube series "Saladfingers". Art is subjective, though, and the total length of all the cutscenes is less than 5 minutes. My one gripe with the in-game graphics is that, when building, the indicators that show how the Goo Ball you are holding will connect (or whether it will even connect at all) to the structure nearby often get lost in the background. There's no contrast; it's a ghostly whitish light that fades the further from the structure the Goo Ball is. If the background is something like a super moon, for instance, it's nearly impossible to see the connection indicators. The music, on the other hand, is very well done. The intro is absolutely over the top, and the music from level to level varies from subtle to toe-tapping. For a puzzle game, the best music enhances the feelings of the environment without intruding on your focus, and the developers did an excellent job there.

One other consideration for World of Goo 2 is that, despite its cartoonish appearance and graphics, it asks a lot from your graphics processor, at least by default. Granted, the graphical settings can be turned down, though not in the way most PC gamers are likely to be used to. There's a simple "Graphical Fidelity" setting that just has a value from 0% to 100%. My R9 390 graphics card, roughly 10 years old at this point, didn't stop complaining until I had that value turned down to 40%. I suppose that means it can be turned down even further, and players with even modest setups are likely going to be able to run the game, but the levels and backgrounds are likely to get pretty gritty and pixelated. The foreground (the parts of the level you are actively interacting with) don't seem to be as impacted by changing this setting. Other than this very minor consideration, World of Goo 2 gets high marks for stability. I didn't experience a single glitch or crash in my 10 hour playthrough.

The PC version of World of Goo 2 only supports mouse and keyboard natively, though the former is basically all that is required. Using the scroll wheel allows the player to zoom in and out to view more of the level at once, but the game does not support zooming out very far. Considering the screen moves around from either clicking and dragging or by mousing near the edge of the window, not being able to zoom out while building to prevent accidental scrolling while building was frequently frustrating to me. Another nuisance is that the button to move on to the next level appears as soon as you've rescued a set number of Goo Balls and is very easy to accidentally click. If you're going for the OCD achievement, this button waving around in the middle of the screen is actually a hindrance, like an extra challenge to overcome.

As for controllers, Steam did its best to auto-translate my controller into mouse input. It wasn't bad, but it was absolutely not as easy to use as just using mouse input, so I switched back almost immediately. Perhaps it's a little better on dedicated consoles, but given that only PC versions support the level builder, I would argue that the PC versions are a better purchase overall, if you have the choice.

World of Goo 2 builds a slimy foundation on its predecessor and offers an experience that is fun and engaging. It's funny, it's unique, it's solid, and can be played by puzzle players of any skill level. There are certainly some moral considerations that should be kept in mind; I was shocked once or twice when playing this in front of my younger children and would caution players away from doing so themselves. But for more mature puzzle game lovers, giving World of Goo 2 a try is a no-brainer.

-maestro_dana