STUFFED Preview

Earlier this year I got to check out the demo for STUFFED. The game created by The Waving Bears has you playing as an adorable plush teddy bear in a procedurally generated first-person shooter. Like any good stuffed animal, the bear wants to protect its owner Ellie from the mean, nightmarish creatures in her dreams. When I was a kid my favourite stuffed animal was a bunny that my children now call Waffles. I have no doubt in my mind that Waffles would try to protect me too, just like every kid believes about their special stuffy.
STUFFED is now on Early Access on Steam, so you can choose to play solo or online co-operative mode with up to four players; this mode wasn’t available in the demo when I originally tried it out.

No matter which mode you choose, the goal is to protect Ellie’s bedroom door from being broken by the creepy boogeyman-looking creature attacking it. The tall, shadow-like creature will show up around the time the fourth wave starts, and while you are busy taking down the horde of gnomes, duckies, and robots, they will be busy attacking the door. It won’t take long for them to get through so you have to manage your time trying to protect the door and taking out the boogeyman while all the other little creatures are attacking you. I died a lot of times here, either from him getting through the door, or the constant attacks from all the smaller enemies. I think it would be worthwhile trying to have grenades ready when it gets to this point. It would at least hit multiple baddies at once! Having to battle the waves of enemies and trying to repair the door reminded me of playing the Nazi Zombie mode in Call of Duty. Sure the enemies are toys, but some of them sure are creepy. Especially the rubber duckies with the sharp, pointy teeth, they are vicious!

After getting my butt kicked in solo mode multiple times, I figured it would be worth trying the online cooperative mode. Surely with two people it would be a lot easier to split up and take down the waves of enemies. But all the times I tried I wasn’t able to find anyone to play with. So for now I think you would need to have friends with the game and host a party to play with people you know. It would have been nice to at least have the option of local multiplayer so you could try to take down the waves of enemies together.

When you are playing solo mode, your teddy will earn coins that they can spend customising the colour and pattern of the fur and the outfit your bear is wearing. Your wardrobe isn’t complete without an assortment of hand-made weapons in multiple colours. These options aren’t always cheap, with a cute astronaut outfit costing 1000 coins, but they sure make your bear look adorable! The weapons you use in STUFFED are incredibly creative and unique. Every one of these is created from household items like soda cans, elastic bands, and marbles! You can tell the developers spent a long time on all the little details, plus the weapons have great names like: Planky McBang Bang, Coke Canon, and Jelly Boom Boom. Or the weapon you would mistakenly think is kinda lame, Stickky. This stick works great to smash enemies on the head when you run out of ammo for your weapon.

 

STUFFED looks great and the toys and environment look very realistic. I found the nightmare creatures to be very creepy and feels like they are from a child's scary dreams; I'd be freaked out if I saw it as an adult too! Especially the gnomes, there’s just something about them that creeps me out! No matter which wave or room you are in, the music is always the same. I’m hoping when the final game is released there will be more variety here. Your bear can pick up and hold two weapons at once; it is easy to switch to the other if you run out of ammo, or find it isn’t very effective. As you battle through the waves of enemies your bear will level up and you will be able to choose a reward. You can choose perks like more health, move at a faster speed to escape the hordes, or deal more damage to your enemies when you hit them. These are definitely needed to get through all the evil toys.

Throughout the levels there are boxes that contain portals placed that will transport you around the house. This can be really useful when you are trying to find new weapons and ammo, just be sure that the creatures aren’t attacking the door while you are gone. If you do find a nightmare creature attacking the door, once you defeat it a tool box will be dropped and you can use it to fix up the door again. Once you survive a night you will be transported to a new map, but you can always go back to the room you were in before if you need to.

Even though STUFFED looks like a super cute game with plush animals and toys, doesn’t mean this is going to be a super easy game. I personally found it quite difficult to get higher than wave five. The gnomes are a lot tougher than you would expect, and the rubber duckies jump around and flap their wings to attack and evade you. It felt that it took a ton of shots to take the enemies down, even when they were headshots. A gnome shouldn’t be able to survive 10 direct shots to the head. So I am hoping that when the final game is released, this is addressed. For controls if you were planning on using a controller it is only partially supported, so this may be part of the reason I was having difficulties. Either way my son and I still enjoyed taking turns playing STUFFED. I’m hoping soon we can work together and successfully take down all the evil nightmares.