Review: Loddlenaut will sweep you away on a current of cozy relaxation

Loddlenaut is an incredibly charming game about cleaning up an oceanic planet, GUP-14, after a corporation has left for another world. In it, you’ll meet adorable creatures called Loddles that you can grow and release back into the cleaned-up biomes.

I’ve had my eye on this game since it came out, so I was very excited to get the chance to play it for review. I’m weak to anything remotely resembling axolotls, so it’s fair to say that this game was going to be right up my alley.

Plus, I love a good cleaning game. Now, if I could just translate gamefied cleaning enjoyment into real-life cleaning enjoyment… 

Loddlenaut: The game where you may try to figure out how to steal the loddles for your own

Let me just preface and say that I binged Loddlenaut in one sitting. It wasn’t pretty. I didn’t even remember to take notes and that says quite a lot. It isn’t perfect, but the cozy vibes were there. I only have one major qualm that dented the score, but I’ll talk more about that later.

In Loddlenaut, you’re employed by a cleanup service to take care of the biowaste and damage left by a company known as GUPPI. The game will mention them every so often, but, also, tell you that why they did something doesn’t matter. We get some background info that suggests they simply left for a different planet, no doubt to ruin that one as well.

GUPPI ruined the biomes that exist on this planet and someone has to clean it up, so it might as well be you. Each biome will introduce new pollution types, so you’ll have to upgrade your equipment to fully tackle the ecological disaster.

A lot of your issues will be “goop” which can be dealt with by the blaster you have when you start the game. But, you will start to encounter microplastics and blaster-resistant goo that sits on the ocean floor. These things will require specific items to combat these issues that you can get by recycling materials.

Scattered amongst the ick is floating trash: bottles, glass, metals, and electronics. You’ll be able to recycle these at your home base by putting them into the corresponding recycler. Once you fill them up enough, they’ll spit out rewards that can be used in your crafting station to upgrade current items and make new ones.

It’s not just trash you can recycle, however, you can recycle plant-based material as well by recycling the flora and fauna you find. To be honest, I didn’t find that I needed to go wild on recycling these. It’s best to just hoard them to feed to loddles. By feeding them and taking care of their needs, you’ll be able to grow them and then release them into biomes. 

Or keep them forever in your home base… If not friends, why friend shaped?

Some loddles have a favorite food and the game suggests that their diet may influence how they grow. Loddles have the ability to evolve into different types and if you’re passionate about finding all the types, you’ll get a shiny achievement out of it.

You have 6 areas to clean up officially, but even the spaces between have items that need to be cleaned up. You’ll likely find a lot of these just swimming from one biome to the next, but you’ll get an item later that will show you the pollution on the entire map.

While you’re doing this, you’ll have to keep an eye on your oxygen. This is really the only “stressful” thing that you have to manage and it’s not even that big of a deal. It’s really only a problem when you’re between biomes. Dotted around are plants that will produce bubbles of oxygen that you’ll be able to slowly replenish your oxygen with.

Or, you can be smarter than me and invest in a portable oxygen ring. I went through the whole first biome without having this item simply because I figured it was a one-time use or that I wouldn’t be able to move it once it was down since it allows you to make 15. I was wrong. Don’t be like me. Not only can you place it down, but you can take it with you.

On the surface, Loddlenaut is a perfect game. There’s only one thing that drags the score down and is kind of frustrating. Traveling is going to be the bane of your existence. Your inventory will get full or your microplastics vacuum will need to be emptied and you’ll have to swim back to your home base.

I find that you’ll have to head back to your base 2-3 times, if not more, and that can really mess with the flow. Especially if you go all the way back to your spot only to forget to empty your vacuum and have to immediately swim back.

There and Back Again: A “Me” Tale, because I can’t remember why I went in the first place.

It might not be so bad, but it kind of adds insult to injury that when you’re done with an area you get a fast travel to that spot. Guys, I needed that fast travel from the start. It makes little sense to give it to me when I’m done.

I’m not saying they’re not useful because you’ll use these to get into further out biomes. But, most of your traveling is done to unload. So, taking 5 minutes to travel there and back is frustrating.

But, I guess you get a bit of a redemption arc because, by the time you’re done cleaning all the biomes, the first one you worked on will likely be in bad shape again. This makes me question my importance in the game, however. If I fully clean the biome and it just gets gross again, am I really doing anything good? Won’t GUP-14 just be in shambles again soon after?

I guess I shouldn’t put real ethics questions on a game. Especially not one that I genuinely had a good time bingeing. I loved the pixelated style, the cute little loddles, and getting to watch a biome slowly come back to a healthy state.

And, if you enjoy achievements, there are quite a few to snag here.

All in all, I really enjoyed playing Loddlenaut and if you’re looking for a game to really just sink into, you’ll want to give it a shot. You can get it on Steam for $19.99 or Nintendo Switch for $15.99.

If this isn’t your cup of tea, you can check out the review we did of Critter Cafe.