Los juegos multijugador y/o como servicio parecen vivir su propia versión del realismo capitalista que proponía Mark Fisher, donde parece no haber escapatoria a la triada conformada por el individualismo competitivo, los mecanismos que fuerzan a jugar todos los días y los micropagos. Por suerte aquí está KarmaZoo para demostrar que otro mundo es posible.
Todo en KarmaZoo está orientado a la colaboración: los puzzles de los niveles que necesitan la cooperación de todo el mundo, el sistema de recompensas (donde si llegas al final se suma el karma de todo los jugadores y se reparten a cada jugador), la manera de desbloquear nuevos personajes (sumando los puntos de todas las partidas a nivel global) e incluso los bloques que dejas cuando mueres, que ayudan a sortear trampas a tus compañeros.
Así que a veces te encontrarás sacrificándote para ayudar a otros jugadores a pasar, y ellos regalándote puntos de karma como agradecimiento. Con muy pocas acciones, se consigue una comunicación entre personajes muy expresiva (que recuerda mucho a Journey), haciendo que cada partida esté llena de pequeñas historias bonitas de compañerismo.
En la parte negativa, hay que decir de que como plataformas no siempre funciona del todo bien, y no me he encontrado ningún nivel que me haya parecido destacable. Tampoco ayuda que la mayoría de personajes sean un poco de relleno, siendo muchos clones de otros. Se enfoca tanto en lo cooperativo de su propuesta, que cuando los jugadores de tu partida no acompañan, hace que las partidas sean tediosas.
Aún así un experimento más que interesante, que propone muchísimas cosas que espero que otras desarrolladoras tomen como inspiración.
Todo en KarmaZoo está orientado a la colaboración: los puzzles de los niveles que necesitan la cooperación de todo el mundo, el sistema de recompensas (donde si llegas al final se suma el karma de todo los jugadores y se reparten a cada jugador), la manera de desbloquear nuevos personajes (sumando los puntos de todas las partidas a nivel global) e incluso los bloques que dejas cuando mueres, que ayudan a sortear trampas a tus compañeros.
Así que a veces te encontrarás sacrificándote para ayudar a otros jugadores a pasar, y ellos regalándote puntos de karma como agradecimiento. Con muy pocas acciones, se consigue una comunicación entre personajes muy expresiva (que recuerda mucho a Journey), haciendo que cada partida esté llena de pequeñas historias bonitas de compañerismo.
En la parte negativa, hay que decir de que como plataformas no siempre funciona del todo bien, y no me he encontrado ningún nivel que me haya parecido destacable. Tampoco ayuda que la mayoría de personajes sean un poco de relleno, siendo muchos clones de otros. Se enfoca tanto en lo cooperativo de su propuesta, que cuando los jugadores de tu partida no acompañan, hace que las partidas sean tediosas.
Aún así un experimento más que interesante, que propone muchísimas cosas que espero que otras desarrolladoras tomen como inspiración.
Really really fantastic use of anonymous online matchmaking. Just fantastic.
Novel cooperative puzzle platformer with up to 10 people. Most of the 50 characters have different powers but there are some repeats. Some powers are more satisfying and useful than others. I initially loved my time with Karmazoo but as my hours climbed, my love for it dropped.
My issue with the game is three-pronged: Levels repeat and become too familiar, trolls/bad teammates who have no clue what their powers are resulting in the whole team losing, and crashing/freezing which happened at least 6 times in my 50 hrs of playtime.
The animations for all 50 characters which encompass two different dance moves, singing, sleeping, being idle, climbing, entering, exiting, and dying animations were a huge part of the charm. They really went all out and gave the characters each a unique personality.
The music is pretty good but gets repetitive after many hours. The karmapass that unlocks as the whole community earns points is a good idea but since the playerbase fell off, the requirements may need to be dramatically reduced so everyone will see all the new characters and other items.
It’s baffling that Devolver didn’t push this game harder because there’s a potential that if enough streamers gave it attention that it’d blow up. It’s only 10 bucks too, which is more than fair for how much enjoyment and good vibes I got out of it. I hope that soon it’ll have a resurgence because it really is a fun and charming time.
My issue with the game is three-pronged: Levels repeat and become too familiar, trolls/bad teammates who have no clue what their powers are resulting in the whole team losing, and crashing/freezing which happened at least 6 times in my 50 hrs of playtime.
The animations for all 50 characters which encompass two different dance moves, singing, sleeping, being idle, climbing, entering, exiting, and dying animations were a huge part of the charm. They really went all out and gave the characters each a unique personality.
The music is pretty good but gets repetitive after many hours. The karmapass that unlocks as the whole community earns points is a good idea but since the playerbase fell off, the requirements may need to be dramatically reduced so everyone will see all the new characters and other items.
It’s baffling that Devolver didn’t push this game harder because there’s a potential that if enough streamers gave it attention that it’d blow up. It’s only 10 bucks too, which is more than fair for how much enjoyment and good vibes I got out of it. I hope that soon it’ll have a resurgence because it really is a fun and charming time.
If you're looking for just a feel-good time, Karma Zoo is one of the best candidates. Unfortunately, it just doesn't have quite enough to keep it engaging beyond the first few hours.
Full video review: https://youtu.be/RxS6fy52eiU
KarmaZoo might just be one of the cutest games I have played all year. I mean, you can literally shoot hearts at your teammates to spread love and I can’t say I’ve played another game that quite reaches that level.
Gameplay
At its core, KarmaZoo is a game about cooperative puzzle platforming. You’ll run into situations where you need one player to unlock a door for another player to pass, or where you need one player to sing to activate a platform for another player to stand on. It’s not a really difficult formula to understand and doesn’t really get too complex, which may be an issue for some, but I feel like the devs did a great job making it just complex enough to draw in players that may not be familiar with the genre while still being engaging for those more experienced.
Levels
Levels are divided into “loops” which are kinda reminiscent of a roguelike run. The levels are handcrafted and selected from a pool of over 300 according to what characters are selected. After completing a level, players vote on a card to activate for the next, and this was a kinda fun feature in itself because you can do interesting stuff like force everyone to play the same character in the next level or one of my group’s favorites - a card that activates a saxophone to play with the background music. These were fun to play with even if they don’t always change the gameplay.
Characters
Characters range from your simple blobs, to owls that can glide, to lions that can sing in all directions, to literal flower pots that can create platforms from their flowers. There are 50 such to unlock, so there’s a lot of replayability in that regard and given that you can play with up to 10 people, I can only imagine how insane some combinations would be. That said, I was a bit disappointed to see that some of those characters had identical or very similar abilities to others instead of truly being unique.
Gameplay cont.
Playing through loops and trying out different character combinations was fun, activating the dumbest level effects was also fun, and the game even has a competitive mode called Totem that can be played online or locally and that was a ton of fun too. That mode has a bunch of different level types, like races or eating challenges and it was really cool to see how the devs could take simple concepts like that and craft a ton of levels that all feel different from each other and try new things.
Longevity
My only real concern with the game is its longevity. This is not a game that can be played solo. Like, it straight up just does not work. Trying to join a loop or creating your own spits you into a lobby with a message stating that two players are required to continue. This is not surprising, given that the gameplay would actually just be impossible to complete as a solo, but it is very important to note as once this game loses its playerbase, it will be extremely difficult to play.
Overall
I would give KarmaZoo a light recommendation. It’s a fun little co-op puzzler that is great to play if you have a group of friends ready to give it a shot. It has a ton of characters to unlock, level types to work through, and the competitive Totem mode is a lot of fun too. That said, if you do not have a group to play with, you’ll be at the mercy of the online playerbase which I honestly cannot see lasting that long, so that is definitely something to keep in mind.
KarmaZoo might just be one of the cutest games I have played all year. I mean, you can literally shoot hearts at your teammates to spread love and I can’t say I’ve played another game that quite reaches that level.
Gameplay
At its core, KarmaZoo is a game about cooperative puzzle platforming. You’ll run into situations where you need one player to unlock a door for another player to pass, or where you need one player to sing to activate a platform for another player to stand on. It’s not a really difficult formula to understand and doesn’t really get too complex, which may be an issue for some, but I feel like the devs did a great job making it just complex enough to draw in players that may not be familiar with the genre while still being engaging for those more experienced.
Levels
Levels are divided into “loops” which are kinda reminiscent of a roguelike run. The levels are handcrafted and selected from a pool of over 300 according to what characters are selected. After completing a level, players vote on a card to activate for the next, and this was a kinda fun feature in itself because you can do interesting stuff like force everyone to play the same character in the next level or one of my group’s favorites - a card that activates a saxophone to play with the background music. These were fun to play with even if they don’t always change the gameplay.
Characters
Characters range from your simple blobs, to owls that can glide, to lions that can sing in all directions, to literal flower pots that can create platforms from their flowers. There are 50 such to unlock, so there’s a lot of replayability in that regard and given that you can play with up to 10 people, I can only imagine how insane some combinations would be. That said, I was a bit disappointed to see that some of those characters had identical or very similar abilities to others instead of truly being unique.
Gameplay cont.
Playing through loops and trying out different character combinations was fun, activating the dumbest level effects was also fun, and the game even has a competitive mode called Totem that can be played online or locally and that was a ton of fun too. That mode has a bunch of different level types, like races or eating challenges and it was really cool to see how the devs could take simple concepts like that and craft a ton of levels that all feel different from each other and try new things.
Longevity
My only real concern with the game is its longevity. This is not a game that can be played solo. Like, it straight up just does not work. Trying to join a loop or creating your own spits you into a lobby with a message stating that two players are required to continue. This is not surprising, given that the gameplay would actually just be impossible to complete as a solo, but it is very important to note as once this game loses its playerbase, it will be extremely difficult to play.
Overall
I would give KarmaZoo a light recommendation. It’s a fun little co-op puzzler that is great to play if you have a group of friends ready to give it a shot. It has a ton of characters to unlock, level types to work through, and the competitive Totem mode is a lot of fun too. That said, if you do not have a group to play with, you’ll be at the mercy of the online playerbase which I honestly cannot see lasting that long, so that is definitely something to keep in mind.
this game is fun but for some reason really laggy for me sometimes
Mir gefällt das Konzept des Spiels sehr und grundsätzlich erreicht es auch was es möchte, allerdings gibt es noch ein paar kleinere Makel die mich stören.
Mir gefällt wie viele verschiedene spielbare Kreaturen es gibt und das trotz dieser Diversität die Level so gestaltet sind, dass keine zu starken Abhängigkeiten von einem einzelnen Spieler entstehen. Das führt allerdings auch dazu, dass die meisten Situationen in dem Spiel nicht allzu herausfordernd sind und sich das ganze mehr wie ein Gruppenspaziergang anfühlt. Daher wäre es cool wenn es in irgendeiner Form Extralevel gäbe, die komplexere Zusammenarbeit erfordern. Der Mangel an Herausforderung ist vor allem deswegen störend, da das Spiel von einem sehr viele Durchläufe erwartet, wodurch es sich schnell zu einem Grind entwickeln kann. Vor allem die Missionen finde ich teilweise sehr problematisch, da manche von ihnen gegen das Prinzip der Kooperation gehen und erwarten dass man sich Schlüssel vor den 9 anderen Mitspielern schnappt und zudem ich auch eine Mission hatte, die gar nicht zu funktionieren scheint, was auch sehr frustrierend ist.
Es ist zwar schon herzerwärmend zu sehen wie sehr man in dem Spiel mit Fremden zusammen arbeitet, das meiste fühlte sich allerdings nicht zu bedeutend an, da nicht wirklich viel dabei auf dem Spiel steht.
Mir gefällt wie viele verschiedene spielbare Kreaturen es gibt und das trotz dieser Diversität die Level so gestaltet sind, dass keine zu starken Abhängigkeiten von einem einzelnen Spieler entstehen. Das führt allerdings auch dazu, dass die meisten Situationen in dem Spiel nicht allzu herausfordernd sind und sich das ganze mehr wie ein Gruppenspaziergang anfühlt. Daher wäre es cool wenn es in irgendeiner Form Extralevel gäbe, die komplexere Zusammenarbeit erfordern. Der Mangel an Herausforderung ist vor allem deswegen störend, da das Spiel von einem sehr viele Durchläufe erwartet, wodurch es sich schnell zu einem Grind entwickeln kann. Vor allem die Missionen finde ich teilweise sehr problematisch, da manche von ihnen gegen das Prinzip der Kooperation gehen und erwarten dass man sich Schlüssel vor den 9 anderen Mitspielern schnappt und zudem ich auch eine Mission hatte, die gar nicht zu funktionieren scheint, was auch sehr frustrierend ist.
Es ist zwar schon herzerwärmend zu sehen wie sehr man in dem Spiel mit Fremden zusammen arbeitet, das meiste fühlte sich allerdings nicht zu bedeutend an, da nicht wirklich viel dabei auf dem Spiel steht.
Me gusta el concepto y creo que es una idea súper interesante, pero la desconexión de muchas cosas termina siendo algo frustrante y un poco (?)
Tal vez me falta jugar más, pero también es cierto que no parece ofrecer otra cosa que no sea una skin más bonita, es bueno para pasar el rato muerto, pero nada mas.
Tal vez me falta jugar más, pero también es cierto que no parece ofrecer otra cosa que no sea una skin más bonita, es bueno para pasar el rato muerto, pero nada mas.
Bem, recentemente joguei KarmaZoo, um gamezinho que parecia bem legalzinho. Então, resolvi ao menos iniciar para ver o que dava, para mim, certamente é um dos lançamentos mais incríveis deste ano.
Jogo excelente, onde você coleta karma juntos e completa puzzles divertidos, tudo junto, porque vocês se ajudam para que todos possam chegar até o final. Nunca vi um jogo em que se colabora tanto com jogadores aleatórios como neste.
O jogo cooperativo com vários amigos também é muito divertido, já que você pode jogar com até 10 jogadores ao mesmo tempo.
Um dos pontos que chama minha atenção nesse game é a questão do tempo dele; ele é um game relativamente curto e também depende de outras pessoas para poder jogar. Então, apesar de ser um jogo maravilhoso, eu tenho meus medos em relação até onde vai a vida útil desse game.
Tirando essa preocupação um pouco de lado, é aquilo basicamente que falei: ele é um game extremamente divertido, encantador e extremamente positivo. Cada personagem tem habilidades únicas, desde esquilos até sapos e elefantes. Você começa como uma pequena bolha que gruda nas paredes, mas pode desbloquear vários animais e habilidades novas.
Normalmente, não costumo curtir jogos cooperativos com aleatório; prefiro jogar solo ou com amigos. No entanto, este é um dos poucos jogos que me fisgou imediatamente, porque simplesmente funciona de maneira brilhante desde o início.
O jogo te joga em uma série de fases de puzzles e plataforma que parecem ser geradas automaticamente com base no número de jogadores e nas formas que eles trouxeram para a fase, adaptando-se às habilidades que você tem disponíveis. Tem um sistema de progressão satisfatório (ajudar de qualquer forma recompensa 'karma', que desbloqueia mais transformações de forma). Não há comunicação direta e apenas meios rudimentares de expressão, mas de alguma forma, isso não resulta em caos total. Simplesmente funciona intuitivamente, de alguma forma, derrubando todas as minhas concepções prévias sobre partidas aleatórias multiplayer.
Totalmente recomendado, mesmo se você não tiver amigos para jogar cooperativamente.
No geral, Karmazoo é um game excelente e que certamente eu curti muito, apesar de em alguns momentos os players aleatórios ou até mesmo o fator repetição podem fazer você desistir um pouco do game. Mas, apesar de alguns detalhes, ele custa 30 reais no Xbox, o que é um precinho bem ok e aceitável e que certamente vale muito a pena conferir.
Pontos positivos:
- Conceito único e jogabilidade.
- Jogabilidade divertida.
Pontos negativos:
- Muito esforço e repetição.
- Jogadores aleatórios podem dar uma dorzinha de cabeça.
Versão utilizada para análise: Xbox Series S.
Jogo excelente, onde você coleta karma juntos e completa puzzles divertidos, tudo junto, porque vocês se ajudam para que todos possam chegar até o final. Nunca vi um jogo em que se colabora tanto com jogadores aleatórios como neste.
O jogo cooperativo com vários amigos também é muito divertido, já que você pode jogar com até 10 jogadores ao mesmo tempo.
Um dos pontos que chama minha atenção nesse game é a questão do tempo dele; ele é um game relativamente curto e também depende de outras pessoas para poder jogar. Então, apesar de ser um jogo maravilhoso, eu tenho meus medos em relação até onde vai a vida útil desse game.
Tirando essa preocupação um pouco de lado, é aquilo basicamente que falei: ele é um game extremamente divertido, encantador e extremamente positivo. Cada personagem tem habilidades únicas, desde esquilos até sapos e elefantes. Você começa como uma pequena bolha que gruda nas paredes, mas pode desbloquear vários animais e habilidades novas.
Normalmente, não costumo curtir jogos cooperativos com aleatório; prefiro jogar solo ou com amigos. No entanto, este é um dos poucos jogos que me fisgou imediatamente, porque simplesmente funciona de maneira brilhante desde o início.
O jogo te joga em uma série de fases de puzzles e plataforma que parecem ser geradas automaticamente com base no número de jogadores e nas formas que eles trouxeram para a fase, adaptando-se às habilidades que você tem disponíveis. Tem um sistema de progressão satisfatório (ajudar de qualquer forma recompensa 'karma', que desbloqueia mais transformações de forma). Não há comunicação direta e apenas meios rudimentares de expressão, mas de alguma forma, isso não resulta em caos total. Simplesmente funciona intuitivamente, de alguma forma, derrubando todas as minhas concepções prévias sobre partidas aleatórias multiplayer.
Totalmente recomendado, mesmo se você não tiver amigos para jogar cooperativamente.
No geral, Karmazoo é um game excelente e que certamente eu curti muito, apesar de em alguns momentos os players aleatórios ou até mesmo o fator repetição podem fazer você desistir um pouco do game. Mas, apesar de alguns detalhes, ele custa 30 reais no Xbox, o que é um precinho bem ok e aceitável e que certamente vale muito a pena conferir.
Pontos positivos:
- Conceito único e jogabilidade.
- Jogabilidade divertida.
Pontos negativos:
- Muito esforço e repetição.
- Jogadores aleatórios podem dar uma dorzinha de cabeça.
Versão utilizada para análise: Xbox Series S.