"Baba is You" Review
When Baba is You first came out, I was hooked on it for weeks.
It's a simple top-down puzzle game where the player primarily just
pushes blocks to get to the goal at the end of each level, but there's a
catch. Blocks of text in the game world make up the rules of each
level, and the player is allowed to push this text around to change the
rules of the game. For example, if a level has the condition "Flag is
Win" but the flag is trapped behind a column of rocks, the player must
figure out how to rearrange their available words so that they can win.
If there's a "Rock" text available to them, they could change the rules
to "Rock is Win" and collide with the rock to win. Or they could set up
"Baba is Win" and, as long as "Baba is You" is still true, the player
can instantly win.
This is a really simplistic premise, but the game does so much with it by gradually introducing new mechanics to the player. Conditions like "Hot" and "Melt" and "Move" start being introduced, complicating the formula as the player progresses. Personally, I think the game's difficulty curve is one of the best aspects about it. It starts off with the essential conditions while encouraging the player to experiment with using them in new ways. After familiarizing the player enough, it suddenly throws in a level with a new condition and an easy solution so the player can figure out what the condition does. Each level feels intentionally designed to give players a satisfying "aha" moment once they figure it out, and the game consistently tests the bounds of its own established rule sets. In the late game, it even allows players to move out of bounds of the overworld to solve a puzzle in the overworld. The gradual climb to get there is so brutal yet satisfying, and I really think this game hits the sweet spot between difficulty and encouragement. Progression isn't linked to a linear set of puzzles, but a set of "worlds" where players can choose to skip levels as long as they've beaten the necessary number to progress. A world may include twenty levels, but as long as the player successfully completes eight of them, they'll be allowed to progress. Over time, even completing just eight levels out of twenty starts to be a challenge. The game is so creative with the curve balls it throws at the players, to the point where I genuinely think this is one of the best designed games I've ever played.
Is this to say it's always fun and never potentially annoying? No. The process of beating a level eventually becomes so multi-faceted that it can feel overwhelming to even start one. If I was ever presented with a level that had, say, twenty different conditions, nine distinct interactable objects, and a weird layout that restricts the player's movement, I often lacked the motivation to even try and figure them out. I think this is something that happens with most puzzle games, and I'm sure that, to a different person, these types of levels would excite them into spending their time unraveling the many different parts. For me, though, it eventually turned me off to the point where I stopped playing the game. I genuinely feel like I gained a strong understanding of the mechanics and deserved every single solution I found, but I got more excitement from gradually figuring the mechanics out than unraveling levels with tons of different possibilities.
I think most complaints about this game will really come down to personal taste. While I enjoyed gradually learning the game's mechanics, I'm sure some people felt that the difficulty curve lasted too long. Likewise, even though I don't like the feeling of unraveling long, complicated level structures, some people probably get a lot of enjoyment from that. If you think puzzle games are a slog to play through, this one won't really change your mind. But, when you take a step back to really look at how well this game is designed, I think you'll at least appreciate it for what it does.
Game is Hard
is
Good
This is a really simplistic premise, but the game does so much with it by gradually introducing new mechanics to the player. Conditions like "Hot" and "Melt" and "Move" start being introduced, complicating the formula as the player progresses. Personally, I think the game's difficulty curve is one of the best aspects about it. It starts off with the essential conditions while encouraging the player to experiment with using them in new ways. After familiarizing the player enough, it suddenly throws in a level with a new condition and an easy solution so the player can figure out what the condition does. Each level feels intentionally designed to give players a satisfying "aha" moment once they figure it out, and the game consistently tests the bounds of its own established rule sets. In the late game, it even allows players to move out of bounds of the overworld to solve a puzzle in the overworld. The gradual climb to get there is so brutal yet satisfying, and I really think this game hits the sweet spot between difficulty and encouragement. Progression isn't linked to a linear set of puzzles, but a set of "worlds" where players can choose to skip levels as long as they've beaten the necessary number to progress. A world may include twenty levels, but as long as the player successfully completes eight of them, they'll be allowed to progress. Over time, even completing just eight levels out of twenty starts to be a challenge. The game is so creative with the curve balls it throws at the players, to the point where I genuinely think this is one of the best designed games I've ever played.
Is this to say it's always fun and never potentially annoying? No. The process of beating a level eventually becomes so multi-faceted that it can feel overwhelming to even start one. If I was ever presented with a level that had, say, twenty different conditions, nine distinct interactable objects, and a weird layout that restricts the player's movement, I often lacked the motivation to even try and figure them out. I think this is something that happens with most puzzle games, and I'm sure that, to a different person, these types of levels would excite them into spending their time unraveling the many different parts. For me, though, it eventually turned me off to the point where I stopped playing the game. I genuinely feel like I gained a strong understanding of the mechanics and deserved every single solution I found, but I got more excitement from gradually figuring the mechanics out than unraveling levels with tons of different possibilities.
I think most complaints about this game will really come down to personal taste. While I enjoyed gradually learning the game's mechanics, I'm sure some people felt that the difficulty curve lasted too long. Likewise, even though I don't like the feeling of unraveling long, complicated level structures, some people probably get a lot of enjoyment from that. If you think puzzle games are a slog to play through, this one won't really change your mind. But, when you take a step back to really look at how well this game is designed, I think you'll at least appreciate it for what it does.
Game is Hard
is
Good
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