Shape of The World review

A video game should feel like a journey of varying emotions whether that’s through its storyline, soundtrack and visuals. They’ll be moments when you’re left with happiness and sadness, which is what leads me on to this review of Shape of The World.

The only difference between a lot of journeys in games is that you can’t take your time on that journey because you’re either being shot at by enemies or racing against a rising pool of lava in a platformer. Shape of The World is a first person exploration game set in a tranquil world full of mysterious creatures and procedurally generated plants as you explore the colour-filling world.

As colours populate new areas you explore you’ll begin to notice the soothing colour palette of orange, yellow and green, but suddenly you’ll hit an area of vibrant red and blue with flying whale like creatures. Every zone is different and that’s what makes Shape of The World unique.

You’ll notice throughout large markers which if you pass through will fill a new area with colour and procedurally generate forests too. Every time you pass through this it will also regrow back in a new variaton so there’s a slight bit of replayability here. Every world feels compelling and engaging to explore, whether that’s the creatures or pillars you can interact with to build a set of tracks to further explore.

I have to say the tracks you take feel like a rollercoaster ride as you can breeze down these and take in the surrounding areas before reaching your next destination to traverse. The controls can impact upon this as the sensitivity by default is a bit of twitchy, but all of this can be adjusted so it’s something the devs have addressed to cater to all.

All of which is accompanied by calming music which fits perfectly with the gameplay on screen. The journey is helped to feel psychedelic thanks to this and the colour evolving visuals.

Shape of The World offers a good selection of 10 hours or more gameplay and with procedurally generated areas every experience is different. I would definitely recommend a headphone experience to get the best out of its soothing soundtrack and beautiful colour livening areas.