This review is going to go differently. I bought Donut County for Diane and she recently finished it. Since she doesn’t like to write these posts for me, I decided to interview her instead.
Q: What is Donut County?
Umm … it is a game where you swallow everything with holes. And that is all you do.
Q: Seriously, that’s it?
Well there’s a catapult sometimes so you gotta launch shit, to choose to swallow more things with the hole. But the controller – literally – joystick and one button.
Q: What did you like best about Donut County?
Sometimes you swallow stuff that causes explosions. Or the part with the Ferris Wheel where we launched a Ferris wheel at a castle. It was also kind of satisfying to swallow up the characters themselves. Hmm. And the dialogue, especially the Trashopedia, was pretty entertaining.
Q: What’s a “trashopedia”?
It teaches you what each item in the game that you swallowed up was (except for the characters). It is very educational if you take the time to read it.
Q: Did you like the characters? If so, why?
Yeah, I did. They … they are a group of characters that seem very comfortable with each other so there are a lot of friendly insults thrown at one another and no one really took offense. It’s kind of how I am with my friends. So it felt like, despite the predicament they were in, they were still a good group of friends.
Q: Other than swallowing everything with holes, would you say Donut County is really about friendship then?
I would say it is more about redemption. There is a pretty good redemption arc in there. And education courtesy of the trashopedia.
Q: Was there anything you didn’t like?
Not really. I can see some people finding the whole all we are doing is swallowing things in a hole repetitive, but there are a variety of puzzles that add to the game. And it is not terribly long, as you probably expect, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome.
Q: Favorite scene, character, or level?
I thought that the game over screen was a nice touch. I wasn’t sure where it was going to go and then it leads to a surprise cutscene. I am not sure if it is actual canon or not, but I feel it adds a little layer by potentially breaking the fourth wall with it. It felt like a nice surprise. As surprising as a game over screen can be in a game where you swallow things in a hole.
Q: Any final thoughts or anything else you would like to add?
Quack.
Murf Versus 