Woven is a brand new adventure game developed by indie developer Alterego Games and published by StickyLock. Alterego Games is not particularly new when it comes to making games however Woven in their first independent title and comes completely from their own studios. The title was listed on Kickstarter back in 2016 however the campaign was unable to complete its goal however the developers still went forward with the development. It was a really good decision because Woven is a really cute journey in a woolen world and we will tell you everything about it in this review.
Woven features the journey of Stuffy and Glitch in a world which is alien to both of them. Stuffy used to live in this world with more of his kind but he was left behind by them. Exploring the world on his own, he stumbles upon Glitch, a mechanical fly that has no memory of how he got there and what was his true purpose. However, Glitch is attracted to the wooly moon in the sky. Unaware of why it is attracted to it, the duo begins their journey towards the moon while trying to overcome different challenges and puzzles along the way.
Let’s start with the world of Woven. The whole world of Woven is knitted together of different materials and it is quite evident as well. The texture of everything ranging from mountains to trees to grass, everything has a distinct knitted pattern to them and looks really cute. The paths you travel as you progress in the story bring many new, refreshing sights and everything looks brilliant in its own knitted form. While exploring the world, you can interact with different things around you as well.
The world is mostly pretty linear however some of the areas are pretty wide-open and allow you complete freedom to explore them. The nooks and corners of each area hide a multitude of collectibles for you to seek out and collect. In addition, despite having a pretty basic world, it never feels empty. Everywhere you go, you will find cute, knitted animals running around. On one level you will find wooly beavers building a dam while on another level, you will find wooly birds flying high in the skies. This gives the world life and not a single moment in Woven feels empty and dull.
The most common interaction that you will do in Woven is with the multitude of Knitting Stations scattered around the scenery. As the knitted world is beautiful, anything mechanical really stands out and is pretty ugly compared to the wooly bits of the world. Stuffy cannot interact with any of the mechanical bits in the world of Woven so this responsibility lands on the shoulders of tiny Glitch who is always accompanying stuffy throughout their journey. Stuffy can command Glitch to take control of different mechanic machines that serve various purposes.
Technically Stuffy is a knitted elephant however as you progress through the main story of the game, you can unlock additional blueprints for Stuffy’s design and transform Stuffy into a completely different animal. Each new blueprint comes with a unique ability that allows Stuffy to progress in the main game. These abilities range from punching, stomping to jumping to higher places like a goat. These blueprints are not interconnected with each other as well so you can easily have different parts woven together and have multiple abilities at the same time.
This opens up a great opportunity for customization and convenience as well because you will not have to run back to the Knitting Station again and again if you want to use a particular ability. The world of Woven is also full of different knitting colors and materials for you to collect for Stuffy. You can change Stuffy’s colors at any Knitting Station that you find in the game. Each level in the game offers a large number of materials and colors for you to find and unlock to customize your Stuffy according to your own taste.
The puzzles in the game are not too complicated. Most of them include simply switching to a new form and using their specific ability to either jump or punch a rock out of the place. Sometimes you will come across giant animals blocking your way and you will need to find a way to get past them but even here most of the time, you will need to find the correct color and material and come back to the spot equipped with it to open up the path up ahead. As you progress in the story, the puzzles become more creative and time-focused.
As you progress in the story, the wonderful wooly world will also start to transform into a more metal focused world and starts to lose its innocence. You start to see more vicious metal insects gnawing at the harmless world made of wool. This greatly strikes a change in pace as you start to know more about Glitch’s past and his real purpose of existence. The story of Woven is a great element of the game and you will enjoy playing the game because of it. In the end, you finally unlock answers to all of the questions that you start your journey with.
The gameplay is really simple. You can move Stuffy around and use RT to give different commands to Stuffy and LT to give different commands to Glitch. Glitch only listens to commands when there is a symbol displayed on top of it. Other than this, you can only issue commands to Stuffy however these are also specific to certain locations. For example, you can continue to stomp everywhere but stomping everywhere will do you no good unless you stomp next to a tree to drop a wool ball and make a metallic beetle pick it up and open up a path for you.
The sound design of the game is also really balanced. Throughout the game, you will continue to hear the narrator explain different events happening in the game and some random jibber-jabber as well. Glitch’s backstory is explained entirely through the narrator. It all fits really well together as the narrator treats Stuffy like a little kid who is just lost in a world made up of wool and needs to be looked after. The Glitch acts more like a responsible guardian looking after Stuffy as well and this makes the duo great as they work out with each other to solve different puzzles and complete challenges.
Apart from the mains story and finding all the collectibles in the game, there is not much to do so once you are done with the basics, there is not much for you to come back for and play. There are no side quests or challenges in the game that could give you a chance at high score hunting and such. The game is pretty much linear apart from the open-world levels where you can hunt for collectibles including new colors, design patterns, materials and Glitch’s story bits. Some of the areas are locked up once you advance to the next one so you will need to thoroughly check an area for collectibles before you move on.
Despite being so good, sadly Woven is not free of problems at this point. The biggest problem that I faced during my playthrough was the difference in ground levels would Stuffy to get stuck instantly and it would not move until I would completely change my direction or go back. This is acceptable in locations where the ground level different is high however in most cases the ground level difference was minimum and yet Stuffy was unable to move ahead and would get suck.
Apart from different ground levels, Stuffy would also get stuck in small plants and vegetation which is absurd because normally, you could just simply move through small grass patches or a minimum amount of vegetation. This is not something that is game-breaking but is certainly extremely annoying in certain cases. This makes the game feel more scripted rather than open-world where you could easily explore the areas rather than simply walking in pre-defined spaces.
Apart from this, the animations sometimes would feel out of place. This was most prominent while controlling Stuffy when you would be moving ahead but a slight turn of the joystick would cause Stuffy to turn around a little at a very weird angle causing him to look tilted while going ahead. Again, this is not something game-breaking just a little annoying however I would really like if the developers would do something about making the movement across different ground levels smoother. Getting stuck every now and then is really frustrating sometimes.
Another problem with the Xbox One version, that we reviewed, was FPS dips. In large and open-areas, frames were extremely inconsistent and dropped a lot. I don’t know if this is a platform-specific issue or because I was reviewing the game on the standard Xbox One and not an Xbox One S or Xbox One X, but the FPS dips were there and they were a lot in the open-areas. The worst area was the second level with all the waterfalls as I had to look on the ground to make the frames go back up.
Woven is a great game and offers a great adventure. The story is pretty decent and the characters Stuffy and Glitch are great as well. The overall execution of Woven is brilliant however I would prefer if developers would work towards fixing the FPS dips and the ground-level problems. Apart from these majorly annoying problems, Woven is a really cute game that is sure to keep your busy and entertained with its simple mechanics and easy to solve puzzles, Woven will keep you entertained for a decent amount of time.
Final Verdict
Despite the failure of its Kickstarter and the developer continuing on its development on its own, Woven turned out to be an excellent game. It offers plenty of content for players and the world detail is amazing as well. You really feel like you are exploring a knitted world and the story is pretty decent as well. Woven is bound to keep you entertained while it lasts because once you are done with the main story, there is little to go back for. Still, the amount of customization and collectibles it offers, you will spend quite a lot of time in this amazing wooly world. Definitely a must-play for this year, however, the few bugs need to go.
Final Score: 7.9/10
