Some of you might recall that about a month ago, I covered a game called Cargo Chaos that was being shown off at PAX Australia by a few Australian indie developers that made up their studio, Considerable Content. Well, since then, I’ve spent some time with Cargo Chaos, and wanted to share some of my thoughts.
The premise of Cargo Chaos, which is illuminated by adorable, jibberish speaking cartoon characters, is that you are a telepathic captain of a cargo ship and using your skills, you must load your ship with all waiting cargo and get that cargo across the sea to the destination port. This, on face-value, seems very one-dimensional, however the loading of the cargo is just the first part of the game. As the ship moves across the sea, it will encounter waves and dips and all kinds of water shenanigans that will cause your cargo to rock about and more often than not, slide off your cargo ship. Of course, you do still have the ability to telepathically grab falling cargo, but loading them properly in the first place can be the difference between a full load of cargo, and losing some cargo along the way.
The actually loading of cargo is controlled with touch controls. The game feels wonderfully fluid to pick up and release pieces of cargo and the cargo interacts with each other in a relatively realistic way. The stages are such that you’ll start off with generally square or rectangular cargo boxes, but fairly quickly, you will be greeted with very unusually shaped boxes, and even frozen animals. Once loaded, you can tell the cargo ship to cast off and away you go across the Seven Seas.
As mentioned earlier, the loading is only the first half of the game. If anything, the real game starts now, which trying to keep all the cargo on board. The sea on each stage will be skewed in such a way that your cargo will be slipping and sliding to each side of your ship in hilarious fashion, though it would be more hilarious if you didn’t need to keep it all on board. This is when your careful loading comes into play as it will be easier to keep your cargo in board depending on your carefully honed Tetris skills. You can of course attempt to use your telepathy (touch controls) to keep all your cargo on board, but in my short time playing this, it would be far more beneficial to load your cargo properly in the first place.
If you happen to lose a large amount, or all, of your cargo, you will lose and have to retry the level. If you are successful at moving most of the cargo to the adjacent port, you will be given a points score and rating, with a rating of 5 for transporting all the cargo across the perilous seas in one piece.
The game is amazingly frustrating at times, not because of the game per se, but because you’re generally kicking yourself for not being faster or stacking the cargo better. The game has a total of 30 levels, but really, if you can get to level 30, you might just deserve a prize. And probably should look at getting into the shipping industry.
It’s a simple and frustrating game, but in a good way, and it is a different, innovative take on those tower-stacking games of yesteryear. If nothing else, the smooth, fun gameplay of Cargo Chaos is a great effort from what is effectively a two man indie studio. Considerable Content is actually celebrating one month of having Cargo Chaos on Google Play with a 50% off sale, so at $0.99, if the game takes your fancy, it’s definitely worth a try.
Game: Cargo Chaos
Price: $0.99
