Intro
For this week’s critical play, I decided to play Baba Is You, a puzzle game all about changing the rules by which you play. The game was created by Arvi Teikari (professionally known as “Hempuli Oy”) and is available on Steam, the Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android, though I decided to play it on Steam!
About the Game
In Baba Is You, the rules for each level are presented as blocks of text. You can push the blocks around in order to create new rules, changing how the game works until you’re able to complete the level.
In the level shown below, for example, the starting rule “it is you” makes you start the level as the blue character. You can then push the “arrow” block up to replace “it” and instead create “arrow is you,” allowing you to play as the arrows. The immutable rule “flag is win” in the top left corner indicates that your goal is to reach the flag as your current “character” in order to beat the level.
Because of the game premise, Baba Is You is a player vs. game type of game.
Target Audience
Although the age rating for this game is technically Everyone, I would say younger audiences would have a hard time enjoying it. The puzzles are pretty easy initially, but they quickly ramp up in difficulty and require a lot of abstract reasoning to solve. I would say the game is better for teens and adults because of this.
Mechanics
The core mechanic of the game is the ability to push around blocks present on the map, as long as the blocks are movable (i.e. there’s no rule “[block] is stop”) and reachable. This includes both text blocks and object blocks, such as walls.
With this mechanic, you’re able to dynamically alter the rules of the level, allowing you to transform into different objects, manipulate obstacles, and redefine win conditions of the level. As a result, dynamics of creativity and adaptability are created as players are encouraged to think outside the box and experiment with various rule combinations to complete levels.
Because of this mechanic, there is never one definite solution to each level. This makes the game experience both challenging and freeing, as you have to think very unusually to find solutions to the levels but are able to take creative freedom in your solution. This freedom makes the experience pretty frustrating at times, but it also makes the experience of completing a level much more rewarding.
The game also has a useful undo mechanic that allows you to keep undoing the moves you have made so far to easily reverse your mistakes without restarting the level. This adds a sense of security, making the game experience less stressful as there is little consequence for making mistakes.
Uniqueness
Unlike most other puzzle games, there is no story to Baba is You—the game is just a collection of hundreds of puzzles for you to solve. As a result, the game experience is solely focused on the puzzles and experimenting with bending the rules of the game. This creates a pretty intense challenge type of fun, which may not be for everyone.
Improvements
There isn’t much I would change about this game; all of the levels are very well designed, not repetitive, and quite challenging. One thing I might add though is the ability to get general hints on how to solve a level. I’ve definitely found myself stuck on levels for days at a time before and felt frustrated to the point of not wanting to play the levels again. This hint system might be difficult to implement and/or take away from the game though as one of the main assets of the game is that there is no one solution to every level.
