Octodad (337Mb)
Octodad is an unusual, and somewhat, as in totally, wacky, third person puzzler, where you are secretly an octopus and you have to keep it from the family! Movement is intentionally difficult, as you have to move one limb at a time. This makes it hilarious and an absolute scream, especially if you are watching someone else play or they are watching you. It’s been made by a group of De Paul University students in Chicago. It’s a popular free game already, but if you’ve yet to play it, you’re missing out on a fab bit of fun!
So fatherhood and raising a family is straightforward: - no at the best of times, but with so much to do to keep your offspring alive, happy and well - while concealing your octopus identity - it’s going to be a real struggle. There’s a suspicion meter to keep track of your progress in keeping your ‘true’ identity hidden, but do anything remotely clueless and you can end up right in the soup, octopus soup - literally. Quite how you’ve managed so far to convince your wife you’re human, while concealing your suckers, multi-tentacles and somehow managing to stay upright, while raising two kids is beyond imagining. Your suit and tie have a lot to answer for!
One task is to get a glass to the sink for washing up. Couldn’t be easier; or is that nigh on impossibly difficult - and you mustn’t slip up or your deception and game could be over! Rather than preparing dinner, you could well end up in the cookpot! Your wife and children are watching your every move!
But Octodad is rigged to make you a failure as Dad and even more a failure as an octopus trying to act Dad! The greatest part of the game is in beating this really quite ludicrous challenge and actually completing each task without giving the ‘game’ and identity away.
You control Octodad’s movement using an easy to learn mouse operated control system, but it isn’t nearly so easy to implement and master, so as to stay upright on your feet! Wisely, the game has been kept quite short, about an hour’s worth of play, and it is good at the same time as to be humorous for the person actually playing the game! Your limpid octopus arms are very likely to flail about all over the place as you teeter and totter around each room. And how are you going to maintain and keep discipline without any backbone?
Each of four levels comes with a list of tasks (challenges) to successfully complete. Each task accomplished gives you one piece of a human-like mannequin robot you are building to act as decoy cover, to help protect your identity. You are building the robot so you can for instance keep your son amused while at the same time seeing your daughter to sleep with keeping monsters at bay. It’s hard enough to do one parenting or household task at a time, let alone having to do an octopus dash between tasks hoping to avoid your spots being spotted!
The story is given in the form of an animated comic with hand-drawn and colored pictures which very suitably enhances the surreal and bizarre nature of the plot. Loving husband, caring father, and the body and mind of an octopus! Your octopus head is sufficiently human-like for you not to have raised any great suspicions yet! But all is at stake! As long as no-one says ‘Take that, sucker’! Too close scrutiny and . . . !
The authors took a huge gamble with the game style, but it’s a fantastic premise that really works, and Octodad deserves your fame, popularity and recognition!
You’ll need 1Gb hard disk space, a goodly amount of RAM and a 2.6GHz+ CPU to play Octodad, but if you can meet these requirements, I can most heartily recommend giving Octodad a try!
The eccentric style, unusual setting, quirky control system, generous dose of ridiculousness and tremendous humor make Octodad a real blast to play! I doubt if you’ve played a funnier game in a long while!
Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVoSYDWX2Ig
Download HERE
