Our Review of Burly Men at Sea
I have to admit, I have a soft spot for cute IOS games. Love You to Bits is one of my favorite games this year (when are those extra levels getting here??) and Fallout Shelter was a surprisingly terrific title. In terms of being cute, Burly Men at Sea also has a lot going for it. You play as three stout sailors who receive a mysterious map and venture out to sea to see where the map leads. The story branches out from there and you may wind up swallowed by a whale, facing a living mountain, and racing against death before the adventure ends. Once you do complete a cycle, though, you’re given the opportunity to venture back out to see to try some other choices. Given that the adventures are pretty brief affairs, you’ll want to take advantage of that option.
Hey, you give these guys a Burly Baby and you’ve got the makings of a great movie!
The game has some beautiful graphics and terrific sound (many if not all of the sound effects are generated by voices, which seems ironic since the men themselves never speak). Gameplay is mostly point and click with the men moving as a unit and deciding how to undertake various actions themselves. There’s no inventory to speak of and the easily-solved puzzles mostly serve to branch the storyline (one solution leads one way, the other leads another way). All of this makes for a nicely minimalist adventure that’s unlike anything else out there at the moment.
This mysterious figure meets you at the end of your journey and encourages you to explore some other paths. Don’t worry, I paid five bucks, I’m gonna explore all the other paths.
The game’s principle innovation, if I’m understanding this right, is the ability to order a book based on your decisions in the game. See, at the end of each playthrough, you receive a code specific to the decisions you made in the game. To the Burly Men, this appears as a book they place on a shelf before returning to the docks for more adventure. For the player, this code can be used – according to the game – to order an actual book telling the story the way you played through the game. I haven’t tried it but it seems to be legitimate and – if it is really a thing – it is an interesting way to remember your colorful adventure.
As dangerous as this guy seems, he’s actually more lonely than anything. Hey, didn’t he used to work on Kid Icarus?
I’m not sure I’d ever want to read the story of the handful of decisions I made in Burly Men at Sea, but I’d love to get a printed graphic novel of my playthrough of longer, more intricate games. I would happily pay for a printed copy of my version of the Mass Effect trilogy in which I could see the highlights of the choices my vanguard Shepherd made, or a copy of Life is Strange to watch that friendship blossom, or a my version of The Witcher in which Geralt saved Ciri and reunited with Yennifer. Heck, who wouldn’t love a printed copy of their favorite games that depicted their choices and their outcomes from their best playthrough. It’d be a great way to revisit those scenes without having to play through the entire game again (and while 2 and 3 are still fun, Mass Effect 1 hasn’t aged well!).
This guys seem suspicious but turn out to be pretty cool. Which is good because you’ll be seeing them alot.
So I think Burly Men at Sea might be on to something there; printed versions of our unique gaming experiences might be a fun thing to own. Meanwhile, the game itself is an extremely cute diversion but is unfortunately too short to wholeheartedly recommend. The typical playthrough is just a few minutes (maybe twenty?) and I don’t think there’s that many choices to keep you coming back for more. What is here is pretty great, but you can exhaust all possible outcomes pretty quickly. Still, $5 for a cute, innovative title with great graphics and sound is not a bad investment of your money and time.
It’s a short game, but it manages to pack in some very pretty moments.
The Good
The distinct graphics and music make for an enjoyable experience. The possibility of printing out your adventure in some kind of storybook is also intriguing.
The Bad
The limited content is disappointing and most adventures are extremely brief. It’s always good to leave gamers wanting more, never good to leave gamers feeling like they’re owed more.
OVERALL: GOOD BUT SKIPPABLE
It’s a cute and novel experience, but this is a hard title to recommend unless there’s more content coming. Still if you’re a fan of beautifully crafted, quiet adventures, you won’t be disappointed.
