Have Game, Will Play: Octodad Dadliest Catch on PS4

Octodad** is about an octopus pretending to be a human husband and father. It is a completely ridiculous premise that, for me, never lost its charm. The catch is that by inevitably flailing around causes humans, even your family, to begin to suspect that you might not be a man after all. There is a meter that indicates how suspicious people around you are. Some NPCs(non-playable characters) are more dangerous than others and can cause that meter to deplete rapidly. Most characters you’ll encounter are very very gullible and would take significant amount of time to become concerned about your lack of humanity. However your nemesis knows the truth and tries to eliminate you throughout the game.

The controls in Octodad could be dealbreaker, as they are intentionally inaccurate. moving the analogs allows you to move Octodad’s arms around and pressing the L1 or R1 buttons allows you to grab items. “Walking” around the environment is done moving the analog sticks while pressing the L2 or R2 buttons. I finished the game and never really figured out everything. The constant flailing adds to the fun and humor of the game but could serve to frustrate people. There are a handful of environments and a trio of ties hidden in every level.  So if you’re really into Octodad you can return to any level and search for them.

Octodad’s length(3-4 hours) is appropriate given the gag it’s employing. The humor may have broad appeal but the controls will be a huge roadblock even for people who are enjoying Octodad’s misadventures. There is a coop mode but I did not get a chance to try it.  I read that it involves splitting the controls between more than one controller. That sounds incredible difficult.  Nevertheless, humor is something that few games get right but Young Horses make it look easy.

Recommendation*: Worth a buy on sale – Very funny/charming but short with unintuitive controls
Full Disclosure: This game was provided to GameEnthus by the developer.
Genre: adventure game
Developer: Young Horses
Publisher: Young Horses
Platforms: PS4**, PC, Mac, Linux
Price: $14.99

http://octodadgame.com/
http://GameEnthus.com
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gameenthus-podcast-video-games/id286435007?mt=2

Scale:*
Worth a buy – paying full price for fans of the series or genre makes sense – often includes a caveat
Worth a buy on sale – not quite full price worthy but close, – often includes a caveat
Rent – rent before buying
No – borrow it if you must play it
Please no – Don’t waste any time and/or money on it