Okay Geek Farm
PSN Review - Stacking
Jamie Donnelly
Stacking
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Double Fine Productions
Platforms: PSN/XBLA
Price: $14.99 / 1200MS
What’s the Story?
You play as Charlie Blackmore, a Russian doll whose family (or stack) have been enslaved by an evil industrialist known as The Baron. This doesn’t sit well with Charlie, and with the help of a hobo called Levi he sets out to overthrow The Baron and liberate all those dolls trapped in his dastardly clutches. For such a cutesy game about Russian dolls, the underlying themes are actually rather dark – child labour, poverty, and oppression are with you throughout the game. Despite these dark themes, Stacking’s light-hearted overtone means it never gets bogged down in the potentially depressing nature and instead focuses on the more cheery aspects of its world. From a family of Illusionists to a pirate named Chuck (Surely an in-joke Tim Schafer reference to Monkey Island?), Stacking’s colourful cast of characters will mesmerise you with their never-ending charm and have you rooting for Charlie and his comrades the entire time.
How does it Play?
Stacking – it’s self-explanatory really. All the puzzles in the game can be solved using the simple premise of stacking. Starting off as Charlie, the smallest of the dolls, you can stack into the next size up. You can then progressively stack up until you have reached the largest size. If at any point you want to use a doll that is smaller than your current doll, you simply unstack and will find yourself as the next size down once again. That’s the simple part, and the challenge comes from using the individual dolls to solve the various challenges that the game presents you with. Each doll has a unique ability, ranging from giving wedgies to playing the violin, and it is these abilities that you must use to solve the puzzles that you are presented with. Sometimes you will only need one doll’s ability, and for the more complicated puzzles you will have use a sequence of different abilities and maybe even combine two in tandem to solve the puzzle. It is these unique combinations that allow so many solutions to be open for each puzzle, and the most obvious solutions to some people will probably be the most obscure for others.
Even if Stacking did not include the puzzles, it would still undoubtedly be an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. The dolls have so much character that you can very easily lose track of time as you aimlessly run around slapping dolls with a glove or flatulating on unsuspecting dolls (what can I say, low brow toilet humour amuses me). Some of these troublesome actions are recorded as “hi-jinks” and you will get a reward once you have completed the hi-jink a set amount of times – these rewards are purely aesthetic but again provide that little bit more light-hearted fun which Stacking constantly embraces. There are also unique dolls in each area to find and collect, including various sets which you must stack together. Levi the Hobo recreates everything that you find back at your hideout for you to admire – once again it is purely aesthetic but a nice touch all the same.
How Difficult is it? Does it offer much Replayability?
The puzzles in the game will not require you to get the chalkboard out and note down long and complicated solutions that push you to the limits of your mental capabilities. There are multiple solutions, and most of them are rather easy to figure out if you just talk to dolls in the near vicinity and play about with their abilities – which you will be doing anyway due to the fun that is to be had with them. In saying this, by the time you get to the last solution for each puzzle you may be left scratching your head and find your creative impotence being tested. There are hints that can you opt to see, but I recommend not using them if you want to get the most out of Stacking and be rewarded with the satisfaction of figuring it out for yourself.
Stacking is not a long game – if you are the sort of gamer who likes to put their heads down and charge to the finish line of a game then Stacking is certainly not for you. Even if you find every solution for the puzzles the game still feels short, but at only $14.99 it still provides enough entertainment to warrant the money spent. Unfortunately, once all the solutions have been completed there is not much else to do aside from playing about with the various dolls, and without an aim or a goal this tomfoolery soon wears thin.
How does it Look and Sound?
Taking heavy inspiration from the silent movie era, Stacking’s visual style is distinctive and unique. The cut scenes are all shot in a sepia tone and flicker and stutter as if they are being played on an old film reel. The only criticism I have of the cut scenes is that the frequency of them is often thick and fast, and some better pacing between them would have allowed for greater appreciation of them all.
The dolls and the environment they inhabit have the aesthetics of a meticulously handmade arts and crafts project. It is a credit to the animation team that they manage to make Russian dolls, which are devoid of arms and legs, move and behave in such a natural, organic way. It is a pity that such a unique looking game was slightly let down by the frustrating camera angles that hampered my experience somewhat. Having to constantly rearrange the camera when it went awry meant I was often distracted from appreciating the striking world that Double Fine created. However, it was certainly not enough to ruin the experience and I challenge anyone not to fall in love with the exceptional appearance of Stacking.
The music is also synonymous with silent movies – a simple piano track that masterfully uses tempo to set the mood and feel of a scenario. While not technically sound, with it being a “silent game” and all, the dialogue is dripping with dark humour and tongue-in-cheek snippets which juxtapose expertly with the heavy nature of the underlying themes. The sound effects that the individual dolls produce when you use their abilities are often as whimsical and strange as the abilities themselves, and it all adds together to form a one of a kind experience.
Overall
Only the creative minds of Tim Schafer and his colleagues at Double Fine could turn the concept of stackable Russian dolls into a unique puzzle-adventure game. Good things come in small packages, and when that small package can jump into continually bigger packages the goodness increases exponentially. Despite a few pernickety issues, Stacking is a brilliant example of how a small game can make it big and compete with the triple AAA titles – maybe not in terms of sales figures, but certainly in quality.
Pro’s
- Inventive puzzles with multiple creative solutions.
- Colourful cast of characters.
- Distinctive art style.
Con’s
- Once you’ve solved everything there’s not much else to do.
- Camera can be frustrating.
- You’ll have to admit you had fun playing with dolls.
8/10 - Stacking is one of the best games that PSN has to offer and I would definitely recommend giving it a try.
