Woodo review: no question about it, this is the cosy GOTY

If you keep an eye on the indie showcases, you'll have noticed cosy games proliferating wildly over the past few years. So much so that what started out as the archetypal personal project has become something close to an industry, with its own conventions and off-the-shelf recipes. A capybara here, a mug of hot chocolate there, and job done! Every so often, though, a project rises above the pack thanks to the beauty of its art direction and the sincerity of what it has to say. Woodo is unquestionably one of those all-too-rare gems.

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Woodo unfolds through the childhood memories of its narrator which — and here's the first pleasant surprise — are fully voiced. With nine audio languages and nineteen different text translations, tiny studio Tiny Monks Tales, backed by publisher Daedalic Entertainment, has really pushed the boat out. Players everywhere can therefore enjoy this tale of summer holidays. Foxy, a city fox on a wi-fi drip and glued to her mobile, crosses paths with Ben, a country frog surrounded by mischievous geese. The former naturally ends up tagging along on the latter's rural jaunts, building memories that last rather longer than yet another online chat. Put like that, the "plot" might sound ordinary and clichéd, but the narration — which occasionally weaves itself into the interactive scenes — hits the mark perfectly. Touching without being twee, simple without being dull, it plucks the nostalgia string with restraint and sincerity.

The story draws you in all the more easily because it is underpinned by flawless art direction and technical execution. The character and environment design evokes the very best children's books, while the quality of the models, textures and lighting isn't far off genuine pre-rendered 3D sequences. It's beautiful, it's smooth, and even the smallest scenery details have been crafted with care. The dioramas that make up the game really do feel as though they're carved from wood, yet never look too static, with plenty of small animations bringing the whole thing to life.

The cosy game that's a chip off the old block

Officially — and rather clumsily — billed as a "3D colouring book", Woodo actually asks you to rebuild dioramas by slotting various volumetric pieces into place. The experience is closer to a 3D puzzle, one you can rotate and zoom at will to track down the best-hidden slots, some of which are even tucked away inside drawers or cupboards. None of it is complicated, but the variety of shapes and sizes still keeps things from feeling trivial. Early scenes limited to a dozen or so objects soon give way to dioramas that comfortably top a hundred pieces. Small variations in gameplay and interface (pieces handed to you one at a time, items picked up directly from the scenery rather than a menu, a run of mini-tableaux instead of one big diorama, slots indicated only by reflections in the water and so on) also break up the routine.

Between its narration, its visuals, the hugely satisfying feel of the interactions and those ever-welcome little changes of pace, the game never outstays its welcome. Built for unwinding rather than challenge (and so free of timers, scores or any other artificial reward system), it makes for a thoroughly pleasant breather between two hardcore shooters and three dense RPGs. Granted, an experience like this doesn't run long. Reckon on a little over 4 hours in a straight line, and around 5 if you want to hunt down the little monks (a nod to the studio's name) hidden in the scenery. Let's wrap up this love letter of a review with one personal regret, more a thinly veiled request than an actual complaint: the PC version has no VR mode, even though gameplay built on dioramas and pieces to place in 3D space would suit it down to the ground.