Gecko Gods Review (PS5)

Ooh a bug. Ooh a bug. Must. Break. Vases. Wait, what was I supposed to be doing again?

I honestly wasn’t expecting to play this game, but hey it’s cute and it looked like something that I would like. Plus, it’s always nice to have another game where you play as an unanthropomorphic animal; especially if it’s not the fan favorite dogs or cats.

So, how did Gecko Gods turn out? Let’s leap right into this!

The story here in Gecko Gods is pretty simple. The game starts with you watching a group of geckos hanging out before focusing on the one you play as. On this faithful day, our little gecko spots a delicious butterfly and starts chasing it, trying to catch it the whole time. It’s an evasive little butterfly and eventually, our gecko finds itself at the very edge of the island it lives on, gets lured onto a branch, and before it probably would have jumped to catch it the branch snaps. Our gecko falls into the ocean, thankfully on the broken branch, and is forced to float around for some time until it finally spots land. A whole new island! Yay!

Of course, our little gecko goes right to exploring and looking for food. Though, this island isn’t what you’d expect as there are gecko statues, switches and other things that seem to be made for both humans and geckos, and then something crazy happens. A slab of stone lights up with words which our little gecko may be reading or somegeckoelse is projecting it into its mind. It turns out that it wasn’t a freak accident that got you here, you were actually chosen by the powers that be to awaken the Gecko Gods. There are three Gecko Gods and they’ve been slumbering for a thousand years waiting for a gecko like ours. Our gecko’s arrival is a sign that it’s time for them to wake up and who else to do that than the herald gecko itself.

Do all geckos worship the Gecko Gods? Who knows, but either way our little gecko sets out to wake them up. Throughout the whole game, you’ll be working your way through various puzzles and challenges not only on the island you washed up on, but also the set of islands that make up this archipelago to wake up the Water Gecko, the Desert Gecko, and the Volcano Gecko. Don’t worry, you’ll get some help through the various slabs with glowing words to point you to the right direction and birds who are also followers of the Gecko Gods.

Gecko Gods’ story works great as a framing device and a reason for our little gecko to go on this whole journey. It strikes that perfect balance of being simple enough to be a good motivation and for the way it’s structured; while also having a dash of complexity to keep you interested and curious about the archipelago. At the same time, it also manages to make you focus on the Gecko Gods, which lets the other questions you may have to not really come to the forefront as it doesn’t really pertain to them and you may find yourself not needing to know more. Like there are wall paintings that you’ll see throughout the game which I don’t think tells a story (as they do just repeat), but they do give you a little peak on what life was like when it was inhabited by humans.

The writing style is also pretty nice and I liked how the slabs (and the Gecko Gods) were written like they are from a thousand years ago while the birds definitely feel like they’re from the current age. You may not really understand what the slabs are saying, but they do give you a good heads up on what you’ll have to do. I honestly thought the birds were just one, but I like how they all were written a bit differently too and you can see how the birds get more devout as you progress further.

I’m not going to spoil the ending, but all I’m going to say is that it’s cute, especially if you had the same thought that I did.

Getting into the gameplay now, it’s actually pretty easy to get the hang of. You’re a gecko, which means being as small as one, but you won’t let that get you down and everything on the island is conveniently gecko friendly. Everything may be huge compared to your tiny gecko body, but you also have a little perk known as your sticky gecko feet which allows you to walk on walls, ceilings, and just generally have a better grip on whatever you’re on. You can also jump if you need to cross a gap or want to go up steps quickly, you can move across water in some capacity if you need to (though there is a limit so still aim to get to dry land quickly), interact with things using your mouth (which you can also do a cute bark if you want), and you have a dash. The dash, in particular, comes in handy on giving you a boost of distance in the air to cross a bit more distance and while it’s not as usual on the ground, it does serve as a sort of attack. On that note, there are hazards here and you do have hidden health. Thankfully there is no fall damage so you can jump from as many high places as you want as a shortcut (I know I did), but there are environmental hazards you have to be careful of like fire and spikes. There are also enemies like the few predator animals living on the archipelago and others that seem to be robots cleverly disguised as something from its environment so it can blend in. All you have to do is dodge its attacks and dash into them to do damage. You can also take a good handful of hits and you can visibly see your gecko body heat up and your tail does fall off to notify you that you can only take two more hits. You do regenerate health quickly, and the only time I died was on purpose to test it out, so there’s no worries there.

Oh, and once you finish the first island, you get access to a gecko friendly boat so you can sail out to the other islands. It takes a bit to figure out the controls, but it feels great to sail out into the world.

Anyway, the game is all about exploring the various islands that make up this archipelago and doing the puzzles or challenges that are scattered all around. Exploration is pretty good here and while you are free to go anywhere you want to, you do get some guidance on where to go to progress through the game. All the islands do also feel different whether it’s by its size, the quirks they have, what buildings are there, and what kind of puzzles/challenges it has. As for the puzzles and challenges here, I’d say they’re pretty easy here. The game starts out pretty simple and straightforward, just requiring you to get to the switch to pull it out or move and do some platforming (or wall walking haha) to get where you need to go. The purely platforming based puzzles are the ones I consider challenges, like the ones you have to get through all the rings. As you progress further into the game, some complexity is sprinkled in as these puzzles and challenges get a bit more complicated with more moving parts and more variety to what puzzles you’ll be doing is added in.

While you do need to do the main islands in order, you can actually approach the puzzles in any order. Each main island gives you a handful of puzzles and challenges that you can choose what order you want to do them in. You’re also generally not locked inside so if you just want to come back to it later, you can. There’s even some overarching puzzles, which you progress by doing the other puzzles to unlock what you need.

There are some collectibles here that you can buy or gather if you want to. First of all, the vases that are all around the islands can be broken and this will be your main source of gems, this game’s currency. Also, you don’t have to worry about gems falling off into the water as it does zoom to you after a couple seconds. You can then use this currency on these special mirrors that strangely reflect the night sky no matter where or what time of day it is. This special mirror is where you can change the look of your gecko’s colors and patterns. You do get some that you have by default, but you have to progress to have more options show up and then enough currency to unlock it. It’s actually pretty easy to afford the colors and patterns, especially if you break all the vases you come across.

Each island also has two different collectibles: bugs and relics. You’ll be seeing bugs a lot throughout your playthrough and there are a lot of different kinds here native to their own island and specific areas on the island. If you want, you can aim to get a taste of all the different bugs here. Then there’s relics, which are little idols that are seen to be artefacts of the Gecko Gods’ power, that are hidden all around the archipelago. A lot of them are hidden (and hidden pretty well), but there are some that are in plain sight and may even require you to do a little puzzle or just figure out how to get to it. What I also like here is that the number of bugs and relics are equal both overall and on islands. There is one exception where a small island has two new bugs and one relic, but other than that if, for example, there’s four different bug species there will also be four relics on the island.

My gecko ❤︎⁠

I was a bit worried about the possibility of just not liking Gecko Gods, but I didn’t have to. I ended up having fun in Gecko Gods. There were of course some annoyances here and there, but our little gecko controls wonderfully and it was enjoyable being able to walk on walls and explore around the archipelago. I enjoyed hunting for the different bugs and relics. I even ate bugs whenever I was in the mood to, even if I already discovered it, and I had to remind myself I can come back later whenever I noticed I was hunting for the last relic on the island so I can continue on the journey. On that note, it is pretty easy to get sidetracked, like when you spot vases and keep spotting them and then suddenly you’re on the other side of the island than you intended to be haha. I really liked how you were given free reign to go anywhere and to do the puzzles in any order, while also having structure through the overarching puzzles, a set order to do the main islands, and guidance on where the puzzles are and what to expect from the slabs. The puzzles and challenges here were also really enjoyable. Yeah, they are easy and simple, but I didn’t really mind and they do get a bit more complex and varied as you progress so it didn’t get old for me. I liked all of the different puzzles, even the sliding puzzles were (mostly) painless, and there are some clever ones sprinkled in. Honestly, I don’t really see others getting stuck on these as it is easy to tell what to do and platforming is pretty straightforward unless you just happen to overlook something. Like I’d say I got stuck four times: two of them involved puzzles where I was overlooking a key part or element, one was that I had to look up for the entrance to the puzzle room, and another was a bug.

I was a bit worried in terms of how big the world is and the size of our gecko, but it honestly didn’t cross my mind at all while playing. You may be small, but you are very easy to spot (I had no troubles spotting where I was) and it didn’t feel like crossing land to get to where I wanted to go took long. Well, I did have the sprint toggled on so maybe that played a part, but while the world is big it didn’t feel like it was a detriment. Oh, and the boat! While it did take me a few seconds to figure out the controls, sailing here felt great as well. It was also pretty funny seeing our gecko flop around as you went over waves haha.

In terms of negatives, the only things I can think of is that the camera does sometimes get in your way, there are some switches where the camera doesn’t focus on what it’s moving, the gecko can move in unexpected ways at times (which can be a bit annoying), and the sliding puzzle inside one of the temples bugged out on me which made me really annoyed and I swear it was impossible to solve (this fixed itself when I reloaded). Also try to not quit the game in the middle of a big overarching puzzle as puzzle elements do reset when you reload (progress like a blocked area being unblocked now stays but the interactable elements resets to its default position).

I would say a unstuck button would help too, but there really is just one specific structure that I got stuck in and you can just go to a horn to call the boat if you get that stuck somewhere (which again there seems to be only one specific spot you can get your boat stuck in and even then I was able to wiggle it out anyway).

The game’s performance on the PS5 is also great. The game was smooth for the vast majority of my playthrough and the only time it lagged was towards the end when the game was autosaving when the camera was moving to focus on something.

To wrap this up, the visuals and sound here were wonderful. I really liked the art style they went with as the game is beautiful to look at, puzzle/challenge elements are clear, and I liked how all of the islands were designed. Our little gecko is also really cute and I loved how you’re able to change its color and pattern. I even couldn’t help but think the gecko’s prints in the sand were cute whenever I was in sand. I haven’t been around geckos personally, but I did look up videos and the developers have done their homework as our little gecko moves just like a real one. Which does help in its cuteness factor and immersion. Oh and all the different bugs were also cute as well! Both when they’re just minding their own business and when it’s sticking out of the gecko’s mouth. The water here also looks really good as well as the skybox (I specifically love the night skybox, it’s so pretty).

The sound design here is also great and made the game very atmospheric. Everything has some good sound effects (is it weird that I liked the sound of gears turning the most) and you’d think the sound of your little gecko feet would get old but it doesn’t. The ambience was also well done and pairing that with the soundtrack really gave this game chill and cozy vibes. And on that, the music is great. While you’re on an island and presumably doing puzzles, the music is very relaxing and perfect for puzzle solving (and falling asleep to). There’s a good variety of songs and I’d like to say each main island has their own unique theme which fits with the island’s new scenery and sets them apart from the others. Sailing has an adventurous, upbeat song to go along with it and there’s this really good grandiose track.

Verdict

Gecko Gods ended up to be a pretty good game and I honestly wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. While there were some brief annoyances here and there, the game overall is really enjoyable and cozy. The game looks beautiful, the gecko is so cute (and gets bonus cuteness points for being accurate to real gecko movement), the sound design is atmospheric and chill, the gecko feels very nice to control, the puzzles and challenges were pretty fun despite most being pretty easy, and exploring was a delight. I also liked how the game has just enough structure where you know what you need to do and where, but also gives you enough freedom to do everything in between in the order you want to do them in. If you’re looking for a chill, cozy puzzle game where you play as a cute gecko, Gecko Gods will hit the spot.