Carto
Sunhead Games’ Carto is an exciting new puzzle adventure where you play as the titular character, as she sets out to find her granny after a storm left her stranded on an island. The premise behind Carto is that you can move and rotate any piece of the map at any time, which makes for a particularly interesting set-up. Changing the position of map pieces can be to solve puzzles or advance into new areas: the only stipulation is that map pieces can only be joined with another with a matching border - ie: land to land, or forest to forest. As you unlock more pieces of the map, you will discover new areas as well as various other characters you can talk to. Sometimes these people need help to find their way home, which will require a little bit of problem-solving in order to re-arrange the map pieces into the ‘correct’ layout.
Gameplay is fairly straightforward, consisting of you walking around the map as you place more pieces, trying to figure out everything that is going on. One of the people on the island, Shianan, is having her coming-of-age party for her 15th birthday, and as is tradition, this will require her to set sail and settle on a new island, never returning home. Naturally, she’s having doubts about going off on her own - and asks you to join her on this journey!
The adorable hand-drawn art style works brilliantly here, with the idea of the world made up of scraps pieces of a map fitting so well. The soothing soundtrack makes for a really relaxing time too, with simple tracks that beautifully fit the theme. Each different area of the game has very different styles and characters and interacting with all of these different people will introduce you to new cultures and ideas.
Some of the puzzle-elements of Carto are ingeniously simple in their design, requiring a little thinking outside of the box in order to progress. This can allow for you to find yourself stuck over very easy tasks, only to have that lightbulb moment go off a few moments later as you wonder how on earth you missed such a simple hint. Nothing is instructed to you as you go, everything requires some element of figuring things out - whether that is placing a map piece in the right location (ie: you receive a map piece with a pier on it after being told to meet someone at the North Pier…) Sometimes these suggestions are more obvious that others, but sometimes you will really find yourself scratching your head for a moment.
Playable from start to finish in around 6 hours, Carto is a lot of fun - especially if you’re looking for a more chilled out game to play. It’s also a fantastic game for kids, as the simple premise and cute art-style, along with the straightforward controls make for a very kid-friendly time. Priced at £16.74 on Xbox One, it’s at a fantastic price point - and even better, is also available via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for subscribers so you’ll get to play it without paying a penny more.
We had a lot of fun with Carto, and would definitely recommend checking it out if you’re wanting something relaxing to pass the time. There’s not a whole lot to do in it, but the time we had with it was definitely well spent.
In the end, we decided to give Carto the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.
Have you played Carto yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Sunhead Games for the Carto Xbox One review code!
