Pode Review - An adorable adventure.

By Sam Coles:

There are times were I like to switch gears and review games where I’m not killing someone or something, where I’m not sending someone’s jaw bone in eight directions. Pode is a beautiful puzzle platformer and I feel it deserves more recognition, with its somewhat brain taxing puzzles, great soundtrack and beautiful visual art style.

Pode’s story is minimalistic with exposition, as there is no dialogue at all and that is the strength of a great video game narrative where you have to piece the story together for yourself. Of what I can tell two entities meet, one made of stone and the other made of some sort of star matter, the entity made of star matter falls out of the sky and they journey together to send it back to the depths of space. Right off the bat the game is truly adorable with how they communicate cat with low and high pitch noises.

Gameplay is simple but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing, it is a puzzle platformer where you can either play solo or in co-op I would recommend playing the latter as it makes for a smoother experience but solo play is not necessarily bad. You take control of each character to solve precarious platforming puzzles; these can range from simple to somewhat obtuse as it can be somewhat unclear of what you are supposed to do. However most of the time it is rather straight forward and can be a bit tricky, this can range from raising platforms, jumping on each other’s head to get to higher ground, weighing down switches or just memorising basic patterns.

Each character has a special power trait that is thematically appropriate to them, one is a star so they can emit light to make plants and wildlife flourishes, whereas the other is made of stone which can make rocks sprout out of the walls… look don’t question the logic just go with it. These abilities are used to solve certain puzzles, such as being able to create ledges to climb or holding down specific buttons. It keeps things varied and does present some unique and intriguing scenarios, but after a few hours it can start to feel a bit samey.

The visual presentation is beautiful; especially the opening scene when the two characters first meet and they walk into the distance with the warm glow of dusk setting upon them. When you start off the game may look bland, but as you traverse these dark caverns it starts to open up with rich flora, with plants escaping the cracks of the caves. Character design of the main protagonists is wonderful, they juxtapose from each other where one is bright and the other dark, and it is the perfect yin and yang.

The soundtrack is something that stuck with me throughout the adventure; it is relaxing which goes with the tone of this slow paced journey. It has nice violin pieces that almost echo throughout the caves, which accompany you on the journey, I hope there is somewhere I can get this soundtrack officially.   

Overall Pode was a pleasant surprise, it was nice to take a break from the over the top and violent games that I have been covering recently. It was truly anadorable adventure, and something that I can recommend to anyone. You can get it on Switch but it recently came to the PS4 recently if that is more your cup of tea.