The Holy Gosh Darn Review – A brilliantly designed time travel adventure game – WGB

Perfectly Paranomal returns Tuesday with the third game in the trilogy. This might be the best game ever! The Holy Gosh darn is a sharply written adventure game with excellent time travel puzzles. Whether you’ve already played Manual Samuel and Hellheim Hassle or are new to the crazy world of Perfectly Paranormal, The Holy Gosh Darn is going to be a blast.

Our unexpected celestial hero is Cassiel of Celerity, a foul-mouthed and mean-spirited angel. She spends her days hanging out with friends at Pearly Gates. God hasn’t been around much lately, so Cassiel has been a little lost. She and her friends spend time playing Guess that Dawg, since only dog ​​souls seem to meet the criteria to enter heaven. Humans are very rare, which is very disappointing for Peter, Cassiel’s friend and human gateway to heaven. But at 6 PM, a horde of phantoms appears, hell-bent on destroying everything. Running to Peter, Cassiel realizes that he must rescue The Holy Godsh Darn, an important artifact that can protect Heaven, and sets out… .Boom. The phantoms annihilate heaven with a glorious explosion, as if a nuclear bomb exploded and sent them to the underworld.

This is where the hoodie-loving Death appears, wearing the exact same hat seen in 2016’s Manual Samuel. Yes, The Holy Gosh Darn not only takes place in the same universe as developer Perfectly Paranormal’s last two games, it takes place on the very same day. But fear not, mortal. Although connected to each other in some ways, The Holy Gosh Darn works perfectly as its own standalone adventure.

Death is here to save heaven. It’s ironic because it’s his incredible qualities that destroy Heaven in the first place. More specifically, Death is here to make sure Cassiel saves Heaven for him, with the help of a handy clock that Cassiel can use to rewind and fast-forward time. She doesn’t wake her angelic ass until noon, so that’s the earliest she can go back, but she can also rewind in 15-minute increments or go back to the checkpoint you left at. Armed with a magic watch, Cassiel must figure out a way to stop the Phantom, along with her search for the titular being Holy Gosh Darn, find out what the gods are up to, and humiliate a bunch of old people. It would be the longest six hours of Cassiel’s life.

It’s heaven, but not what you imagine. In this universe, the afterlife is not much different from Earth. People fill out paperwork, work, live in apartments, and generally get on with it. Hell has also been remodeled, so honestly I don’t think it’s a terrible place to live. Heck, there’s even a board game cafe where you can play. Perfectly Paranormal’s idea of ​​where we go when we die may not be the flashiest, but it’s certainly interesting. A fair amount of Norse mythology for good measure.

The writing style is probably the most divisive aspect, as it relies heavily on quirky characters and snarky dialogue. The kind that almost everyone finds a bit dickish. That said, there’s a ton of writing that’s often overused these days when it comes to MCUs. A place where everything feels sarcastic, where no one takes things seriously and everyone makes a million witty comebacks? Even if the style gets tiresome, Perfectly Paranormal handles it very well and, to be fair to the developer, maintains the style used in Manual Samuel and Hellheim Hassle.

Whether you’re talking to a literal devil, insulting elders, talking to death, or persuading someone who owes you money, there’s never a dull moment! Of course, not every joke succeeds, but it’s pretty impressive that almost every joke does. The game uses religion as both a storytelling foundation and a joke punching bag, but the sharp writing never once ventures into anything that feels overtly disrespectful. Striking a balance is a difficult task, but Perfectly Paranormal does it with aplomb.

But I thought it would be nice if this game dared to mock other religions besides Christianity. It seems like in almost every book, movie, and game, it’s almost always Christianity that’s spoofed. Perhaps because it has the most commonly known and widely recognized images and concepts. But that’s becoming increasingly exaggerated. For example, there is a lot of comedic material in Islam, Judaism and Buddhism, but we get so little from them. I can’t help but wonder if Christianity, angelic or otherwise, is considered a “safe” choice that can be ridiculed without ruffling any feathers.

Cassiel and Death are the only two people who know what will happen in Heaven, making for an interesting juxtaposition. While you’re sprinting to find a way to save Heaven, everyone else is just going through another ordinary day. This means that they tend to be somewhat chatty, wanting to bore Cassiel with mundane nonsense that isn’t 100% helpful to the angel due to time constraints. The game cleverly uses this to have Cassiel interrupt the conversation with an angry “Give me the point!” But you have to be careful. Because while some people will tolerate her rudeness, other characters will refuse and refuse to talk to her until she turns back time. The more you play, the more you learn who you can push and who you can’t. You’ll also discover conversation shortcuts that can speed up long chats and get you the information you need.

This is an adventure game, so you probably already know what you’ll be doing. Yes, solve the puzzle, baby! Sure, there are a few other things mixed in, like ultra-light platforming or skydiving past the souls of dogs on your way to heaven, but for the most part you’ll be solving incredibly designed puzzles. Holy Gosh Darn makes exceptional use of time travel while never failing to carefully balance its difficulty levels. Despite how obtuse the time travel concept can be at times, you won’t be stuck for too long and the game consistently excels at pointing you in the right direction. Bouncing the clock back and forth becomes second nature.

On paper, it sounds like time travel would become tedious as some puzzles require you to repeat them three or four times before you get the order right, but the game always seems to find a way to tweak each loop just enough to keep it fun. You may have found a shortcut, or you may have unlocked a dialogue option that causes Cassiel to start the chase, making this process smoother. Other times, you’ll end up repeating the loop due to your own mistakes, like forgetting to take heavenly money out of your jeans in your pocket. Or maybe you’ll go back in time and realize you didn’t clock in the cup of coffee you needed. Of course, despite the urgent theme of saving Heaven, there is no chance of complete failure, as you can repeat the time as many times as you like.

Entering the VIP Lounge of a gaming cafe is a great example of building a game with multiple levels of puzzles. First, you should use your knowledge of the future to cough politely every time someone swears. Then you won’t have to throw a coin to Sweary, the little imp living in hell who shows up with a jar of swear words whenever a resident forgets to guard his tongue. Checking. Once you enter the cafe, you need to exchange a token to get a cell phone. That means finding a way to earn enough money to get into a tabletop RPG where you can use the clock again to figure out how to get to the top.

Whenever the novelty of time travel begins to wear off, the game adds new wrinkles to keep things interesting. For example, a handy upgrade that lets you go back in time by placing a single item in a clock completely changes the way puzzles are handled. It’s especially fun as the game teaches you how to use this new power to duplicate items. And when those new powers seem to have reached their limits, developers find even more ways to keep things fresh and fun, whether it’s bringing in interesting new characters or sending you somewhere else.

Then, in a perfectly judged ten or so hours, the game wraps things up with a satisfying conclusion, opening the door to more Tuesday-based adventures. There are also a few additional side quests to solve for fun and complete your nice trophy list, and there’s also a New Game+ mode that must be used to complete the game in less than 30 rewinds.

Holy shit, this game is good! Completely paranormal, it continues to hit it out of the park. First he skateboards, then he cuts off his limbs, and now he travels through time. They continue to find amazing new ways to experience their own unique universe. I can’t wait to see what weird and wonderful concepts they come up with next.

Holy Gosh Darn makes full use of the time travel gimmick, creating tons of fun puzzles in a world full of wacky characters, witty jokes, and wild gags. But perhaps the best thing about this game is how it expands on the universe that Perfectly Paranormal is building. It is said that God created humans in his own image, and once you spend some time in heaven and hell, it makes a lot of sense. The denizens of the afterlife are a flawed bunch, and so are humans.

Oh my gosh Darn is doing the Lord’s work here! And God knows that He works in mysterious ways.