Review: Octodad Dadliest Catch PS4

OctodadInfo

You can find our original review for Octodad Deadliest Catch on PC HERE. The game is largely the same on both consoles.
Octo Story
In Octodad Deadliest Catch, you play as an Octopus dressed as a man. Your job is to help Octodad live life as a “normal” family guy and to keep his octopus origins from society. Octodad has a wife and children and does all the things that an Octopus pretending to be a man with a wife and kids does. This includes running from his arch nemesis, The Chef. The Chef knows Octodad’s secret and often chases him down, among other things, turn him into sushi. It does seem that The Chefs grand plan is to let everyone know that Octodad is an octopus. Story really is applied lightly here, and those wanting to explore Octodad’s thoughts and motives will be sorely disappointed.

Octo Presentation
Octodad’s character models are charming and help bring a comical element to the entire package and enrich the experience. Some people will find the graphics underwhelming but I found it to be full of charm. Sure, it’s not the most incredible looking PS4 game, but it packs just as much personality than any that I can think of.

Octodad Screen1
The sound design on the other hand is a different kettle of fish (excuse the pun). Octodad’s gulps and blops are all very funny. Unlike pre written spoken dialog this doesn’t become monotonous after some time spent in the game. The voice cast of Octodad’s family are also great. His suspicious wife sounds like she could be right out of a 1960’s American sitcom. Octodad’s children have a sound of glee in their voice and in the missions that they are involved they bring another sense of immersion and polish. It is a pity that the same amount of time wasn’t spent on the visual presentation as the sound.

Octo Gameplay
Octodad can be very clever and funny, but this is because the game oozes charm from the very beginning. How could an Octopus trying to live as a man not be funny? The various situations that you find yourself in, whether it be visiting an aquarium with your family or even doing the shopping or yard work are amusing and will make you smile when you really think about what you are trying to accomplish. It is a shame that Octodad, as a character is not fleshed out and given a longer adventure. By far the funniest scene in the game is the very end, a few more of these moments wouldn’t have hurt the adventure.

Octodad screen2
Octodad can be very frustrating. For a lot of people the controls will be an instant repellent. These controls are bitter sweet, in one hand you have to admire the developer for taking a risk and making the game stand out through the method you control our Octopus friend with. On the other hand you will be ready to give up in frustration after ten minutes. What makes Octodad’s controls so different is that you control limbs individually. This sounds fine until you start walking around and you need to move each leg individually just to move. This translates on screen as well as you can imagine, it is challenging because it feels sloppy and to add insult, nearly all of the challenge in the game comes from the difficulty in moving around and picking up items.

The PS4 version allows you to control Octodad via the Dualshock 4 or via the Move and Navigation controllers. The developers have added changed parts of the later part of the campaign as well as added more challenges to get through. You’re able to play local co-op which allows you and a friend to control separate parts of Octodad’s limbs.