Donut County is also available on Xbox game pass for pc so if you already have an active membership of game pass then stop reading the review and go play the game right now 🙂
WHAT IS DONUT COUNTY?
So, in donut county, you play as an ever-growing hole whose objective is to consume an entire town of talking animals. Might sound interesting because it is! The game innovates puzzles on such a simple concept with a punch of a simple story and light-hearted characters. It is a short game, so short that you can complete it in one afternoon with a hot cup of coffee by your side. With that said lets proceed to the review
THE SIMPILISTIC ART STYLE
The art style of donut county follows a simplistic route of a low poly hybrid. It is lovely. The 3D character models have minimalistic facial details, other models follow one color scheme i.e. a 3D model or a part of it will have only one color from the palette, take it as a 1×1 Minecraft texture pack. Does this art style stay consistent throughout the game? yes and oh boy it looks so good. The background to the map which you are currently busy cleaning is nothing too fancy, just a solid color or a gradient and that gets the job done. Moving forward
THE OST AND OTHER AUDIO DESIGNS
The OST is pretty vibing. It reminds me of those chill low-fi beats. Apart from the game, I listen to these beats while reading books browsing social media, and other stuff, totally gripping. The audio design is also pretty good, the character audio is there is mostly random blabber because their main speech is in the text so the random blabber audio which is there sounds kinda eerie to me. There is a place called underground (explained later in the review) and the soundtrack that plays there is also not so chill and has a spooky vibe to it and that is actually good because matches the tone of the story and the conversation that takes place there. Overall great stuff
THE HOLE
The hole is a major part of the game because you play as a hole. Now you might think that what is best you can do which can literally consume anything well the creator of the game found a clever way to embed complex puzzles. For example on some levels, there is a snake stuck in your hole so you have to figure out what to do next by deeply observing your surroundings. Then in some levels, you can fill your hole with water, and then you can also attach a catapult to your hole which will be useful to throw things at higher objects and just a lot of really cool puzzles which you might not expect making Donut County one of the most innovative puzzle games ever! But wait AJ who is controlling the hole in the game why is it eating the entire city, what is its objective?
STORY (SPOILERS)
The story is fairly simple and linear to understand. It’s about two characters, Mira and her friend BK. The hole is being controlled unintentionally by BK, a raccoon. BK has actually found this mobile app that lets you schedule donut deliveries and in return, you get some rewards through an XP system. But to his surprise, he was actually sending out holes that eat the entire delivery location. This fact was noticed by Human Mira and she tries to warn him on multiple occasions. All the things and people that are eaten go into the underground, a place below the surface connected through the hole you control. A major part of the story takes place in the underground. whether it is the self-realization of mistakes or all the characters forgetting the past to unite and escape the place together.
In my first playthrough, I did not care much about the story I just skipped the dialogues and rushed straight to the core gameplay but as I progressed forward I realized the gameplay is slowly turning into more story connected so I paused the game and went to the main menu to restart the game. The story is beautiful and each dialogue is well written. You will have a lot of fun with punches of laughter. The conversation which is done through mobile is exactly how people chat nowadays which is a plus to the writing. Apart from the human character, Mira, all the characters are talking animals, of which the majority are raccoons. They all have a unique character and go through subtle changes. It is very sweet to observe these talks and chats in third person which I recommend. Do not skip the dialogue. Trust me, you will like it. If there is one flaw I will say for the story, is that it’s short.
VERDICT
A short and sweet game with an innovative concept and a decent story with lo-fi beats that play while you consume a city. With the only flaw being the short length of the game, I very much recommend this game when it is on sale or through Xbox game pass for PC.
It is a must-play!