Donut County: An Empty Hole

Time to Beat: 1 Hour and 54 Minutes

Every winter I purchase a collection of games during the Steam sale. I aim to buy games I'll enjoy, but I also buy one or two cheaper games that I'm less certain I'll like. Last December I picked up Donut Country. Steam describes Ben Esposito's Donut County as a story-based physics puzzle game. But I wouldn't call it that. It's unfair to call Donut County a puzzle game, because it lacks puzzles. It could be completed by a child with the barest understanding of puzzles. And it would be unfair to call Donut County a physics game, since the only physics involves dropping objects down a hole. The story exists enough to fall downward.

In Donut Country, the player exists as a nebulous perspective, untied to any particular character. The closest thing to a player character is the human, Mira, who is the friend of a sentient raccoon, DK. They live in an unspecified community, populated by animals that speak and act like humans. Donut County begins in Mira's house as she texts with DK. She complains about a loud honking outside her window. DK expresses his interest in earning a quadcopter, a remote control drone. He has to reach level 10 on an app to receive it.

The first level reveals a yard across the street from Mira. A creature, who looks like a goose, but wears clothes, is riding a motorbike, while donuts litter the ground. A small hole appears in the ground. The player controls the hole, moving it around the yard. The goal is to move the hole so small objects fall in. Each time the hole absorbs an object it expands slightly. Eventually the hole is large enough to eat the goose, the source of the honking.

Once the player eats all the objects, the perspective switches to DK, as he texts Mira. It isn't a secret that the raccoon controls the hole, which he calls a donut.

Then Donut County skips ahead six weeks. The scene shows a collection of animals, DK, and Mira, 999 ft underground. DK is upset with Mira because she broke his toy, the quadcopter he earned. Mira is upset at DK for destroying the town with his donut holes.

The pair talk to the other characters. Each relates how they called DK's donut shop for a tasty treat. The player then controls a hole in the past to show how that character's belongings were gobbled up by DK's greed.

Donut County contains twenty of these levels, including a Riverbed, a Campground, a Chicken Barn, and a Biology Lab. Each is quick, between two to five minutes. Most are simple progression; eat small objects like bricks, then larger objects like tables, and finally houses and barns. About five levels require mild puzzle solving, like activating an object to get a tool, like a rocket. Or to collect an object in the hole, and then use the catapult to fling it up at the correct location.

Every level ends with the collection of all the objects in the area, including the owner of the spot. During the victory screen the player can access the Trashopedia, a list of every object the player has eaten.

As the recollections about the donut holes cease, Mira pressures DK into helping them return to the surface. The story, now in the present, includes levels as they infiltrate the Raccoon HQ. Donut County ends with a bit of conversation, a final boss fight that doesn't make sense, and a final bit of resolution dialogue.

During my time with Donut County I was reminded of Katamari Damacy. Donut County is like an inverse of the formula. Instead of collecting objects into an ever expanding ball, objects are absorbed into a growing hole. Unfortunately, collecting objects in a hole, where they disappear, isn't as exciting. All the player gets is a larger hole!

Aesthetically, Donut County is simple. The graphics are blocky and bland. The background music is relaxed, like it is supposed to be hip or chill. The characters interact in a curious conversational style, inserting a similar feeling as the music. The dialogue was frustratingly weird (like when one character asks what is a donut without a hole, and the answer is, simply, a jelly donut or a donut hole), but also excellent at characterizing the hilarious intentions of DK and Mira's irritation.

In Conclusion,

Donut County wasn't my type of game. It's empty of satisfying gameplay, with its simple and short singular mechanic. The art and music style were too bland for my enjoyment. The story is absurd and short, but the highlight of my experience. DK is engaging as a spectacularly selfish individual, incapable of accepting responsibility. Mira, draws out interesting dialogue with this roguish raccoon. Yet, this isn't enough to carry the dull mechanics of Donut County.