Game review: Octodad: Dadliest Catch

Have you ever worn your school uniform on a mufti day? Ordered chicken when everyone else ordered fish? Taken to flared jeans when straight legs are in?

Then Octodad: Dadliest Catch is the game for you.

Thanks to its main protagonist - an octopus masquerading as a suburban dad - the sequel to a 2010 freeware release is for those misfits who feel like they don't fit into mainstream society.

Mostly, Dadliest Catch is a deceptively hard, mildly addictive exercise in chaos control. Gamers are tasked with doing mundane things - but boy are easy things hard to do when you've got tentacles.

Thanks to a control system that requires constant multi-tasking, simple things like making a cup of coffee, mowing the lawn, chopping wood or shopping for cereal can be mayhem.

That's exactly where the genius of Octodad lies - causing chaos in everyday situations. Who hasn't wanted to destory a supermarket's carefully-designed display of soft drinks? Or crawl through a freezer full of frozen pizzas? Or wreak havoc in a church, halfway through a wedding?

Be warned though: do enough bad things like that and you'll earn purple splotches. Get too many of these and you'll be forced to restart the level.

And this isn't a game with amazing graphics or a killer storyline. The clunky engine design can lead to frustrations with camera angles and control systems.

But give it half an hour and you'll forgive those issues, because Octodad provides a fun, silly and surprisingly touching experience. Perhaps having tentacles for arms and legs isn't that bad after all.

Platform:

PlayStation 4

Rating:

PG

- TimeOut