Eggy Review (PC): Hard Boiled Physics

Eggy does not disappoint. After playing the demo during the Steam Next Fest, I found the simple physics-based mechanics great. An indie title from Kjoeb, I thoroughly enjoyed the first level and was looking forward to the full release.

Well, it’s here now, and it’s exactly as expected. No doubt I’m overthinking it, but the visuals look more polished (they were already great), as there seemed to be more going on in the foreground and background than before. 

These elements don’t serve as distractions to put you off, more to ground you and disperse any boiling rage that could cook poor Eggy in a New York minute. Yes, it’s a very frustrating game, but you have to come to expect that from this sort of thing. YouTubers have built their careers from streaming their anger, and I don’t doubt there’ll be a deluge of videos for this.

The thread of the game is about Eggy, the titular egg, searching for their mum. There aren’t any cutscenes or dialogue sections to read – it’s all the bare minimum, and quite frankly, it doesn’t need it. This is purely about the gameplay, and if you grasp what type of game it is, it delivers.

So, mouse in hand, you have to drag it back while holding then letting go of the left mouse button to catapult him into the air. A visual trajectory will show on screen, giving you an idea where Eggy will land, or perhaps, bounce off of, and your task is to navigate through treacherous paths in the hope of fining mumsy.

For an egg, he’s a stoic fellow and can handle quite a few impacts without suffering damage. However, if you fall from a great height (you’ll soon be about to work it out through trial and error), he’ll smash. The same applies if you fall too far, regardless if it’s a soft landing or not.

Without any health gauges, timers or visible signs of damage, Eggy dies and will respawn at the nearest nest. There are a couple of nests in each area, and the bonus here is that you can go to the menu and spawn anywhere you’ve already discovered. Why do that? Are you a glutton for punishment?! Well, Eggy has fetch quests.

Not eggsactly (sorry, I was setting this up) a fetch quest, but you will have to locate items, as well as the optional colour eggs for each level. For the former, there were six keys required to unlock a doorway and finding them was mandatory. Once you collect them, it doesn’t matter if you die as you’ll still keep them – cue suicidal eggs – but the challenge wasn’t always obtaining the keys but finding them.

This can prove frustrating if you take a good 10 minutes to find out it was a wild goose hunt, or worse, you smash just before reaching the area you wanted to investigate. I imagine there will be a wealth of gamers who will hate this game. Whether that be the genre or because they cock up in an area and have to rinse and repeat.

I was not without my fair share of deaths, that’s for sure, but there was never a moment of rage on my part, and that’s nothing to do with a calm composure. I have a lot of patience, but I don’t enjoy games with lousy design or throw challenges at you solely to piss you off. Eggy is neither of those.

Even after the 30+ times, it took me to climb a wall while avoiding bees, just making it, then at the last minute, slip on the mouse and restart the process, only taking another 30+ times to get there. I kept my cool and enjoyed the experience. Admittedly, I’d take a break and play another game in between as it’s not fun doing the same thing again – regardless if it was the sadistic level design or slippery palms.

There are two key things you need to succeed at Eggy. The first is undoubtedly patience (with a sprinkle of humility), as you will be dying a lot. However, having played similar games, perhaps even Hoplegs, Eggy is nowhere as irritating – you do make progress, but remember that this is a physics game, and you’re an egg. Don’t expect to stop on every landing.

The second thing you need is s clear area for your mouse. In the early areas, you can be strategic like a game of chess and time your moves, whether that be getting the right trajectory for a movement onto a flat surface or timing it right to land on a moving platform. But before long, you’ll need to master the bounce technique and readily move the mouse while landing to avoid death or reach a tricky plateau. This also applies for landings as even if 19 in 20 times you land perfectly, that one time you’ll be rolling off the edge, and you’ll need to bounce on the spot to prepare yourself.

Eggy Review Summary

As per the opening statement, Eggy didn’t disappoint. The physics elements are spot-on, and the physical structure and durability of the egg make this challenging but an enjoyable game to play if you have the patience. Just remember to take breaks before a) you break or b) break your keyboard/mouse/geekdom action figure on your desk.