Gomo Review

Gomo taps into one of the basest human elements a person has - friendship. Fishcow Studios’ point-and-click adventure asks the question of how far you would go to save your best friend - in this case, your best friend is a dog. Gomo, a two-legged, ‘Sackboy’ inspired… thing, has to set out on a journey to retrieve a crystal from the mines below his home; in order to save his pet dog from an alien; apparently too lazy to retrieve the shiny stone himself. With his pooch held at ransom, Gomo sets out across his homeland in search of this mysterious crystal whilst solving puzzles and acting like an goof. Gomo’s immature personality it personified by his actions alone, and whilst it gives a slight whimsical feel to the story, there’s really not much substance beyond having to save your dog from an extra-terrestrial.

Gomo as a game has a lot of personality, helped in part by the hand-drawn nature of the locations that you’ll visit on your journey, but that personality doesn’t last for long because Gomo is a very, very short experience. Gameplay isn’t particularly strong either. Each location you visit usually has a puzzle present for you to solve - which usually take the form of classic slider panels or ‘connect-the-pipes’ mini games - but none of them are particularly challenging, and whilst the easiness of Gomo isn’t necessarily a bad thing, its simple nature just doesn’t feel very rewarding.

Gomo’s merits rest entirely on its cute visual appearance, enjoyable soundtrack and goofy humour. The sepia hue that colours each area adds a feeling of old-fashioned industrialisation, and the music that changes with each area is just as essential and enjoyable when paired with the visual style. It’s a shame then, that Gomo’s main appeal is hampered by no widescreen support for the game. You can use a fullscreen mode, but doing so just provides you with a massive black border and a small game screen.

Length is a definite issue. You’ll be done with Gomo from start to finish within an hour or two at best, and it’s a shame, because the world shows a lot of untapped potential. Gomo especially is adorable, and his interaction with the world is the main highlight; as you watch him climb over obstacles with his plump body and spindly legs and arms - you can’t help but crack a smile.

If you want to squeeze as much value as possible from Gomo, there are some bonus mini-games to unlock by finding hidden slips of paper, but all of these are rather shallow extras that add little to the overall experience.

Ultimately, Fishcow Studio’s indie adventure is stylistic with some neat ideas, but without any form of challenging gameplay outside of finding an item and using it on the environment around you, or chance of exploring the world further - it’s just one linear path - you’ll struggle to find much reason to revisit the game after one quick playthrough.