I always found the term “walking simulator” a bit insulting to games that have amazing stories and are so expertly crafted to evoke emotions. With that said, I believe Shape of the World is one of the first games I ever played that ever really merited the term, but that’s also its primary selling point. Shape of the World is all about walking through woods, relaxing and watching it grow around you. The game is “inspired by all my stress-relieving hikes and bike rides through the old growth forests of the Pacific Northwest where I live,” according to the lead developer, and as far as that relaxation is concerned it certainly succeeded.
The goal of the game, if it can even be called that, is to reach the numerous gates in an area. They’re denoted by large triangles that are identical to the A in the game’s title, and walking through one allows you to continue to the next area and/or shifts the surroundings around you, presenting you with new things to progress with. In one area, for example, you’re in what seems like a large cave and there are stalactites around that pour water when you interact with them. After interacting with all of them in a single area you can swim up to the next area where there’s a gate, and this gate adds additional stalactites in the area, and the cycle repeats until you can get up to the main gate and progress onward.
It’s worth mentioning that throughout all of this the worst threat you’ll face is that some of the critters may bump into you and knock you a foot or two. There’s no health bar, no exhaustion, no hunger, no fighting, no equipment, no skills, and no experience points; there’s not even a breath meter for when you’re underwater. Instead, you can just explore, throw seeds all around and interact with a few select things at your own pace. Sadly, this pace is quite slow without a run button, but it makes sense since the world literally rises up and forms around you.
In addition to the simplistic gameplay, Shape of the World has simplistic controls. You can walk, jump, throw seeds and interact, and that’s it! Seeds grow trees of whatever sort are in the current area almost instantly, and it’s a joy watching them (and all the environments) form around you as you walk. Seeds can also pop some of the critters if you hit them with one, which is probably way many of them run away from you when they see you. They are adorable, though, and they bring lots of life to what could otherwise be a bland world. As the levels progress, more and more creatures roam the areas, and some of them are really remarkable! As for interacting, pressing a button will “interact” with whatever is in the center of the screen. You can “poof” some creatures away like this, and trees can be entirely removed all at once with a single button press as well. There are also pillars in many of the earlier areas that can be interacted with, making them grow taller and often creating bridges to new areas, and then there are the stalactites as mentioned previously as well. Interacting with objects also pulls you toward them; it felt like swinging on a vine despite the game really just showing you being propelled forward.
However, one of the most successful things about Shape of the World is just the overall feeling. I’ve been a huge fan of PSVR ever since I started using it, and I couldn’t help but feel similar sensations with Shape of the World despite it not being available on VR. Somehow on the portable Switch console (I didn’t try it on TV) I really felt sucked into it, and I felt displaced all three times when I quit playing it just like I do when I take off my PSVR headset. I’m not sure if it’s the relaxing music that changes as the world grows around you or the graphical style or what, but I legitimately felt like I was IN the world while playing it, and that’s not something I can say about many games.
The game as a whole ended up presenting a rather unexpected metaphor. While the goal of the game seemed to be this peaceful, lovely, relaxing journey through nature, the feeling I ended up with was that humanity are corruptors and destroyers. Especially at first, all of the wildlife runs away from you, and while you can toss out limitless seeds and grow trees, you can also destroy trees to speed up your movement with a single click. Many of the world’s wildlife can also be destroyed just as easily by interacting with them or hitting them with seeds, and the world almost literally revolves around you as it rises up around you. This surprise was actually one of my favorite things about the game, and it’s probably what will stick with me the longest. The gameplay was mundane and slow at first, and while it eventually did find some footing with objectives, as a whole it was just too relaxed for me personally.
Shape of the World is available for Switch (reviewed), Xbox One, PS4 and Steam (Windows)
I received a free copy of this game in exchange for an honest review.