Impressions – Donut County
What if you woke up one morning and were suddenly swallowed up by a gaping sink hole. What if that hole were being remotely controlled by a cheeky raccoon who’s destroying the whole town in order to win his own quad-copter.
Donut County is certainly a weird game. It takes place in a fictional California desert town that is populated by anthropomorphic animals, and one human. Mira runs the local doughnut shop with her friend BK, a mischievous raccoon who was put in charge after the previous owners left. Rather than actually making doughnuts, BK spends most of his time playing games on his tablet. One of which has him “delivering” “doughnuts” to various residents around town. If he gets the high enough score, he can win a fabulous prize. Problem is BK isn’t actually delivering tasty cakes, just the holes. Now the whole town is stuck at the bottom of a deep cavern, and its residents are demanding an explanation.
You play as BK as he steers the holes through various parts of town, swallowing stuff up in their path. As the hole consumes more items, it gets bigger, allowing you to swallow up even bigger things. That’s really all there is too it. It’s such a simple mechanic, but it’s incredibly satisfying. Different scenarios do add new things to the mix. Like filling the holes up with water in order to obtain certain things, or using a catapult (inside the hole) to shoot out whatever it’s swallowed up in order to activate switches. I’m feeling strong Katamari vibes here, even if it’s not quite up to that level of wackiness.
Unfortunately, Donut County’s one big issue is it’s way too easy. While it does present some bigger challenges late game, even casual gamers will find this one to be a breeze. It does sort of makes up for this though with its humour and clever writing, which makes you want to continue through the story even if the gameplay gets a little too repetitive. It’s also short enough that it doesn’t wear out its welcome. The whole thing can be finished in a couple hours. Which seems to be typical for most indie games like this.
The low poly art style is minimalistic yet colourful, and conveys a lot of personality. The soundtrack is also pretty solid. There’s a subtle parody of mobile games going on here, which is further emphasized with its musical style.
I did notice some slight frame rate drops during cutscenes. My computer is way overkill for this game even at 1440p, so I’m going to chalk it up with a bug in the Windows 10 app. Gameplay though is butter smooth. Overall, Donut County brings forth a fantastic presentation on a budget.
If you’re looking for a time waster that has a good, funny story attached to it, Donut County is definitely worth picking up. It’s normally sells for $15 Canuck Bucks on just about every platform, and is currently free for Game Pass subscribers.