We all know that the environment is at a tipping point. We are on a precipice where we could soon cause irreparable damage unless we as a species begin to make serious and meaningful changes to change the way we impact the environment. Some video games have taken the current environmental situation and built complete stories, and that’s exactly what Demagog Studio has done with its latest creation, The Cub.
This is a game that explores a post-apocalyptic Earth, a world where the rich headed to Mars to prevent a devastating environmental disaster, before returning years later to conduct tests and experiments to determine whether the planet could be habitable again could. Oh, and play golf too. The story itself revolves around a boy who survives the disaster by being raised by a mother wolf, and then follows that boy as he avoids and evades Martians who want nothing more than to capture him alive. Basically, think of Planet of Lana, except instead of running from robots, humanity is your greatest enemy.
The main plot of The Cub is very compelling and hits the nail on the head. It directly shows the rich and how they treat and influence the rest of civilization and the planet, while also showing the beauty of our world and how nature has reclaimed it from expanding humanity. It’s not a complex story at all, it just explores basic elements of that plot while tying emotional aspects into additional characters, such as a human pilot who let his wife die on Earth without realizing it while piloting one of the first rockets evacuated the planet. It also manages to confirm that the real enemy of our planet and this story is humanity, since even the most dangerous wild species represent a fundamental environmental threat and not the main adversary.
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The level design is equally remarkable. The art style and the way this game is made fit together quite well and it’s actually reminiscent of what Planet of Lana was trying to achieve. There is a wide variety of biomes to travel through, each with its own theme, dangers and mechanics, and the gameplay is laid out cleanly and simply, with few mechanics to control at best. However, this simplicity can be somewhat of a mixed blessing.
The boy’s additional activities and tasks are very boring. The idea of this game is to follow a main story, and there’s really nowhere to get lost outside of the main path. Nevertheless, Demagog has decided to include plenty of collectibles to find. But since they’re usually right in the player’s path, there’s no thrill or reason to look forward to finding them. In addition, these collectibles, which are the only way to expand the game’s offerings, only add a little depth to the world building, making them difficult to collect as you continue your journey.
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When you combine this with the fact that The Cub seems to require perfection with its platforms, you get a game that can be a bit difficult to play. My point is that many of the platforming elements leave very little room for error. Although the list of mechanics is very simple and the platforms themselves are very clear, if you don’t land perfectly or miss a jump by a millisecond, you will die. For a game that is very simple in practically every way, it is incomprehensible that it needs to touch the perception and have high precision to complete its platforming sections.
With its short duration, lasting only a few hours and offering very limited replay value, this work is an ideal game to devote an afternoon or two to. For this reason, and given the interesting plot and beautiful graphics, it is a good example of Demagog’s talent. It’s a shame that the title is held back by extremely frustrating platforming and uninteresting collectibles, because there’s something brilliant here and tons of potential. Still, The Cub will undoubtedly go down as one of the best indies of January 2024.