Find Your Zen with Shape of the World

By: GeekyGamerGirl87

Disclaimer: The following game trailer maybe sensitive to those who may have motion sickness while gaming. Viewers Discretion is advised.

 Shape of the World, which is developed by Hollow Tree Games and published by Plug In Digital; is a walking simulator that is as breathtaking as it is relaxing.  I would like to take the time to thank the developer for providing me with a demo copy of the steam version of the game for free; so that I could write this preview. Also, at this time I would like to reiterate that if you are an individual who suffers from motion sickness while gaming, that this game may cause that to occur. Therefore, player discretion is advised.

 Upon turning on the game, I was really impressed with how beautiful the game really is. I was able to play the game on it’s highest settings and it is stunning. This game doesn’t seem to pose a storyline at least not what I gather from the demo. This game is all about the world exploration and it is a very beautiful world. It starts off with grays and whites, and as you progress the world shapes more and more.

As the world shapes, more colors emerge, and the world takes form making it more beautiful each time you pass through what I believe are checkpoints. In the game, you do collect seeds that you are able to throw around, but it doesn’t tell exactly what the seeds do besides them growing  trees. In fact, I think that is all you can do with the seeds. You just seem to collect them and replant them. However, each new point produces new seeds that you can plant around.

Another one of the things I loved about Shape of the World besides it’s graphics; is how beautiful and relaxing the music is. Soon as you start the game, the music helps to set the tone of the game and pulls you into the beautiful world. I can see playing this as a game to destress after a long hard day of work or a stress filled day. This is all about helping you to relax and find your inner Zen.  I do hope that a soundtrack will be available when the game launches as I would love to be able to listen to the soundtrack when I went to bed at night.

The controls are straightforward you have the option of both keyboard /mouse or gamepad. You use WASD to walk around, spacebar to jump, and  the mouse to interact with. With gamepad you use the trigger buttons to interact and throw seeds. One of the things that I did notice – not to forget this is only in the demo. So, it may not be in the actual game .– is that although I was playing with gamepad, it gave me the controls for keyboard and mouse. It didn’t register I was using a gamepad until I went through the checkpoint in the first area. Hopefully, in the actual launch of the game that will be fixed.

Although, the game did not appear to have a storyline, it does have achievements that you can collect. The game offers twenty-six different achievements. Although, it doesn’t seem to have a storyline, the achievements can serve as sort of a set of goals that can keep you playing the game and helps you into exploring the world. When it comes to trading cards for the steam version; the game appears to not offer trading cards at this moment.

The only other issue that I had with the game is that it was the demo and I ran through it in twenty minutes because I wasn’t sure how long the demo would be, and I wanted to see how long the demo was. I really wanted so much more for the demo. Especially when I got to this very beautiful landscape with a whale and then it told me  this was just a demo.  I will admit a part of me cried on the inside and asked “Why? Why did you tease me like this?” but I can understand too why this was done. So, until the launch of the game, I will have to make do with the demo.

Overall, I highly recommend Shape of the World, especially if you are looking  for a game to play just to relax after a long stressful day, or to simply whine down.  You will be able to play Shape of The World when it launches on June 5, 2018 on Steam and PS4 and on June 6, 2018 for Nintendo Switch and X-Box One for the price of $14.99 USD.