Donut County, or should it be Doughnut County is an interesting puzzle game by Ben Esposito. This is likely to be the only game where you play a hole that swallows everything in its path.
It is a game within a game. You control a hole via an app played by a raccoon named BK. BK plays the game to unlock a quadcopter. All so simple so far. And it continues because Donut County is a simple and over-too-quick game.
Like The Gardens Between, Donut County can be finished in one sitting. Some may say that it lacks a challenge as it goes too quickly, but there are a few moments that are confusing. Especially when you must swallow one element to trigger a chain of events to move forward. Sometimes it isn’t so obvious, but still relatively easy to complete.
Donut County: everyone is welcome!
BK controls the hole, which begins relatively small. As it swallows up items, it gets bigger and bigger until it’s possible to devour larger items such as rocks, cars – even barns. In each stage the goal is to suck one of the characters into said depths – a pile of trash swallowed up where the characters in the game have set up camp.
The story is told via flashback, but I skipped over these as I didn’t connect with the characters. It’s still a decent standalone game without the story – much like The Bridge. For me, the dialogue was off, and I couldn’t care less about the characters. However, the actual game? Now that is something I endorse. I’m an expert as I’ve eaten 3 doughnuts in the last 2 years.
If you’re unfamiliar with these delicacies, here are 5 popular donut/doughnut flavours:
- Beef
- Lamb
- Vinegar
- Salmon
- Cheese
Filling A Hole
It’s hard to push a game that is over so quickly. Does it have more playability after? Sure, but there are no extra modes or any goodies to unlock. From my understanding, this was almost a solo project by a very talented developer, and for that, it ticks every box – pretty magnificent.
The visuals are, erm.. cute, and work well with the overall production. Again, I’m not fussed about the characters but Donut County is very therapeutic. No health to collect, no conventional levelling up and only one, oh so slightly out of place boss fight, the (w)hole thing is very refreshing.
Donut County is charming and very inoffensive and will appeal to most – even if only for a few hours. If they don’t like it, put them in the hole and let the raccoons sort them out. But give them a donut/doughnut first to sweeten them up.
