The “pick stuff up/put stuff away” sub-section of the cosy genre is one that seems to be growing in popularity, with some excellent entries over the last couple of years that show how narrative can be tied to this seemingly mundane mechanic. Woodo is the latest example, and with genuinely gorgeous visuals and a sweet, tactile style, I expected to love it but unfortunately it didn’t quite warm my heart the way others have previously.
The story centres on Foxy, a city girl who moves to the countryside as a cub and her experiences moving from a fast-paced, always-online life to something a little slower and more deliberate. I like the set up, and although the story moves at a slow pace, I don’t think it ever feels like you’re waiting too long to get the next beat. It’s packed with cute recurring characters too, like Gerry, Jerry and Berry, the three cheeky ducklings that appear in most scenes, and after each level you get a new character profile for one of these side characters that helps them feel less like set-dressing.
Some elements undermine the charm though. We all know that it’s bad to be glued to your phone all day, especially as a kid, but Woodo labours that point during the opening hour and it was a little grating. Foxy’s voice also didn’t quite sit right with me. You hear her as an adult, harking back to her childhood, but for some reason the American accent didn’t fit the feel of the game, and felt more suited to a corporate video than a cute story about a fox and a frog that become friends.
You move from area to area across a small map, interacting with beautiful wooden dioramas and filling them out by placing items in the right spots. I cannot understate how gorgeous this game is: it looks unreal at times. I’ve got a toddler so there are wooden toys all over my house, but the dioramas in Woodo are so intricate and detailed that I wish we had a few of these IRL for him to play with. Typically there’ll be gaps in the dioramas where items need to be placed, and you’ll take them from the dock on the right side of the screen and slot them where they need to go. They slot in with wonderfully tactile clicks which is always satisfying to hear.
On the one hand, I like the idea of every item having a correct place. Some similar games let you place items freely, giving you the option to express your creativity but I’m unfortunately not that creative, so it’s wasted on me. In Woodo everything has its own spot, so you always end up with a perfectly formed scene. On the other hand though I found my interest quickly waned, and while you hear some of Foxy’s musings while you slot items, it never feels like your interactions are actually connected to the narrative being delivered.
In a game like Unpacking, the story is told through you interacting with items and placing them in the world. In Woodo you’re dragging stuff from one side of the screen and dropping it into another, while at the same time Foxy happens to ponder about her childhood. It’s easy to feel like an automaton dragging, dropping and repeating, and I think that lack of connection is the reason.
For a relaxing game it can also be a bit finicky and frustrating at times. You zoom around the dioramas with the left stick, zooming in and out with triggers and panning by holding LB. I found it was easy to get stuck zoomed in though, with items then left out of focus. This happened a lot while panning, and I never felt quite in control of the camera.
While I found Foxy’s voice a little jarring, the rest of the audio experience is as lovely as the visuals. There’s some very sweet music box-style tunes that really sell the cutesy aesthetic. The presentation is where Woodo really shines, and I did find myself absorbed in the game a few times thanks to the combination of music and visuals.
I’m a bit gutted that Woodo didn’t click with me, but there are a lot of cosy gamers out there that will love it, I’ve no doubt. Regardless of your thoughts on the story or mechanics it’s hard to deny that it’s an audio-visual treat, and sometimes that’s all you need from a cosy game.
