Raccoon On A Boat Review
A Lazy River from Hell!
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Title: Racoon on A Boat
Release: December 2, 2024
Platform: PC
Developer: Pumpkim
Publisher: Pumpkim
Genre: Horror Indie
ESRB: N/A
Reviewed on: PC
Time Played: 3.5 Hours
Intro:
A dark river winds through an abandoned park, haunted by strange sightings and eerie sounds. Armed with nothing but a camera and your trusty boat, you’re here to uncover its mysteries. Will you solve the enigma of Raccoon on a Boat, or will the shadows claim you first? Let’s dive in and find out!
Where it starts
Raccoon on a Boat is renowned for its diverse range of animals and entertaining attractions. However, recent reports of missing children and other strange occurrences have surfaced within the park. Armed with a camera and your own boat, you venture into the park, determined to uncover the mysteries surrounding Raccoon on a Boat.
Can the kids watch
The game featured several spooky moments and some horrifying monsters. While the scares weren’t excessively frightening, there were a couple of jump scares and some unsettling areas. In terms of ratings, I would say this game is suitable for teens.
The mission
To understand what has been happening in the park, you must travel along the river that meanders through it. You’ll need to take photos to document your findings as you explore. Your main mission is to locate all 12 hidden raccoons throughout the park. Fortunately, you will have a scanner that alerts you when a raccoon is nearby. Since the entire game takes place at night, it can be challenging to spot them.
Hidden secrets
At the beginning, you will have a piece of paper with images that provide clues to secrets hidden in the park. Although this activity is not part of the main mission, you can search for these secrets and take a picture of each one. After you capture a picture, the secret will disappear from the park and will also be removed from your paper.
Unfolding the story
To grasp any part of the game’s story, you will need to unlock small comic strips by taking pictures of raccoons. After you take a picture, a comic strip will appear, providing you with a snippet of the story. There are a total of twelve numbered comics that you can access from the main menu once they have been unlocked.
Navigating the river
Navigating the river at night can be challenging, as it’s easy to get lost. A map is easily accessible, displaying small drawings that highlight points of interest, including the locations of all the raccoons. However, you won’t find your exact location on the map. To determine where you are, you’ll need to compare your surroundings with recognizable objects also depicted on the map.
Outro:
I would love to hear any thoughts or questions you have about the game or my review, so leave me a message in the comments below. While you do that, let’s move on to my final thoughts and ratings.
Raccoon on a Boat is a short game that can easily be completed in about an hour. When you start the adventure, a two-hour timer begins to count down, but I’m unsure what happens if it reaches zero. I played through the game twice and had plenty of time left each time. Due to its short length, there are no save spots to return to later. If you don’t have at least an hour to play, you might not finish and could have to start over. Additionally, if you encounter a glitch that causes your boat to get stuck on land with no way to return to the river, you’ll have to restart the entire game.
Visually, the game was decent, although it takes place entirely at night, relying heavily on imagination for most of the visuals. The only element that seemed out of place was the raccoons, which appeared less realistic than the surrounding environment. The jump scares and audio worked effectively together to create a disturbing and eerie experience on the river.
The overall story was lacking. I gathered a basic understanding of the narrative from the comics, but it was not clearly communicated who I was or what my objectives were. There are multiple endings based on how many raccoons and secrets you discover; however, these endings did not add much substance to the story.
I played the game while my kids watched, which added a lot of fun to the experience. I might have jumped a couple of times, but they really engaged with the spooky atmosphere, allowing me to build up some suspense while playing. The game didn’t change significantly on subsequent playthroughs, aside from the endings, so the scares became predictable and less startling.
In summary, as I mentioned, it’s a short game with not much to discuss. Let’s break down the elements into scores to see where the game belongs on the shelf.
- The visuals were good overall, although the raccoons seemed out of place. I’ll give it a score of 3.
- The story was minimal and difficult to follow, so it receives a score of 1.
- Gameplay was simple—move a boat and take pictures. However, there were some collision issues that caused my boat to fly off unexpectedly. Once, I had to restart the game because of this, so it gets a 2.
- With three different endings, there is some replayability, and the short length makes it easy to pursue multiple runs; therefore, I’ll give this a 3.
- I had fun playing, mainly because I had an entertaining audience, so I’ll rate that a 3 as well.
In conclusion, the game averages a score of 2.4 out of 5, placing it on the Mid Shelf. It’s a decent indie game if you’re looking for a short, spooky journey down a river. You could easily finish it a couple of times in one evening.