A Hellish Hike to the Altar
Hell is viewed as a terrifying prospect for any mortal to end up in. The lakes of fire and sulphur, the constant destruction, just about everything to make your existence… well, hell. But what if you’re not a mortal? What if you’re a goat?
Well that’s a whole different story, and one that’s covered in Afil Games’ latest game, aptly titled Goat Out of Hell.
Goat Out of Hell sees you take the mantle of (you guessed it) a goat tasked with pushing animals into altars to send them to heaven. It’s a simple tale, one I’m certain the target demographic will be able to understand, yet how does it translate to gameplay?
Goat Out of Hell takes a simple sokoban approach to gameplay, which I think is best explained through a short poem. Ahem. “One goat and his hellish tale, yet gameplay still remains stale. An abundance of puzzles galore, yet none that leave you wanting more. No mechanics introduced, no secret skills to use, it was always destined to fail.”
A Slap in the Face
Come to think of it, perhaps it’s time for a career change… then again, probably for the best if not. Jokes aside, this short yet sweet passage reflects each aspect of gameplay, and the overall quality of both are oddly similar.
This aforementioned sokoban style gameplay has become something of a staple in many of Afil Games’ titles, leaving it even more of a mystery as to why they’ve never learnt anything from their experiences. Goat Out of Hell always sticks to the conventions of the genre; push blocks/targets into the corresponding squares, and voila, stage completed. By level 9, this path which is constantly retrodden becomes stale, leaving players asking for more. The gameplay isn’t bad, just mediocre.
Repetition and Routine
Perhaps I could be more lenient given Goat Out of Hell introduced some thoughtful puzzles, but that’s just it; little to no stages are challenging, always consisting of a clear view to the end, filled with tedious routes. More often than not – especially regarding the earlier stages – there will be, at maximum, two separate animals to get onto altars, always needing maybe three to four pushes to achieve this. It just feels like a bit of a slap in the face – a self-proclaimed puzzle title failing in that same department, due to negligence of difficulty. Can it be called a puzzle if a nursery student could solve it?
If by some miracle, or tragedy, you can’t solve these puzzles, the developers have kindly placed the restart and undo buttons as a feature. Aptly titled, they are helpful tools allowing for mistakes to be overridden – helpful, but unlikely you’ll need them. Gameplay never extends further than the artificial difficulty of introducing more animals, or forcing your hand at the undo button, usually due to a stupid, set routine. This makes for a swiftly repetitive game, that fails in its mediocrity.
A Fitting (But Boring) Hell
To summarise the level design, it consists of blocks to push animals around on as previously mentioned, with blocks which can fill holes eventually introduced. The level design never truly escapes this routine, feeling like every other sokoban on the market, and much like a clone of Afil Games’ other attempts. Once you’ve cracked the system of pushing animal in this order, Goat Out of Hell offers near nothing, save for a lack of any meaningful design, leaving stages oozing into one another in a never ending puzzle purgatory.
One praise I can sing for the title (finally I know) is its aesthetic. Goat Out of Hell does a brilliant job at representing the corrupt place it’s named after, more so than anything in a cartoony sense. Of course you play as a goat, which should be your first idea of things to come, yet throw in constant lava and pentagram altars, and you have for fitting, albeit evil imagery for your title. Unfortunately this is about as far as any praise goes, due to a subpar soundtrack, and lack of additional modes. All I wanted from Goat Out of Hell was perhaps a branching out from the previous attempts by developers, maybe even new mechanics if they felt on top of their game; sadly, it seems as I was asking too much as the overall quality has somehow diminished.
A Lack of Innovation
Goat Out of Hell might work better had it been titled Game Out of Hell, as that is how it feels. A lack of innovation or introduction regarding stage design and mechanics, leaves the couple that are present to burn out and fade away about ten minutes in. And with each stage feeling like one continuous yet simple puzzle, virtually nothing seems to land.
Important Links
Can You Guide the Pet Souls to Safety in Goat Out Of Hell? – https://www.thexboxhub.com/can-you-guide-the-pet-souls-to-safety-in-goat-out-of-hell/
Buy a Series X|S Optimised edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/goat-out-of-hell-xbox-series/9PNHBT049WTH/0010
Or an Xbox One version – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/goat-out-of-hell-xbox-one/9N0V2HDP4RP9/0010
