GOCCO OF WAR Review

I will start by saying that I probably enjoyed this game way more than I should have done. GOCCO of War is a fun and well designed shooter that sees you play as chibi style characters. The game is developed by Peakvox and localized by AGM Playism. The name GOCCO stands for Global Online Chibi Combat Offensive. I can assure you that the game is far more lighthearted than the name might suggest.

The game is about children having fun and starting pretend battles in make-believe wars. The first thing you do when you start is to create your character. The game has a good variety of options to make your Chibi fighter look unique. I have to say I really liked the style and look of the Chibi characters and felt they suited the game well. I spent quite a bit of time simply messing around creating different characters, which is normally something I do pretty quickly in games with no real interest in spending too long designing my character.

You can select from various quests to take on when in the main hub area. You also have the option to either play online or offline depending on your preference. To do a quest, just go to the quest stand. There you will be able to activate one. There are 21 story quests available to you during the game. Up to 32 people can be in a lobby at once and up to 4 players can team up and take on quests together. Along the way, players earn materials that allow them to create over 350 different garments. In between quests, players can socialize with up to 31 other players with both text and gesture-based communication. This actually reminded me a bit of Splatoon for the Wii U. There is also one new quest that allows up to 8 people to play together. The game has three difficultly settings and like with most games I just went for the middle of the road option, as I feel that is normally how the game was intended to be played.

As you take on each quest you will use your two main weapons: a gun that can fire single shots or by holding down the right mouse button you can charge the gun up to fire a burst. You can also switch to your sword by using the scroll wheel. I have to say that using the weapons felt great, especially charging up the gun. The weapons are very fun to use, and they all have a secondary attack mode. There are 13 weapon types and they can be upgraded to cause more damage, or upgrade into a new form to add new abilities like lightning, fire or poison affects. As you make your way through each quest you will start to pick up various items and loot. If you do decide to play in online mode you don’t need to worry about rushing to the loot before other players as material drops are ‘instanced,’ meaning they are different for every player in the game. At the craft stand, you can enhance or create other weapons. If you accumulate enough gold during your quest, you can go to the shop stand where you can purchase more powerful weapons.

As I said, for I childlike game that looks cute and colourful, it actually has very satisfying combat and shooting mechanics. I was pleasantly surprised with just how much I loved running around, taking out enemies. The game is played from a 3^rd person perspective and the camera feels smooth and responsive. I use an M65 RGB Corsair Gaming mouse that allows me to quickly switch DPI settings on the go, which can come in extremely useful.

The combat in the game is pretty easy to get the hang of and the level design is simple but well designed. The enemies you face possess different attack styles and movement, which keeps you on your toes. You can play with a gamepad but I found I preferred using a mouse a keyboard on this occasion.

There are plenty of upgrades and options within the game, like being able to switch up clothing and costumes to change the appearance of your character. These are all pretty unique with some interesting options like alien outfits and military uniforms. It’s nice that you can also change your hairstyle and features during the game. The game features over 200 characters and it also has a really good range of enemies and monsters to take on. There is also a tonne of upgrade badges to collect, which I thought was awesome. There are over 350 types of wearable garments that can be customised with over 60 kinds of materials. I really liked how the game uses gestures for communication, which I often like to use in games like Splatoon and even the emotes in games like Destiny.

The presentation and overall style of GOCCO looks great. It has a cute a colourful design that feels unique and playful. I don’t think I have ever played a game where you play as a Chibi style character and thought it worked well. The nearest thing I could probably compare the style to is something like Splatoon, especially with the charming characters and third person action. The environments are really well design and I simply loved the overall look of the world. The sound design is also very good, with quirky and upbeat sound effects and child-like soundtrack. All in all, it just all comes together to form a cohesive and enjoyable experience.

I would certainly recommend GOCCO OF WAR if you fancy something that not only looks great and runs well but is also very fun to play. For me the most vital part of gaming is that it feels fun to play and this certainly does that. It’s also nice to have the option of playing either online or offline. I would certainly recommend this game if you liked Splatoon on the Wii U or other 3^rd person action games with more child-friendly aesthetics.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.