It doesn’t take much to appreciate that this is an exceptionally unusual game, though in all the right ways. 'Octodad: Dadliest Catch' puts you in control of an octopus who is pretending to be a regular, ordinary human citizen. Already I’m sure you can see just how much potential this game has. 'Octodad: Dadliest Catch' exists as a revamp of the freeware student game, ‘Octodad’ that you can download here, with many locations being identical only now in a much higher quality.
Developer: Young Horses Inc
Genre: Adventure
Release date: January 30th 2014
Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux and the Playstation 4.
ESRB: E - Everyone
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Story and gameplay
Octodad is a father to two children, somehow, and husband to a wife who’s beginning to suspect that something’s amiss with her burbling, sagging husband. Now, the problem about being an octopus on land is fairly apparent, apart from the whole breathing thing; you have eight legs, none of which have bones in them. Stuffing your tentacles into a pair of trousers and trying to parade around upright is just half the battle, the real problem comes with actually trying to manoeuvre around the place. Cursed with suckers that stick to everything they come in contact with and the need to coordinate yourself whilst not appearing unusual to people is incredibly awkward. Due to this, the game plays similar to other ragdoll physics games like ‘Qwop’ or the excellent ‘Surgeon Simulator’ series only in a more adventure game setting.
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It’s difficult not to laugh as you try and guide Octodad through one area and into another, desperately trying to remain undercover as a sentient sea creature whilst also trying to complete your domestic duties. Suddenly, simple tasks like turning off an alarm clock, shopping in the mall or taking your kids to an aquarium become something akin to gentle torture as you attempt to flail each individual limb in a vaguely appropriate manner. Each leg is controlled individually and you can switch control from your legs to your arms at the press of a button; you cannot control both at the same time. When you go to grab something you can move your tentacle arm in almost every single direction which makes aiming quite difficult although, helpfully, objects you are targeting acquire a subtle green glow so you know what you’re about to pick up. With this bizarre premise in mind you should now prepare yourself for what turns out to be a very entertaining but frustrating game as you frolic through ten levels and six different environments.
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As if things weren’t hard enough already, a meter at the bottom of the screen indicates how much attention you’re drawing to yourself. Octodad gets nervous whenever he’s aware that he’s bumping into things, dropping things, flailing tentacles in people’s faces and climbing up and over children without meaning to. As his anxiety level rises Octodad produces ink that splurts everywhere and rapidly increases the detection meter, when the meter is full then it means he has been discovered and you must restart the level. It’s fair to say the game is by no means difficult, but there are areas that will trip you up because you can be instantly detected if you are seen just once. Due to this a large portion of the game is dedicated to stealth especially when it comes to pesky ‘Marine Biologists’ who know an octopus when they see one, which is fair enough I guess. Luckily these moments tend to come later on in the game when you’ve got a very good grasp of the controls and are able to do more ‘complex’ moves like actually walking in a straight line without tripping over yourself.
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The game has a small amount of re-playability after completing what turns out to be a fairly short main storyline, it won’t take you much longer than 4 or 5 hours, as it introduces collectible items, freeplay mode and local co-op play. In each individual level there are 3 collectible ties to find, usually pinned in hard to reach locations or hidden somewhere in the environment, by collecting all 3 of any given level you unlock a tie that Octodad can wear. Freeplay mode allows you to revisit any of the locations in the game and pick up any ties you missed or just mess about if you bombed through the storyline too quickly. The co-op play is particularly interesting and introduces something akin to a three-legged race as each player controls an individual limb with support for up to four players. This in itself is pretty funny but to make things even more haphazard you can enable ‘roulette mode’ where, each time an objective is completed, the limb or set of limbs you are in control of changes to something else entirely. There’s no indication of what you’ll be controlling and it is completely random so whilst a moment ago you were controlling the left leg, now you’re controlling the right arm. It seem as though the co-op in this game is designed to be as frustrating as possible and if you aren’t shouting orders, eye-rolling and cursing then collapsing into laughter then you’re not doing it right. Perfect co-ordination between you and your friends would be pretty boring and despite the arguments it’s a brilliant co-op game, requiring real teamwork and communication that’s oddly quite a rarity in multiplayer games.
Graphics and environments
Whilst there are not many levels in the base game, with many of them being variations of the same ‘theme’ the ones which are original from one another are fantastic. Each level is very well designed and with plenty of little Easter Eggs and references to indie games like ‘Minecraft’ and ‘Super MeatBoy’ which are a nice touch for gamers to appreciate. Whilst some may describe the graphics as simplistic and nothing particularly noteworthy I instead found them to be perfect for the tone and overall feel of the game. Cartoony, fun, vibrant and beautifully shaded the game is not so much about next-gen graphics and is more about bringing an aged student indie game into the modern era. Quite often there are some mechanical issues like getting stuck on the environment and very minimal clipping but it happened rarely and mostly occurred because of the complexity of Octodad’s limbs and your ability to move them in any which direction. With the additional levels, available for free for all platforms, my disappointment at how soon the game ended was quickly wiped away and instead replaced with an eager anticipation to play some more.
Music and audio
First things first; the custom made theme song that is sung during this game is both tragic and hilarious. It’s so bad that it’s good and, in all fairness, it’s just there for a bit of fun. When I first realized that the deep male singer, Ian McKinney, was singing lyrics like ‘Octodaaaddd… Nobody suspects a thing, OCTODAAAAAD’ I almost died. I’m not totally surprised that the song is becoming something of a cult hit on the internet but, this aside, the general music and audio of the game is good. The voice acting, Octodad included, is brilliant and some of the things the children say are brilliant. There’s a great deal of wit in the dialogue and I found that the voice actors really rose to the occasion with plenty of personality and humour. Nothing is left out and nothing sounds particularly odd, as is often the case where you can manipulate objects. Unfortunately there can be a fair bit of repetitiveness in what the characters say, though only when you’re standing idle in one area for a long time. Often, particularly in the stealth levels, you’ll be forced to repeat an area over and over and it is here that the limited set of lines the characters will say becomes apparent, which is a great shame.
Performance
When me and my partner played this I’ve got to say the only times we stopped laughing were when the game lagged out tremendously in a couple of specific areas. This led to a very frustrating hour of trying to play with an extremely low frame rate and the seemingly impossible goal of scaling a huge children’s playground. The lag returned for a couple of other levels as well, both of which required very accurate timing and movement, on the bright side this is an acknowledged problem and will likely be patched for all PC users.
Overall
The great thing about this game is its potential to go really far as there is a huge amount of storyline that could be easily added along with levels and objectives. 'Octodad: Dadliest Catch' is a huge improvement on the original game and it’s a great way to spend an afternoon or two as it’s such a friendly and engaging game and very easy to get into. The humour is priceless, the objectives varied and the storyline endearing. Whilst I don’t usually play ragdoll physics games I found this one to be irresistible and apart from its teething issues its great fun and with a fair bit of re-playability due to the collectible ties found within each location and, of course, the freeplay mode where you can revisit all the levels. With the upcoming DLC the developers appear to also be aware of how much further this game can be taken and, whilst some may find that the gameplay loses its novelty, I personally cannot wait.
The Good:
- Free DLC adds additional levels.
- Best theme song of the year.
- Great co-op play.
- Innovative, funny gameplay.
- Good storyline with great potential for more.
- Variety of objectives keeps things fresh.
- Nice, detailed environments.
- Some lag in certain areas.
- Occasional clipping.
- Short length.
- Too much stealth.
Last thoughts: "I cannot wait for the DLC! This game ended far too soon for my liking.It's a shame about all the lag as my system should have had no trouble with this game."
