If you’re looking for the strangest game available on the PlayStation 4, look no further Octodad: Dadliest Catch by indie developers, Young Horses. This is a game about an octopus, pretending to be a human. Somehow he’s married to an actual woman and has two children. How does that work? He’s trying to live a normal life, but how normal can life be when you have no bones and your limbs just go flailing around like hair in the wind?

Disclaimer: This review is based on the PlayStation 4 version of the game which the developer, Young Horses were kind enough to send our way.

Story

Octodad: Dadliest Catch is a followup to the 2010 game, Octodad. This game picks up where the previous game left off, though I can admit I have never played the first one. That means I really have no idea what happened in the first game so most of this entire review will be based off of the newer game.

In this game, we start off with Octodad who must get ready for his own wedding to his lovely human wife, Scarlet. What makes this game uniquely strange is the fact that you’re an octopus pretending to a human. That’s right, you’re an octopus, marrying a human. This is only a tiny part of the game that serves as the tutorial for what I would consider one of the most challenging games to control on the PS4, but more on that later.

After the wedding, the game picks up several years later. Octodad and his wife now have two kids and are living in a wonderfully nice home. The day starts out like any other until for no reason at all, a crazed chef is out to kill you and expose your secret. Not only that, your family wants to take a trip out to the local aquarium which may further jeopardize your secret identity. There is a deeper story involved behind all the wacky gameplay, but I won’t spoil the rest for you as half the fun of playing the game is the story. The only question I have is, how did he father two kids with a human woman?

Gameplay

Octodad: Dadliest Catch is basically a story driven game with elements of exploration and task based objectives. Most of the game requires that you complete a series of objectives in order to move the game along story wise which isn’t too uncommon. What makes the game really different is the fact that controlling Octodad and completing even the simplest of tasks is a game in and of itself. This is quite possible the most difficult game to control and be accurate at, but that’s part of the charm of why it’s been so popular.

The control scheme itself is actually quite simple to learn. You don’t move around in the traditional sense. Instead, you move around by controlling Octodad’s individual limbs. Since he is disguised as a human, you only need to worry about three. One of the arms doesn’t do anything, it just dangles there.

Moving the left thumb stick moves your arm around. If you use the left thumb stick, it will move your hand up or down. To move your legs, hold down either the left or right trigger and then move them with the left or right thumb stick. Either stick is fine as they both do the same thing for walking. To pick up objects, tap on the right bumper when your hand is over an object and it will stick to that object allowing you to pick it up for manipulate it. Tap on the bumper again to release. It may sound confusing, but after the initial tutorial, you’ll find that they are easy to remember. The real challenge is mastering them as the controls are quite imprecise but that’s the whole point really. It makes for some rather interesting movements. Let’s just say you’ll be knocking over pretty much everything in this game.

There is also a rather interesting co-op mode that allows two people to control Octodad simultaneously. One person controls two limbs while the other person controls the other two. I didn’t really have a chance to try this mode out however as I only have one controller presently but based on how nutty playing the game is by yourself, it must be a hoot playing it with another person, as in total chaos. You can also use a combination of Move controllers but again, I wasn’t able to try this as I don’t own any Move controllers.

Most of the game will consist of you completing simple objectives that aren’t quite so simple for Octodad. In fact, your lack of bones makes these tasks incredibly challenging, though not impossible. After the first few chapters, you’ll start to get the basic hang of things. Completing objects however isn’t the only thing Octodad has to worry about. He must also worry about not drawing attention to himself, which can be quite difficult if you’re seen knocking over everything and flailing around on the ground. Try to keep your movements as human-like as possible while not drawing to much attention to your self. That’s easier said than done obviously.

Graphics

Graphically, the game looks pretty decent. The art work is really nice and features a very vibrant color pallet, but it’s nothing that couldn’t be done on previous console generations. It’s not going to win any next-gen graphics awards, but for the type of game it is, it looks good. For the most part, Octodad isn’t meant to be a graphic showcase. The main showcase of the game is gameplay and how crazy it is.

Final Thoughts

Although I mention how difficult controlling Octodad is in Octodad: Dadliest Catch, that’s one of the main reason I really enjoyed the game. The sheer effort it takes to complete even the simplist things like pouring a glass of milk is just pure comedy and I laughed many times while playing this. Not only that, it was a great game to play with my kids as well as they also enjoyed playing this due to the silly nature of the game. For some reason, they had no problems at all getting right into the game while I sort of struggled at the beginning. Go figure.

While the graphics might not be what you’d expect from a PS4 game, it didn’t matter to me much here. The visuals were appropriate for the type of game it was and overall, it’s the gameplay that really matters and the gameplay here is stellar. The lack of precise controls is what really makes the game stand out and though that might be a terrible thing in most games, it’s a wonderful thing in this one.

Octodad: Dadliest Catch is out now on the PSN Store for $14.99. It’s not the best looking game or the longest game, but it’s very enjoyable and it’s one of those games your whole family will have fun playing.