Donut County is a game that has always turned heads whenever it popped up throughout the years. Now that it’s finally here it’s abundantly clear that while it might have a lot of holes to play with, they don’t really lead to anywhere of substance.
Donut County
Developer: Ben Esposito
Price: $12.99
Platform: PC/PS4
MonsterVine was supplied with a PC code for review
The basic premise of Donut County is simple in that it’s simply bizarre. You play as a racoon who delivers donuts to people, only what they don’t know is that he’s actually controlling a hole that swallows up everything around them. He does this in the hopes of increasing his level to unlock a drone he really wants. Each level is basically a townsfolk telling you how they ended up getting eaten by that damned racoon and his holes and while the writing isn’t anything to praise, that racoon is a pretty lovable prick. It’s a really silly concept, and the game knows it, but the game’s mechanics for the most part don’t gel with the plot’s inherent silliness.
Each level starts with you controlling a small hole, and the constant goal is to swallow up progressively larger objects to increase the size of your hole so you can eventually devour everything in the level. On paper this concept is novel, unfortunately the execution ends up being a bit monotonous. There’s just no challenge as you move the hole around in a sort of lackadaisical manner swallowing up whatever will currently fit in your hole, and a game that promises kooky reactions to your actions delivers almost none. Characters will just stare at you as you go about your business, moving from pebbles to tables and the few things that will solicit a reaction are done so only because it’s part of a cutscene.
Donut County does feature the ability to have items you swallow interact in some mildly clever ways with other objects in the environment, but it’s done maybe three or four times in the two dozen or so levels. One stage has you swallow a lit firework so you can fire it up to reach an object you need to swallow, and another has you filling your hole with water to make soup. These are fun little ideas, but when they only appear that one time until you have to repeat them again for the final stage it really leaves you wanting for more.
And I find it hard to even call Donut County a puzzle game when you’re basically given the solution to the puzzles and told to simply finish it. Maybe this sort of game just isn’t for me, and that’s fine, but if that’s the case then don’t call your game a “physics based puzzle game” where you’re so heavily railroaded to the solution that you don’t even realize you’re doing a puzzle until after the fact. It also doesn’t help that the game is an hour to an hour and a half tops and is lacking entirely in any sort of replay value. Each level can be completed pretty immediately, especially when you realize there’s nothing else to do besides swallowing small things so you can then swallow bigger ones. I’d say this is the kind of game you could put on to simply relax with, but I honestly can’t see anyone ever wanting to reinstall this.
The Final Word
The entire tone and aesthetic of the game is something that’s so far up my alley, but at the end of the day Donut County is a charming game that maybe promises more quirky thrills than it delivers.
– MonsterVine Review Score: 2.5 out of 5 – Mediocre
