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Take on the role of a heroic teddy bear as you defend your playmate from nightmarish intruder in Stuffed , a new “ Zombies ” mode wave - defense game with a uniquely cute ( albeit twisted ) take on the genre . While the biz sure has merit , there are a few areas I feel the title could improve to stand out beyond its unique presentation .
Stuffed takes place in the nightmares of Ellie , a young nestling being hunt by malevolent spirits in her dreams . As her rely Teddy , it ’s up to you to take up arm ( mostly construct of toys and household aim ) to fight back back undulation after undulation of unbalanced plaything , defend Ellie ’s room each night from the monsters that would invade .
The cartoonishly terrorize Stuffed hang under the writing style of “ Zombies - like , ” something I use to describe wave survival titles urge by the Call of Duty : zombi biz mode that has become “ oh so popular ” over the year . It is a pretty solid game design , and Stuffed follow many of the traditional image : undulation of increasingly unmanageable zombies , weapons that must be purchased with credits earn from killing sound out zombies , perk drops , and the other standard expectations from the genre . Stuffed adds a moment with a floor - up system and a clearly tower - defense style play , but it really stand up out with its introduction , retheming everything to unambiguously agree a childish nightmare .
The biggest standout in Stuffed has to be its foeman . These “ zombies ” are rethemed to be various toys , twisted by the gloomy powers invading Ellie ’s restful eternal rest . Rubber duckies with vampire tooth , little plaything golem , and garden gnomes … for some reason . Many of these foe also have unequaled behaviors , like the stuffed toy that only move when you ’re not looking at them . However , despite being coolheaded in construct , they ’re actually incredibly easy to parcel out with if you just put your back to Ellie ’s doorway and spray while they ’re all on the floor .
The creepiest of all the enemies is , for certain , the nightmarish humanoid shadow creatures that now and again spawn , party boss - corresponding enemies that bucket along straight for Ellie ’s door and attempt to break in . I was surprised by how much animation last into these guy and I got lost a bit watching them jiggle Ellie ’s doorhandle , knock on the room access , and put their ear up to it to hear if she was at heart .
The artillery are also very unique , call for up Kids Next Door ’s degree of “ infantile ingenuity . ” Slingshot pistols , jelly dome shotguns , crayon machine guns — all are toy - like and very originative in design . I call up it would be hilarious , however , if there was one top - tier arm in the biz that was just an genuine Glock 19 pulled out of Ellie ’s dad ’s nightstand .
As conceptually interesting as the weapons are , they do n’t palpate unbelievable to use .
The game ’s crosshairs are broadly speaking inaccurate , which would be fine if aim was n’t so sluggish . At least for me , it was taking a few moments longer than I felt it should to ADS and fire at the satanic toy in my quite a little .
There does n’t seem to be a way to refresh ammo like you would in a traditional zombie plot . It would seem that when out of ammunition ( and the ammunition pass away tight , with pretty minor maximums ) , you have to desire to get an ammo pickup , snaffle one at the level up , or buy a new hitman . purchase guns also totally ditches your former artillery , leaving you with just the newfangled one and a stick as arms , which does n’t sense amazing .
Some weapons are also just way stronger than others , which greatly reduces your period of play variety , particularly as the waves get solid . Some weapons just immediately lose all viability when test to defend back the legion . An example of this comes from one of my friction match , where I had to trade my jelly - bean shotgun for the magazine - machine gun , only to find that enemies I was clearing out easily a moment ago were now all but resistant to my damage , and I near instantly lose the catch .
I do n’t sense like the combining of column defense and Zombies - style map stray really works very well in Stuffed . I think this is mostly due to how the single-valued function is design .
Stuffed ’s map is designed so that you spawn just next to Ellie ’s doorway ( the aim to defend ) with a beat - end to your right and openings to your left . As you expand the map to the left side , it opens the way of life to new guns as well as new enemy spawns .
The issue is that Ellie ’s way is not in a centralized location , and while there are a bunch of teleporters that land you right back to the hallway where Ellie ’s elbow room is , as you expand out to retrieve unexampled weapons , you are constantly move off from the defense objective , as enemies continue to spawn right next to it . you’re able to never really pretend very far or make purpose of the mathematical function to take out enemies because you always end up recall to the tight hallway where the room access is located to defend it .
On top of these wretched design choice , Stuffed is broadly speaking not very well optimized . I was struggling to get over 50 FPS on the same PC I used to reexamine Armored Core 6 with no issues .
Overall , I ’d say that Stuffed has a lot of potential , with a singular presentation and cool idea , but it has some oeuvre to do .
The Final Word
Stuffed is an interesting take on the “ Zombies ” wave - defense style secret plan . However , despite its great presentment and potential , the state of the game itself could apply some workplace . With the state of weapon system balance , performance optimization , and map out design , I ’d say Stuffed feels more like an Early Access form of address than a full release .
Stuffed was review on the PC . Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming title on ourGame Reviewspage ! Stuffed is useable onSteam .
