Oh, Doug. Your heart’s in the right place, but you’re a bit of a klutz and quite possibly the World’s Worst Handyman. Disaster follows you wherever you go, but at least there’ll be a home for the animals at the end of it all, eh?
What the eff am I talking about? Baby Lumberjack and Graffiti Games’ upcoming title, no doubt. In this stealth/puzzle-type thang, you must guide Doug through a gauntlet of household tasks while avoiding super grannies and scarecrows. Get to the end of each job, and you’ll get paid. As mentioned, all the money you earn goes towards an animal shelter for the creatures that Doug rescues while on the job.
For a tradesman, Doug is oblivious. The first couple of tasks include entering a home and fixing a toilet with a plunger. Sound complicated? It is for Doug, as he often bashes the cistern with the rubber and ends up flooding the place. Next job? Find the hidden animal and perhaps do a few other bits and bobs.
The real challenge in World’s Worst Handyman is avoiding those grannies and scarecrows – and no doubt a lot more once the full game is released. These NPCs don’t like him fixing stuff and will hunt Doug down, then slap him about a bit so that he ragdolls off into the distance. This is by far the most frustrating thing about the demo, but you can counter these interactions by setting off distractions (triggering appliances), and crouching and hiding as if playing Serial Cleaners.
Played out in an almost top-down perspective, you can switch to a bird’s eye view to see your surroundings, hidden items and locate your pursers. The downside is that you must stop moving to do this, and if you are already being hunted, expect to be launched across the map. Fortunately, you can’t ‘die’ in the game and instead respawn at the start, then have to locate your fanny pack (fellow Brits will be laughing at that), which contains your tools and inventory items.
And to reiterate that Doug is the World’s Worst Handyman, he doesn’t start each stage with the tools required and has to locate them throughout. This means locating colour-coded keys to unlock rooms or escape paths, and lots of other exploring. Also, there are mini-games to be found. In the demo, you have to assist a flatulent cow by feeding it extra chillis within the time limit to fend off an invading UFO. With their bowels. Hhmmm – yum.
Presentation-wise, this is a very colourful game, and the graphics mirror the upbeat, innocent vibe Doug gives. Considering this is a demo and took about… 30 minutes(?) to finish, it was enough of an impression to secure a place on my gaming radar. There isn’t a release date yet, but I’ll be keeping my eye out for it in due course, and I recommend you do the same.
