So there I was standing on the back of a space whale, looking for stickers to put in my book, when all of a sudden some weird tar appeared on the back of the whale! I knew immediately I had to save her! Pilo and the Holobook was a delightful experience with dazzling visuals, good puzzles, and stickers around every corner, literally! I loved exploring the beautiful worlds looking for stickers to fill my holobook while at the same time investigating the mysterious story. It was a short adventure, I 100% the game right at 3 hours, but I really did enjoy the experience and felt like this game could also be a great game for parents and kids to play together (or kiddos who can do it themselves.)
The Gameplay is fairly basic, but enjoyable. You travel around the world you are in and scan everything with your holobook, which in turn gives you the sticker for said item. I enjoyed strategically placing the stickers to create little scenes, or challenge myself to collect them all without overlapping any. While exploring there are sometimes different puzzles you must figure out to continue the story, some may figure them out quickly, but others may take you some time. I would recommend any parents probably helping the kids out with these as some are a little more tricky than others, but none are too complicated. Flying from planet to planet was nice, however I do wish you didn’t have to stop back in, at your ship between each planet. I had several interactions with prof probably because I did not check in with him every time I got back from a trip. I also had a couple weird interactions where I ‘found’ an object that appeared in the ship, like a said shoe that I won’t elaborate on, and Pilo makes a comment to go talk to prof about it, but then I can’t talk to the prof about it until a bit later. Not a huge deal, it was just a little weird for me. Also the final mission was a little confusing with the objective saying to go to the prof, but he didn’t do anything for me or say anything to me when I did find him. I got slightly hung up on that part, but only for a moment, because there really wasn’t much else to do for me at that point. I would maybe suggest telling the player to go to Norbert, instead. Just to help the player in the right direction for that mission. Again just a small nitpick.
What really elevated the game for me was the visuals. Absolutely beautiful! The hand painted planets, stickers and characters were all so wonderful. Each planet had a unique biome with much to look at and find. The environments had depth and levels to them, appearing almost three dimensional in some parts as you went under foliage or over bridges. The weather effects on some of the worlds were really great, either dust storms in the desert or clouds on the back of the space whale, they were dynamic and changed as you explored them. I’m a sucker for swamp levels and what creatures they bring with them, and I wasn’t disappointed! The lighting was also well utilized and top tier matching that beautiful art of the environment and tying everything together to really immerse the experience. I’d love to explore more with Pilo and the other cast to see more of what the artist(s) have to give.
It’s hard to top the visual quality in Pilo, and while I enjoyed the background music as I ran around collecting stickers, I did miss the full voice acting of the characters. They had a couple short lines, but the game wasn’t fully voiced and for that I had to dock the game on the sound score. Otherwise, the environment sounds, footsteps, and background music were solid, cohesive throughout, and I enjoyed them!
I highly recommend checking out Pilo and the Holobook if you like to explore beautiful worlds and collect stickers. It’s a short experience, but solid and well worth the play through. I hope to see more from the developer as the game does seem like it could set up for more adventures of different types. I’d love to see more of Pilo and what creatures he discovers in new worlds!
Key provided for review purposes.
