Cargo! The Quest for Gravity
- April 21, 2011
- Ice-Pick Lodge
- 6h median play time
Get on SteamIn "Cargo! The Quest for Gravity," players aim to restore gravity to Earth, which has been lost to the whims of pint-sized, gravity-defying creatures called BUDDIES. As one of the last humans, players must use fun and amusement to ground the BUDDIES and return order to the world. The game features physics-driven gameplay, multiple solutions to missions, and various landscapes to explore, including floating islands and underwater environments.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game is a unique and charming experience, filled with bizarre humor and creativity.
- Building vehicles is fun and allows for a lot of experimentation, making it enjoyable to create absurd contraptions.
- The whimsical and surreal atmosphere, combined with the quirky characters, provides a lighthearted and entertaining gameplay experience.
- The controls can be frustrating and the physics are often janky, leading to a lack of precision in vehicle handling.
- The story and objectives can be vague and confusing, making it difficult to understand what to do at times.
- The game suffers from technical issues, including crashes and poor voice acting, which detract from the overall experience.
- story75 mentions
- 12 % positive mentions
- 77 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The story of "The Quest for Gravity" is characterized by its quirky and nonsensical humor, featuring bizarre missions and eccentric characters, which some players find amusing while others deem it convoluted and frustrating. The narrative revolves around a whimsical quest to restore gravity, but the lack of clear objectives and a coherent structure detracts from the overall experience, leading to mixed reviews. While the game offers a unique premise and entertaining moments, many players feel that the story ultimately fails to engage them in the long run.
“The story itself is delivered in a funny dialogue style, and the soundtrack is awesome and adds the needed tone of lunacy to the game.”
“A simple story filled with characters that have lost their minds guides you through what is essentially a vehicle-building sandbox.”
“The story for this game is crazy and fun; however, the best part is creating new and interesting vehicles.”
“The story is convoluted and doesn't make a lot of sense, and the tasks the game has you carry out are nonsensical and vague.”
“The humor isn't funny, the story is crap, the art direction is crap, the collision is crap, the voice acting is crap, the gameplay is crap, the crafting system is crap... do you get where this is going yet?”
“The game isn’t exactly forthcoming with its intentions and there isn’t an easy mission screen that helps you track what it is you’re supposed to be doing.”
- gameplay47 mentions
- 11 % positive mentions
- 79 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The gameplay of the game is characterized by a mix of physics-driven mechanics and quirky vehicle-building elements, but it suffers from a lack of polish and coherence, leading to a frustrating experience for many players. While some appreciate the unique and surreal aspects, including the bizarre humor and creative potential, others find the mechanics broken, repetitive, and difficult to grasp, resulting in a disjointed and often unenjoyable experience. Overall, the gameplay is seen as a blend of innovative ideas hampered by execution issues, with mixed reviews on its fun factor and depth.
“Cargo advertises itself as a game packed with unique and innovative physics-based gameplay with multiple solutions to its puzzles all thrown in a limitless world begging to be explored in various ways.”
“Definitely a game for those interested in unorthodox gameplay.”
“I appreciate what the game is trying to do - blend surreality and a little of everything into their game, then marry it to their vehicle building gameplay mechanic.”
“It's extremely broken, hard to grasp, the building mechanics are basically pointless because nothing matters; press key, go zoom, and hope things work out.”
“The building is limited, the physics is wonky, the setting is weird, the audio sounds like the developers made funny noises into a microphone, and the actual gameplay is grindy and repetitive.”
“The humor isn't funny, the story is crap, the art direction is crap, the collision is crap, the voice acting is crap, the gameplay is crap, the crafting system is crap... do you get where this is going yet?”
- music27 mentions
- 26 % positive mentions
- 63 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The music aspect of the game is a mixed bag, with players appreciating the ability to import their own tracks and the detailed music/dance editor, which enhances the whimsical experience. While some find the original soundtrack fun and fittingly chaotic, others criticize it for being obnoxious and poorly produced. Overall, the music adds a unique, albeit polarizing, layer to the game's quirky atmosphere.
“Music system: set up a clef, and the 'buddies' will dance to it, radiating happiness which is a resource you collect.”
“The story itself is delivered in a funny dialogue style, and the soundtrack is awesome and adds the needed tone of lunacy to the game.”
“If you're making games and you haven't played this game, then you're like a director who has never seen Citizen Kane or a musician who has never heard of Mozart.”
“The music sounds like a bad conversion from mp3 to midi.”
“The 'story' tries to be amusing with crazy characters and wacky music but ends up being incredibly annoying.”
“The voice acting is dreadful, the music is obnoxious, and the controls at times can be frustrating.”
- humor20 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as quirky and surreal, with some players enjoying its absurdity and original jokes, while others find it forced and lacking depth. Many appreciate the funny dialogue and unique themes, but criticism arises regarding the execution, with some feeling the humor falls flat or is overly immature. Overall, the game's comedic elements seem to resonate with a niche audience, though they may not appeal to everyone.
“It's a very quirky and funny physics builder/driving game, by the makers of Pathologic.”
“The story itself is delivered in a funny dialogue style, and the soundtrack is awesome and adds the needed tone of lunacy to the game.”
“Love this game, very creative, funny theme, get to build/customize your own boat to save a funny world of exploding midgets :p”
- graphics13 mentions
- 54 % positive mentions
- 23 % neutral mentions
- 23 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game received mixed reviews, with some praising the cutesy art style and crisp animations reminiscent of early 2000s platformers, while others noted a lack of immersion and amateurish audiovisual elements. Overall, the visuals are described as colorful and appealing, though the sound design and voiceovers fell short of expectations. Despite the varied opinions, many players found the graphics enjoyable and fitting for the game's quirky premise.
“Nice colorful graphics, weird premise.”
“The graphics are gorgeous and the whole building-things portion is interesting.”
“This one is a bit odd, still trying to find out what the frick is going on, but graphics are good, and somehow, I'm having fun.”
“Graphics: 5/10”
“Now, this was a few years ago when I gave the game a try, but it looked like something from the early 2000s (maybe Quake 2 had this kind of graphics; the fine details are thankfully a bit hazy).”
“Graphics.......6/10”
- stability7 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game's stability is marred by numerous glitches, including game-breaking bugs and issues with the reset vehicle position feature that can trap players in the environment. While some players find the game enjoyable despite these problems, the frequent physics glitches and lack of guidance can lead to frustrating experiences. Overall, stability issues significantly detract from the gameplay.
“What buggy garbage.”
“The reset vehicle position feature is kind of buggy; sometimes it glitches you out of the world (you'll find yourself stuck in walls or mountains), which means you'll have to restart the game at your last save state, since the collision detection won't allow you to get back.”
“10/10 I got multiple game-breaking glitches and the game does not tell you what to do enough.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a significant drawback, noting that missions often feel tedious and require substantial effort to gather materials for building. The gameplay is described as repetitive, with a focus on farming resources to create utilitarian machines, which can detract from the overall enjoyment despite the quirky and unique setting.
“Never beat it because there's a lot of dead air in missions, can be grindy to get materials to build stuff (so my machines were very utilitarian) and the flying controls are... they're something alright :/ quirky little thing though!”
“The building is limited, the physics is wonky, the setting is weird, the audio sounds like the developers made funny noises into a microphone, and the actual gameplay is grindy and repetitive.”
“Like a farming sim, but for engineers.”
- atmosphere2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is characterized by its charm and humor, enhanced by playful elements like dropping objects from space and engaging with the gods. While vehicle handling may be inconsistent, the overall ambiance and clever puns significantly contribute to the enjoyment of the experience.
“The vehicle handling isn't always the best, but the atmosphere, charm, and endless puns make up for it in spades.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game offers limited replayability, as players may not find a strong incentive to revisit it frequently; however, it provides a fun and engaging experience that can encourage multiple playthroughs for completionists.
“While probably not hugely replayable, it is definitely a lot of fun to experience this strange and innovative world.”
“I would say it has limited replayability, but I did play through twice and have all the achievements.”
- emotional1 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Users find the emotional aspect of the game to be wholesome, suggesting that it evokes positive feelings and a sense of warmth.
- optimization1 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 100 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game's optimization is closely tied to player performance, as it features two distinct endings based on how well players save naked midgets, suggesting that gameplay efficiency can significantly impact the overall experience.
