Tentacular, the kaiju-sized physics-based VR puzzler, gets a free expansion today on Quest & Steam.
Developed by Firepunchd Games and published by Devolver Digital, Tentacular first appeared two years ago, later receiving a 'Comfort & Clarity' update. Titled the 'Island Builder' expansion, today's update adds a sandbox mode and roughly two hours of side missions as you visit La Kalma’s sister island, Salmoa. You'll help these states reconnect after "years of bitter garlic-based rivalry."
“Luca and I at Firepunchd Games were so inspired by the overwhelmingly positive response to Tentacular that we really wanted to extend our appreciation to all the players. We are excited to see what players create with the new powerful tools that we’ve introduced,” says developer Simon Cubasch in a prepared statement.
As the title suggests, the Island Builder expansion involves creating islands using a new 'Creation Glove' ability. You can build structures, clone objects, paint buildings, lay roads, and populate these locations with humans. Other new additions involve entering an art contest and there's also a new Cheat Terminal in the options area, found by going around the back.
I went hands-on with the expansion on Steam before today's launch, and that unlocks around the middle of Tentacular's main campaign. Being guided by a robot with an identity crisis called Darwin assured me that the game's fun sense of humor remains intact, and the initial tutorial guided me into proceedings well.
The Creation Glove offers an enjoyable approach to puzzle solving, and one thing I've enjoyed so far is the cloning process. Cloning requires you to hold something before a quick button press, and you'll automatically hold the cloned item instead of the original. It's a small detail, sure, but a good decision that makes item handling less fiddly.
New tools like the Surgical Recycler cleverly demonstrate why Tentacular can only exist in VR, too. Your initial challenge involves unsticking multiple objects by removing the magnets without touching the other objects. Sounds easy enough on paper, though the game's physics-based mechanics mean you need the freedom of motion controls to achieve this precisely.
Thanks to its well-considered UI design, creating new items is considerably straightforward. Simply touch your watch, choose to create, and flick through the options with the right analog stick. Each item serves its purpose for construction, and while this isn't particularly revolutionary - I'm also not the most creative person with sandbox designs, I enjoyed getting silly by oversizing objects.
Tentacular's Island Builder expansion is available now on Quest and Steam. The base game is also on Pico and PSVR 2, and Devolver Digital informed UploadVR that the expansion isn't currently confirmed for these platforms.
Jamie Feltham
