I had the chance to sample a short demo of the upcoming walking simulator Shape of the World. The first thing you’ll notice is how the neon color pallet of Shape of the World perfectly matches the soundtrack. As you explore, the world generates around you, with cliffs and trees springing up out of nowhere. Speaking of trees springing up out of nowhere, you can throw seeds and create your own. Interacting with certain objects in the world will generate walking paths leading you to the next destination. Head towards upside down Vs in the world to continue the journey, or not and just get lost wandering around.
There’s wildlife I chased around for a bit too. Towards the end there was a giant flying whale thing I attempted to ride for a bit. There’s no health or danger presented, just a pleasant, psychedelic experience. Not a bad way to relax after a hectic work day if you ask me. The demo itself only lasted about 5 minutes, so my experience with the game was extremely short. The full version of the game is said to last 1 to 3 hours depending on your pace, so for a demo, 5 minutes isn’t too bad of a an already short game. There are no real objectives in the game, or a story for that matter, so the length of the game seems right. That said, I would have liked to spend more than the 5 minutes the demo offered me, and that’s probably the best compliment I can give it, is that I want to spend more time in this strange world. Shape of the World comes out on Xbox One and Switch on June 6th, and PC and PS4 on June 5th.