Carto
I’ve commented before on the preponderance of puzzle games in my library. There’s a lot of them, and I find it interesting the sheer variety both in theme and mechanics. Some, I’ve found tedious, and others, I’ve absolutely loved. Carto is definitely a new experience, and it is an incredibly wholesome and sweet one.
Everyone needs a bearhug game once in a while.
Carto is a game about a girl named Carto who gets blown off her airship and has to navigate the world to find her way home. Her magical map allows her to rearrange the world, laying a path home, and helping others along the way. There is no violence, no hurry, just Carto, exploration, and the friends she makes along the way. It is an incredibly sweet and wholesome game.
Carto’s map mechanic
The art and music do a lot to emphasise the exploration. The pastel art style and the carefully drawn trees and characters do a lot to bring the world to life. Even while there are relatively few characters to interact with, the world never feels quite empty. Rather, it feels like a world waiting to be drawn and explored, which fits perfectly with its themes and mechanics.
Very friendly
It is well worth stating that mechanics of rearranging the world are a very interesting twist on puzzles. I enjoyed solving the problems of geography and making the world be what it needed to be to solve a certain problem. The puzzles are engaging, and there was never a point at which they felt impossible. Everything was just a small contemplation away.
On the whole, Carto is a deeply sweet and engaging game, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Developer: Sunhead Games
Genre: Puzzle, Adventure
Year: 2020
Country: Taiwan
Language: English
Play Time: 6 Hours