Review
Sasha here! 👋
Today's game is Spilled! It's a cute cozy game about cleaning up the ocean with a small boat. No major notes on the art and music; they work well together and change subtly between areas. It's something I would like to go back and pay attention to more the next time I play as it transitions so naturally between areas. It's just a great game to sit back and relax with.
Lente, the developer, lives on a boat in The Netherlands and you can tell this game came from a place of love.
Controls
I played the game using a controller. The controls were little un-intuitive when wanting to reverse. I felt they needed to be mirrored. If you drive a car I suspect you'd want it mirrored as well. Luckily this was easily fixed by exploring the options.
There were some times I felt it the controls could use a little polish but nothing that made the experience un-playable.
Game Progression
There are 3 parts of your boat you can upgrade. The width of the oil-catcher, the oil tank, and the boat's speed. All of them are helpful but I found it a fairly natural decision to upgrade the lowest leveled one each time. I don't think the game needs a more complicated upgrade system; it'd likely just get in the way of the core mechanic.
Bottles
Okay, so there are these bottles you have to push around. Sometimes they can get caught on your boat, the shore, or other things. I tried to play the game as intended but there were 2 times I quit the game just so I could have the bottles respawn in their more convenient starting positions (after they got scattered/stuck from my blunders).
Final Thoughts
I really love the vibe the game has going on. Seeing the animals and plants return to the water as it gets cleaner is satisfying. The gameplay is simple but I don't know what it is about cleaning games, they just scratch some sorta itch.
I'd recommend this game to those that are looking for a low stress, relaxing, experience. The game doesn't demand a lot of attention. You could easily do this while sitting in a Discord call or while watching a show.
It took me 60 minutes to complete 100% of the game. Steam achievements and all. I've considered replaying the game to try a different build progression as a little challenge.
It's currently priced at $5.45 CAD (30% off of $7.79 CAD) and according to the Steam page a small amount from each purchase goes to whale and dolphin conservation.
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