In any other game, these would be complaints, but Octodad is specifically about being uncomfortable and learning how to function in a body that is almost alien. It takes a certain amount of brain rewiring to be able to make Octodad move as intended, even when the necessary sequence of actions is cognitively clear. The result is almost like handing a non-gamer a controller and putting him in the thick of a first-person shooter there is a lot of flailing around and looking at the ground. The kicker is that each limb is generally controlled one at a time, and they are all held together with an elasticity that often sends them off in unintended directions. By manipulating their positions in space, Octodad can walk, run, climb, grab objects, and do all of the things a normal human being does. By default, players control three of Octodad’s limbs: two legs and one arm. I ended up preferring playing with a controller, but both work on the same principles. In addition to mouse and keyboard control, full gamepad support is in place. Dressed in his snazzy suit, most people are none the wiser about his true identity, but suspicions rise when he is spotted acting strange. Octodad is just a typical guy, trying to make his way through life with his wife and two children, except that he is an octopus and he has the additional burden of keeping that a secret. Rig: AMD Phenom II X2 555 3.2 GHz, with 4GB of RAM, ATI Radeon HD 5700, Windows 7 64-bit Release: Janu(Linux, Mac, PC), March 2014 (PlayStation 4) Octodad: Dadliest Catch (Linux, Mac, PC, PlayStation 4 ) By requiring a certain amount of care and effort, things like mowing the lawn or visiting the grocery store are made fun, though they can dip into the realm of frustration at times. While the tasks in Octodad would be mundane in almost any other setting with a typical control scheme, they can be challenging or thought-provoking to an octopus dressed up as a human. Octodad: Dadliest Catch challenges that idea, making awkward control central to the gameplay. One such assumption that most make is that control should feel natural and unobtrusive as the player’s interface with the game. An interesting exercise in game design is to identify assumptions about the genre or medium in general, then question those assumptions.
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