Cargo! The Quest for Gravity

So It's like.... "Russian Zelda tears of the kingdom". Never beat it because there's a lot of dead air in missions, can be grindy to get materials to build stuff (So my machines were very utilitarian) and the flying controls are... They're something alright :/ Quirky little thing though! It's got a charm to it. Like a farming sim, but for engineers.

My gambling addict friend said if I post a review and it gets 350 likes and 50 Awards that he will buy me a case of beer, some vodka and 1 kg of lemon So im just gonna leave this here.
Мой друг-игроман сказал, что если я опубликую отзыв и он наберет 350 лайков и 50 наград, он купит мне ящик пива, немного водки и 1 кг лимона, так что я просто оставлю это здесь.

We built a submarine that looks like an international incident and drove it along the roof of a cave in order to throw a trampoline dance party in a volcano. Extremely strong recommend.

> Be me
> Hear about this game called "Cargo! - The Quest for Gravity"
> Think it's gonna be some epic adventure game
> Load it up, ready to save the world
> Game starts
> Earth is now a bunch of floating islands
> Populated by these weird "BUDDIES" creatures
> They're like tiny, floaty, party animals
> Gods gave them control of gravity
> They're having a blast, everything's topsy turvy
> I'm like, "Well, guess it's my job to bring the party down"
> Apparently, the secret to stopping them is FUN
> Yep, you read that right, FUN
> I'm the last human left on Earth
> My mission? Bring fun back to Earth
> Challenge accepted!
> Game has some "key features"
> Physics-driven gameplay, they say
> Multiple solutions to each mission, they say
> Unlimited sandbox mode, they say
> Sounds promising
> First mission: Make a crazy vehicle to entertain the BUDDIES
> Build a vehicle out of random parts
> It looks like a hot mess
> It's got a toilet seat for a steering wheel
> Attach fireworks for propulsion
> And a rubber chicken for a horn
> BUDDIES are loving it
> Mission success
> MFW I realize I'm basically a cosmic clown car engineer
> Keep playing
> Visit underwater environments, flying islands
> Seasons change, affecting gameplay
> Winter means BUDDIES freeze and slip around
> Spring makes them bouncy
> Summer, they chill in the sun
> Fall, they collect leaves like toddlers
> Feels like babysitting a bunch of hyperactive toddlers
> Load my own music for the game soundtrack
> Play "Yakety Sax" during high-stress missions
> Everything becomes a Benny Hill chase scene
> Laugh maniacally as I chase BUDDIES with a giant rubber ducky
> They scream and giggle
> I'm having a blast
> Realize I'm the one having all the FUN
> BUDDIES are just along for the ride
> Game goes from "Save the World" to "Let's Troll the BUDDIES"
> Spend hours creating the most ridiculous vehicles
> See BUDDIES fly off into space, screaming
> Laugh so hard I cry
> The Gods are probably face-palming at this point
> In the end, did I bring gravity back to Earth?
> Who knows
> But I sure brought the fun back
> 10/10 would troll BUDDIES again

Weird Al Yankovic - Smells Like Nirvana
🎶 What is this game all about?
Can't figure the gameplay out
How do the quests in it go?
I'll tell you, friend, so you will know
Will know, will know, will know, oh yeah
Will know, will know, will know...

Now I'm gaming and I'm laughing
And I don't know what I'm crafting
Clicking buttons, screen's a-flashin'
I still don't know what's happening
We're so wild and innovative
Boy, this game is captivatin'
Yeah!

It's un-pre-dic-ta-ble
I just can't stop, it's incredible
It's hard to explain, so let's go
Through all the features in the show
Will know, will know, will know, oh yeah
Will know, will know, will know...

Well, it's not just like any other
Here we are now, it's "Cargo! - The Quest for Gravity"
Play distinct? Well, it's our cover
Try the game now, for your jollity
A unique adventure, oh, so dandy
Well, it sure beats reality
Yeah!

And I'm playing, can't stop playing
'Cause I know what I'm portraying
Cargo's magic, there's no delaying
Can't you see what I'm conveying?
So if you're looking for some fun, my dear
No need to worry, the game is here
Sayonara, sayonara
We're off on a crazy chimera
Sayonara, sayonara
With Cargo, it's a wild panorama
Cargo! Ayaaaaah! 🎮🚀

INT. HOLLYWOOD CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY

*Ryan George, the hilarious pitch meeting guy, sits at the head of the table. A game developer, JASON, nervously shuffles some papers.*

RYAN GEORGE
(intense)
Alright, Jason! Hit me with it. What's the next big thing in gaming?

JASON
(stuttering)
Well, Ryan, we've got something truly groundbreaking for you today. It's called "Cargo! - The Quest for Gravity."

RYAN GEORGE
(raising an eyebrow)
Oh, Cargo! Sounds intense. What's it all about?

JASON
(grinning)
Well, imagine this, Ryan. The Gods have gotten a little tipsy and turned Earth into a bunch of floating islands, populated by these cute, little creatures called "BUDDIES."

RYAN GEORGE
(laughing)
Wait, wait, wait. The Gods are drunk, and BUDDIES are floating around like they're at a never-ending frat party?

JASON
(nodding)
Exactly! But, here's the twist. The only way to bring gravity back to Earth is by having fun! Yes, FUN is the secret ingredient!

RYAN GEORGE
(laughing harder)
Fun? That's it? Well, sign me up!

JASON
(enthusiastically)
I'm glad you're on board! Now, the game features unique physics-driven gameplay. You can build all sorts of wacky vehicles, explore flying islands, and even change the seasons to mess with the BUDDIES!

RYAN GEORGE
(excited)
Changing seasons? I can't even keep up with my own wardrobe changes! Tell me more.

JASON
(grinning)
You can create the most ridiculous vehicles, and you get to use your own music for the soundtrack. Imagine chasing BUDDIES with a giant rubber ducky while playing "Yakety Sax."

RYAN GEORGE
(laughing uncontrollably)
I love it! But, Jason, do we ever find out if we actually bring gravity back to Earth?

JASON
(shrugging)
Who knows, Ryan? Who knows? But we sure bring the fun back!

RYAN GEORGE
(smiling)
Well, Jason, you've convinced me. "Cargo! - The Quest for Gravity" is a wild ride of hilarity. Let's make this game and get those BUDDIES floating!

*They share a hearty laugh as they shake hands, sealing the deal.*

FADE OUT.

It's been a while since I've finished a game and realize I've actually had fun with it. Sure, I've enjoyed great narrative masterpieces, and complex mechanics. Games that presented a challenge, and other focused on competition. But I'm talking just plain silly fun, like playing with toys.
The game it's wacky, and just plain absurd. The dialogs fail to properly trigger at times, so you'll have them play at almost random times, or just repeated twice in a row, and the game has some bugs so I'd recommend saving often... but ultimately none of it matter.
It is unapologetic, and felt somewhat nostalgic. It reminded me of Psychonauts, or Beyond Good and Evil. You can tell the developers had some fun making it, didn't worry too much about external opinion, and they were limited in resources. Limited resources often foster creativity, and not attempting to pander to a wider audience allows for character and uniqueness to emerge.
It is also refreshingly short in a world that nowadays tends to the creation of extremely long and cumbersome games, or procedurally generated infinite content.

The biggest struggle this game faces is making the player give a sНit about whatever is happening on screen, but, once you get into the stakes of the deceptively grim world that lost its weight, scattered in pieces & in the process of actively tearing itself apart, so, naturally, you were hired by the deities to fix that - you're in for a lil' sandbox survival adventure, full of transport building & saving 50 y.o. toddler-looking chuckleheads, who love nothing more than get high all the time.

This game is mental... like "Mutant Penguins" mixed with "Sacrifice" and "Vangers" kind of mental, but, provided you're into that plot, you might be able to extract some fun out of the janky physics, engineering ludicrous vehicles and farming cash for more lego pieces to, hopefully, save the troll doll nation of the post-mankind Earth from parallel dimension.

I CANNOT recommend this to anyone outside of a small, specific range. It's a game for teenagers and children, but even that seems like a bit of a stretch. You get hints of what the developers enjoyed about it, but it's probably not worth playing unless you're a big fan of Ice-Pick Lodge, or a teenager/child. I think it would've been better received had the "Buddies" been more cartoonish or stylized instead of mildly disturbing, tiny baby men.

Cargo! - The Quest for Gravity is a wacky puzzle / crafting open world game with unique ideas that fail to entertain players in the long run, and ultimately overstays its welcome.

Earth has been reduced to nothing but a small collection of islands inhabited by creatures referred to as Buddies, strange baby-like people created by the Gods to entertain themselves. You play as Fakwes, a mechanic and pilot in training who crashes onto these lands and it’s up to her to restore gravity.

You do this by kicking buddies, letting them dance or building vehicles to carry buddies and let them tag along for the ride. Doing this gives you FUN which is the game’s currency to buy vehicle parts in the shop and, more importantly, drop objects from space and into the Earth’s atmosphere and… somehow annoy the Gods.

I’d be lying if Cargo didn’t at least entertain me on some level. There’s a weird charm to the game’s lack of coherence and add to that some genuinely stupid jokes I couldn’t help but smile when I’d casually stroll through the world; kicking adult-headed babies who are obsessed with flying and other zany things. Even though it’s “dumb fun” there really isn’t a lot of substance to Cargo.

Cargo advertises itself as a game packed with unique and innovative physics-based gameplay with multiple solutions to its puzzles all thrown in a limitless world begging to be explored in various ways. In reality, though? Cargo is only ever played on one singular map containing three small islands and a variety of floating objects and platforms that have even less exploration to offer. The innovative physics are floaty at best, uncontrollable at worst and by the end will have you groaning when your nth plane/car flips onto its back from a single forward tap.

The ability to craft your own vehicle is fun in theory and the game isn’t a stickler for letting you build a massive fortress on wheels, but the physics won’t thank you for it. The game is kind enough to sprinkle a handful of pre-made designs, but that only hurt the crafting mechanic by removing any creativity.

Cargo’s “puzzles” always seem to boil down to helping buddies not kill themselves, fixing some nondescript machine to somehow further the plot. The game isn’t exactly forthcoming with its intentions and there isn’t an easy mission screen that helps you track what it is you’re supposed to be doing. At one point I’d exhausted every droppable object from the Stratosphere and the game kept telling me I needed to drop something heavy from it, but never explained exactly what object I had to throw. Turned out I had to drop a train (which I had already done, but nevermind.) in order to gather paint for a machine to further the story.

The game is full of these vague hints that don’t really explain anything and I found myself consulting a walkthrough more than once just to get through it all.

“Are you having FUN?” the game kept yelling, but when the novelty had worn off all I wanted was to finish it and never look back.

Fun, creative and short game. For me everything is great about it. It's not overstaying it's welcom, have a funny jokes, original lore which really working with a gameplay mechanics. Flexible vehicle crafting system. Music/Dance editor was a nice surprice. It's more detailed than just swapping the default music on user's track. I was really expected less from this game because it was less famous title from Ice-Pick, but it was fun and memorable expirience.

Cargo is great! It's a very quirky and funny physics builder/driving game, by the makers of Pathologic.

If you feel like building a car, a submarine, a hot air balloon, an helicopter and driving it around to your own music (or the game's pretty cool OST) as the game world around you feels more and more like a fever dream, Cargo is probably for you!

Works flawlessy without the slightest adjustment on Win10 in 2021 which is notable for a 10 year old game.

If you are familiar with Ice Pick Lodge, you should know most of their games have been designed starting from the idea that "games don't have to be fun to be good". This leads to the birth of Pathologic 1 & 2, one of the most important creative works in the video game medium.

Cargo feels like IPL backflipping on their motto and examining what "fun" actually is. The whole game revolves around FUN, a volatile substance that gives mass to stuff. You get FUN by kicking Buddies, making them dance or taking them on rides; the faster you go, the more FUN they provide before exploding (because they've had too much, certainly).

You will be constantly asked if you are having fun, and it feels like back in 2011, IPL were already advancing the idea that "fun" is actually the most annoying word one can use when talking about videogames, as it is broad and unclear, and therefore should not be the sole way we refer to the enjoyment we take from videogames.

Frantically searching trash bins in Pathologic 2 as you die of hunger and time runs out for a bottle of dirty water is "fun" in itself, but the word is poison to the sense; To me, Cargo!'s message is that we should use more specific and defined terms, such as "exciting", or whatever, I don't know all the words.

Anyway, Cargo is great. IPL have a lot of range. Where Pathologic and The Void are all rigid rules, pure ludus and esoteric narratives, Cargo is complete chaos and paidia. It also extends IPL's discourse around games litteracy in a slightly more playful way. It's pretty cool. Good fun.

It's all YOUR fault.

I got this for the vehicle creation but so far it's given me very little choice in creativity. For example the base structure of the boat is one solid piece where I was under the impression that it was multiple. The wheels require a joint first instead of having the joint as part of them already.

The 'story' tries to be amusing with crazy characters and wacky music but ends up be incredibly annoying. You are instructed to constantly save the tiny suicidal humans, giving each mission a timer. In the first chapter you are tasked with saving them from drowning using a lifesaver, but despite parking the lifesaver directly in the pile, most of them proceeded to drown all the same! I tried to use the boat as a shovel & simply push them to shore, but guess that would be too creative..
There's a turbine they jump into that you just pass through, and in the ice area they get jumped on by penguins..

The music sounds like a bad conversion from mp3 to midi.

Graphics are crisp, animations are good and really make it feel like Playstation 2 platformers (Jak, Haven). Could have really used a demo or free-play option.

What Is Cargo! ?

I have no idea what this garbage of a game is but I think neither did the developers, I just dont get how can someone make a game like this, yeah I like weird games with weird ideas which was maybe why I this game got my attention in the first place but why must everything sounds so cringy and just exquisite ? not only the game looks and its idea, I mean really, the game description on steam page is vague and it just looks like a cool vehicle game but the stuff you do before that is just convolute and messy, you have to kick those babies with adult faces, make them happy to appease the mechanical gods and other nonsensical garbage that isnt fun to do, once you get into the vehicle stuff of the game I thought it was supposed to be kinda like banjo kazooie nuts and bolts but the vehicle controls and handling are so bad, the missions are so bland and the game feels so weird and disjointed its just puts anyone off, not worth wasting your time with that.

This game is very surrelist. You want to know how? Well, your a mechanic on a earth that has messed up gravity, and the only people who can fix it are nude and when their happy, they are resistant to gravity's effect. Also, weird talking masks considered god.

The weirdity of this game is what makes it interesting. There is not much else for me to say about this game due to it's weirdness, but it does have some different enviroments to explore, and some puzzles later in the game.

There is also a build mode where you can build your own vehicles in the game, which is really cool, if you have enough parts to actually make the things you want. You can build anything basically and up to your imagination what you want to build, but if you don't want to, the game provides blueprints also to help those that need a hand.

Recommended just for weirdness and custom vehicle building.

Ice-Pick Lodge is the only company that should be allowed in the running for the "Whoooaaaaaaa, Dude!" Award. And you know what they say--you never forget your first Ice-Pick. This game is absolutely bat-shit insane and makes sense only in the way that a dream you can only half-understand makes sense. Which is to say, you really owe it to yourself to play it through. Like Minecraft meets a living nightmare with cherub wings.

Teal Deer

• Developers: Ice-pick Lodge
  
• Publishers: bitComposer Games, Viva Media, Nordic Games
  
• Initial release: April 2011
  
• Genre: Physics, Sandbox, Crafting
  
• #Worth/NotWorth: #WaitForSale
  
[*]BSERC: (Borderline Sardonic and Extermely Reductive Comparison) Indie Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts

Exposition, Concurrence and Summation

Nice game to just experience and enjoy its sheer different way of going about the gameplay experience it provides the interacter.

Too bad we got too many preconceptions of how a game should play, look and progress to give a decent shot to efforts like this that stray from the established norm.

This game is a wonderful experience.

Have you ever felt down? Ever heard a negative remark? Does the world just seem glum? This game is 100% guaranteed* to make you smile and change your entire outlook on life. Kicking babbies for extra fun™ has nevre been so much fun™ as it is in Cargo! The Quest for Gravity®. Have you ever looked at the modern design for a boat, automobile or aeroplane and thought 'Hey I could build something way better than that!'? Well look no further for your in-home fun™tertainment™ transportation design fun™ game!!!!! !

It is a fun game but get it on sale. I beat it within 1-2 hours for both the good and bad ending. In the end though it is a good game and light on your hard drive but like I said get it on sale it will not last and is not worth the normal price.

An entertaining, if confusing, game

Story Summary: Three bumbling Gods responsible for recreating Earth as an experiment hire a zeppelin captain and his pilot/mechanic Flawkes to deliver parts so they can repair their planet-building machine. The devil, who sabotaged the planet-building machine, talks Flawkes into editing the Earth into his own image. Flawkes must entertain the proto-humans (called Buddies) to produce FUN, a currency that can be used to build machines and pull heavy objects out of the stratosphere.

This game is a mix of puzzle-solving and building and driving around in your own crazy vehicles. The faster/higher they go, the more entertained the Buddies will become and the more FUN you earn.

Playtime: about 6 hours to complete the story mode

Pros:
* The story and visuals are hilarious at times: the first time I had a “Buddy dance party”, I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe.
* Vehicle building is easy and fun, designs can be saved and reloaded at will. Or, if you don't enjoy it, you can use pre-made blueprints and skip vehicle building altogether.
* Game lets you import and use your own music for Buddy dances.

Cons:
* Crashes, bugs, and insufficient auto-saves. Twice I managed to strand a submarine underneath the seafloor, once while going past a loading screen and another while editing the submarine when it was resting on the sea floor. The game only autosaves at the beginning of a new season, and seasons are very long. I’ve also read reports of the game failing to load saves made at particular times.

*** Important: if you decide to play this, save your game often and save in a new slot each time. ***

* Sometimes it’s hard to know what the game expects you to do. I had to consult a walkthrough for the volcano restarting section in winter, and for the tornado sequence in summer. I also had to look up online what the key for placing clefs was. (Enter.) This might be due to poorly-done translation of the guiding text (Cargo was originally developed in Russian.)
* Airplanes don’t control well.

If you’re a fan of games with weird characters and settings, like Zeno Clash, a fan of games where you build vehicles, like Spore or Kerbal Space Program, or a fan of silly nonsense humor, I think you'll enjoy this game.

This game is a odd, wacky, and just plain weird. I can imagine this game being thought of one late night at the office with nothing better to do. Theories asside, lets talk about the game.

The story of the game is somewhat hard to follow, but without trying to give out spoilers here, you must help these mechanical "gods" re-create the world with your engineering and creative powers. There are four seasons in the game, each one with different themes, like winter freezes all the water so you can drive on it. The game took me about six hours to finish, and thats with me messing around a bit. After you finish the story mode there are little to no reasons to do it again. The only thing for replay is sandbox mode, where you play around on the island with many (but limited) tools, making any vehicle your heart desires.

One small thing this game did horribly is sound, the begining sequence the voice acting was bad enough to make me want to quit the game. It got better from there, but the sound just isnt there in this game.

Throughout the game there is a little bar at the bottom of the screen that tells you what to do next, but I would of rather seen a check list menu or really anything other than this. It doesnt grab your attention easily, and I offen times would find my self forgeting about it and wondering what to do next. Other times when I did see it, what it said didnt make sence, one example that tool me awile to figure out was, near the end of the game it told me to "Find a large object" and it tool me almost fifteen minutes to figure out what I was suppost to do.

Now the big grabber in the game, making your own vehicle, is somthing this game does fairly well, you startout with a base for your vehicle and build from there. So, say you want to build a car, start with a car base, add a few connectors, add wheels to the connectors. and you are all set! However, on occasion you will run into problems. The game gives you blueprints that you can find, these are pre-made vehicles that
A. get the job done,
B. Are faster to make and,
C. Look cooler than anything I could make.
By the end of the second season I found myself going to these rather than building anything myself. Also the gravity and physics in this game dont feel right. Planes and helicopters feel like they're made from paper, the cars are too drifty, and the boats feel like your anchor is alwase down.

All in all this game is a quirky, fun, just plain weird building game that lets you be creative in a world full of weird things. But the story isnt there, the gameplay is diffferent and it really feels like its incomplete. But if you have six plus hours to burn, this isnt the worst of all choices. (Just dont get it for full price) :)

Gameplay.....7/10
Physics........6/10
Story............5/10
Replay..........4/10
Sound...........5/10
Graphics.......6/10

Overall.......6

weird game. really weird. but very fun too. if you can look past the jankiness and incoherent story and just go with it, it's a fun game. making vehicles and making the physics break.

I loved this game. If the part of Garry's Mod that you liked was the building part, or if you ever played Garry's Mod and were all like "Man, I wish it was easier to make awesome vehicles", this is a game you'll probably like. It's not amazing, it's just fun to play around in for a while.

There are a lot of games that do this better now, but I'm not sure they're as fun to goof around in.

This is what would happen if The Residents and The Polyphonic Spree made a game together. Actually, if they did make this game, the result would be a bit more coherent and a lot less bewildering than this! I appreciate what the game is trying to do - blend surreality and a little of everything into their game, then marry it to their vehicle building gameplay mechanic. You build vehicles! You're not really sure why you're building them or why the hell you're doing this, but the main thing to know is this: You can kick little naked midgets off of the sides of mountains for points. Plus you can put music in the game and have the little naked midgets dance to this. The high point of this game is getting the little naked midgets to dance to The Residents' Commercial Album. So get that if you're going to get this.