World of Goo 2 review

Back in 2008 there were less indie game releases in a year than there are in a day here in 2024. Although gaming was very much on the cusp of an indie boom that would carry it forward to the present day, the majority of gamers were playing big budget titles over ones made by smaller teams with something to prove. There were still landmark indies that got a whole lot of love though, and alongside games like Braid and Castle Crashers was World of Goo. Part bridge building game, part bizarre social commentary, World of Goo would be an utterly bizarre game by today’s standards but back in 2008 it was something else entirely. Now sixteen years later the goo balls return in World of Goo 2, in a game just as weird and just as important as its predecessor.

The titular world in World of Goo 2 is frankly just as messed up by capitalism as it ever was, and goo ball processing is as important as ever. A powerful corporation in this field has just rebranded itself as green and environmentally friendly, but if anything that just makes their motives all the more suspicious. I wish more than anything that I could take a spoiler laden deep dive into where the story goes in World of Goo 2 (because it is wild) but unfortunately you’re going to have to build a few structures to discover those story beats for yourself.

Just like in the original game, most of your time playing World of Goo 2 will be spent making impressive towers and bridges out of slimy little balls. By clicking and dragging one of the balls to the edge of a structure you’ll be able to expand outwards by making a lovely mesh of goopy lines, which will help you get the rest of the goo balls to the pipe that signifies the end of the level. You’ll have to battle with physics to do that though, which is easier said than done.

The first few levels of World of Goo are designed to help you learn how best to make vaguely stable towers with as few balls as possible, but as the game ramps up so too does the amount of new ideas. New types of goo balls are thrown at you thick and fast (some familiar and some much less so) and they all have different properties you’ll need to manage. Matchstick goo balls are expectedly flammable, and you’ll need to either be extremely careful around fire or aim straight for it with them depending on the puzzle in front of you. Green goo balls aren’t permanently locked into place when dropped into your structure, which makes them incredibly useful when something temporary is needed. These are but two of the dozens of weird and wonderful ideas in World of Goo 2, and very few of them (if any) miss the mark.

Despite having goo right there in the title, the original World of Goo didn’t have any gloopy, liquid substances in the game at all. Now with the power of modern technology World of Goo 2 brings a whole lot of black suspicious liquid to the party, which adds with it even more new mechanics. Liquid goo can be shot from cannons across gaps, be used to fill up clear straw structures, and even magically expand certain colours of structures to rise up to new heights. Even just watching it slosh about is fun, through the weird and wonderful tunnels that make up World of Goo stages.

To say that each level of World of Goo 2 is full of new ideas would be a gross understatement. The creativity in each stage is frankly absurd, and never lets up. In one level you might need to build a big ball of a structure to reach a pipe in the middle of a rotating cylinder, in the next you’ll be using balloons and a jet engine to fly goo to the finish line in a makeshift plane. The first minute or two of most later levels was, for me at least, almost always spent just staring at the screen trying to work out how the Rube Goldberg machine of blobs in front of me worked and how to set it off. Finally figuring out how to succeed in these outlandish settings makes you feel like a genius, but really that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Completing a level is all well and good, but just in case you really like punishing yourself, each level also features three challenge goals to complete. By using as few goo balls as possible, making as few moves as possible and racing through a stage as fast as you can you’ll check off these bonus objectives, but it’s not easy. During my playthrough I only managed to succeed in the side challenges a handful of times, so if you really want to master this game it’ll take a lot of time and patience.

I was fully prepared after three chapters of World of Goo 2 to write a positive review about this was a lovely game that felt like an improvement over the original, but that didn’t push the boat out a whole bunch. Then I entered the final third of the game and had my mind suitably blown. The last few hours of World of Goo 2 is nuttier than a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup factory, and just as moreish. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a session of gaming more than this final genre bending-portion of this bizarre title, and I can’t wait for more people to experience it.

It’s probably not a big shock to hear that I really enjoyed my time with World of Goo 2, but a couple of annoyances did detract from the good stuff a little. Stretching a structure as far as possible with your next goo ball placement is a bit fiddly, with no way of just placing it at the maximum length automatically. There’s also an “undo” feature that is absolutely necessary for the experience, but it’s way more annoying than it needs to be. To reverse a misplaced blob placement you need to click on a firefly that hovers around the level, but for some reason it constantly moves around and is way too small to reliably click on. This was clearly a deliberate decision made by someone who wants to hurt people (badly) and I can’t stand it.

World of Goo 2 takes everything people loved about the first game sixteen years ago and turns it up to eleven. The amount of ideas packed into the gooey package is ridiculously impressive, and making huge swaying towers that can withstand the tugs of physics always feels amazing. Alongside all that there are also moments of World of Goo 2 that will be burned into my memory forever, and that I can’t wait to see everyone else experience. World of Goo 2 is a sequel done right, and a hell of a good time.