de Blob (PC) Review

In the '90s collecta-thons was the way to go for 3D platformers for a number of technical reasons, and since those limitations lifted, many developers have moved away from the concept as it did affect the freedom of how people played these games too heavily, as there still were those who wanted to rush from start to finish, a route these all but locked away for the casual audience who played video games as intended. Enter de Blob, a title that took those strong parts of exploration and collecting from said collecta-thons, while adding a huge layer of freedom to the mix to make the collection bit highly optional, as it was possible to proceed through it all doing little else but fighting off enemies, colouring the world, and maybe take on a quest or two.

It was an instant success and might have been one of the strongest 3D platformers released not starring a huge company's mascot as its protagonist. Finally PC gamers can take part on the liberating and creative experience that is de Blob, as the original gets a release on steam, and it does manage to keep the magic and still feel fresh after all these years. The concept of freedom and creativity that de Blob built up its gameplay on has aged extremely well, and translates very good onto PC with some minor control issues as it is obvious that the 3D platformer genre was not made with keyboard and mouse in mind. These problems are, however, easily solved by using a gamepad.

While this is a good and refreshing experience for hardened gamers, its true strength shines when played as a family game. The feeling of creativity and freedom is heavily welcoming for people who rarely plays this kind of games, as this never actively plays against the player by threatening with failures, but rather plays with your by offering rewards for succeeding quicker. Now, while there certainly is a timer, that timer rarely if ever becomes a big problem, unless one does nothing at all for a while.

This design philosophy of carrots over sticks means that de Blob can get away with having some more difficult challenges for players to tackle as they get more experienced with it and its mechanics to keep it entertaining and fresh for the more experienced ones, while still not compromising the enjoyment of inexperienced folks and children who will still find these challenges enjoyable and rewarding when they beat them, as they got enough time to practice and master these challenges and maybe next time finish them on the first try for a higher score instead of just hitting their head against a wall.

Nothing feels as good as completing that one mission that you had a problem with for five minutes and still getting rewarded. And it is truly satisfying to get rewarded for recolouring buildings into a colour more preferred. Wanting the entire village to look purple? Go ahead and repaint it purple! It helps progress towards the goal. The freedom and balanced challenges makes it easy to keep on playing the sometimes long stages offered here.

It is rare to see games that perfectly manage to balance skill input versus reward in a way that feels fun and fair to players of all skill levels, and it is equally rare to see 3D platformers that to this degree allow the freedom to explore in many ways without getting stopped or punished. de Blob has done this in an excellent way, and has therefore made itself out to be a great first step into not only platformers, but gaming altogether. It is a title that breathes of the completionism and three-dimensional freedom of the '90s, while lacking many of the questionable design choices enforced by technological issues of siad era. This mix makes it an easy recommendation to casual and seasoned gamers alike.