Burly Men at Sea is a delight. Part interactive picture book, part grand sea adventure and part Groundhog’s Day twist, Burly Men at Sea is easily one of the most polished gaming experiences I’ve ever seen.
The game begins with the discovery of a sea chart in a bottle caught by three fishermen. Upon inspection, the sea chart appears empty – sure there’s an island in the center and lots of water around it, but there’s certainly no big red X on it. They take it to town where they’re told that the sea chart “has a tale to tell”. From here, you’re thrust into the world of Burly Men at Sea to see just what kind of tale the sea chart has to tell.
When I first looked at this game on howlongtobeat.com I really thought there was a glitch on the site – it said the main story was only 25 minutes! “That’s ridiculous”, I thought, as I stroked my own beard, far from the magnificence of the beards of the three main characters in this game. I was blown away when I got all the way through it in around 35 minutes myself, even with some real-life distractions, but then I realized that the first playthrough was only the beginning. This game is spectacular, and essentially it boils down to a choose-your-own-adventure game with a handful of moments in which you can choose what to do. These choices aren’t things like responding kindly or fiercely to someone asking how your day is, mind you, they’re all epic choices in monumental situations. What will you do when a gigantic mountain of a beast wants to give you a “flower” that’s really an uprooted tree, or when death himself (or, rather, a low-ranking member of death’s association) challenges you to a race for your very lives? All of the situations in Burly Men at Sea could easily fit into an epic tale from mythology, but this time it’s not some great demi-god or ancient hero under your control, it’s three bewhiskered fishermen seeking adventure. And boy, do they find it!
The way you interact with the world is so unique, especially on mobile or the Switch where you can actually touch the screen. You don’t have control over the three beard-bearing men, at least not directly – you’ll spend your time dragging the screen, guiding them in the direction you want to go. You can click things, like their ship, to encourage them to do something, but the dragging motion is so perfect, so innately natural that now I know I’ll end up looking like a fool when I try to do it in picture books in the future. Dealing with epic events is unique as well: while racing against the low-level grim reaper, for example, you can touch any of the four characters to make them slow down. Slowing down the reaper enough allows all of the burly men to get ahead of him, winning you the race! But there’s a twist – all of these events have stories to tell if you lose as well, so if you come back and purposely lose the race you’ll see all kinds of new stuff.
At the end of each adventure you’ll be brought back to the village, where you can go on all-new adventures. Conversations will be different based on previous adventures, meaning that while it’s slightly tedious finding new endings it’s nowhere near as bad as most games. Also, there’s a surprise bonus you’ll discover after your first playthrough that’ll definitely inspire you to keep playing; it’s one of the coolest surprises in gaming and there’s no way I’m spoiling it! Even if you explore all of the possible stories it takes only a few hours, so it’s not like it’ll take days to see everything.
It’s rare that a game comes out that’s such a showpiece of what a game on a particular console can be so late after a console releases, but that’s what Burly Men at Sea feels like. The interaction, the artwork that genuinely feels like a living picture book, the amazing soundtrack… it all adds up to an amazing experience. This is a game you can (and should!) hand off to your friends, your children, even your grandparents, even those who have never played a game! The game does lose a bit without touch controls – I tested it out a bit with the JoyCon instead of the touchscreen a bit to see what it was like and it just wasn’t as awesome – but I can wholeheartedly recommend the game on Switch or mobile for sure.
You can get Burly Men at Sea on: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), iOS, Android, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Steam (Windows and Mac)
Note: I received a free copy of this game from the developer in exchange for an honest review.