Ugly Oafs

I don’t mind surrealist games. One of my favourite games ever is For A Change.

This one is impenetrable to me. You're stranded in a landscape with apparently random objects. I like wordplay and puzzle games like Ad Verbum and I can’t understand this at all. There’s no overarching plot to pull me into the world and get me keen on solving the puzzles.

Trying to understand this is like trying to get traction on ice.

I read the walkthrough. I still do not understand the game. If I can’t understand what’s going on after reading the hints it is not for me.

This would work if you’re very patient. I played this while dog-tired and just wanted a bit of comic fun (Ugly Oafs in polka-dot writing suggests comic fun). Wrong game, wrong time!

After reading other reviews: (Spoiler - click to show)all the objects can be run through rot(n) to create new objects, but I don’t see how you effect the change. This feels a bit too much like ‘guess what the author’s thinking’. I bet the author had fun working out objects to encode and how they could work together. It’s too hard for me.

Andrew Schultz is known for taking a word puzzle idea (like anagrams or reversible compound nouns) and running with it. Most of his games encourage you to explore the world first to figure out what the theme is, so I won't give away the theme in this game.

The world is spare and empty, but this helps identify key items. The game is also highly polished, with no bugs or typos that I am aware of.

The mechanic in this game is harder to do by hand than his other games, resulting in either frustration or grinding, unless you're in the mood for it.

Overall, this game works, but his other games (especially shuffling around, threediopolis or their sequels) worked better for me.