Wilmot Works it Out

A few years ago, heck even a year ago, I would have taken one look at Wilmot Works it Out and instantly decided that it wasn’t the game for me. My past gaming snobbery has probably denied me some truly memorable video gaming experiences. In my older years, I am trying to embrace some different genres to ones I normally go for. I’ve found myself playing and enjoying more cosy games recently, and I’ve even jumped into the action RPG scene with CrossCode and Sea of Stars. So keeping an open mind and accepting the review code, I jumped into Wilmot Works it Out, and I was so happy I did. 

This is a sequel to the 2019 game Wilmot’s Warehouse in which you have to keep a warehouse organised and well run, and in Wilmot Works it Out, you are still organising, but this time it’s puzzle pieces. Wilmot enjoys a good puzzle, so he’s signed up for a subscription puzzle club, which sends him different puzzles on a regular basis for him to unwind with after a hard day at the warehouse. 

As soon as a box is delivered, you have the option to open the parcel, and upon doing so, each piece is delightfully placed onto Wilmot’s floor with an accompanying sound effect that instantly made me feel happy. What I did find after a few puzzles was that not all the pieces I needed were in the same box, as future boxes will contain pieces I needed to complete previous puzzles. This led me into having to organise myself, to moving pieces to one side that I knew I didn’t need at that moment. Of course the developers, Hollow Pond, have been crafty here, mixing up the consistency of this with sometimes boxes containing just one or two pieces to a picture, and sometimes I was able to make most of a puzzle before running out of pieces and needing to wait for another box. Another crafty element is the pictures themselves, as when they were just pieces, some looked incredibly similar to one another. I did lose some time trying to work out where a piece fit into a puzzle, only for it to belong to a totally different one. 

The pictures themselves were fun and well designed, with a lovely variety of different styles on offer. From people riding on a bus to a montage of butterflies to a maze, each one captured the moment perfectly using a mixture of different art styles and small details that brought each one to life. I can’t say I disliked any of them; they were all interesting and unique and were filled with that playful quality you often find in jigsaw puzzles. As I continued with the puzzle solving, there were many moments from me gleefully realising what the picture was as I was putting it together. There were lots of “huh” and “ooohhh, that’s what that is” coming from my direction while I was also appreciating Wilmot’s amazing facial expressions, which strangely summed up my feelings at the time perfectly. Once a puzzle is complete, you can frame it and hang it on your wall, which just added to my overall enjoyment and fuelled warm feelings of satisfaction.

And satisfaction is the word of the review, as everything is just sooo satisfying here, from the puzzle solving to hanging the pictures and even the little noise that is made when you successfully connect a piece to another. The picking up mechanic is also satisfying; the ease of using the right stick to select the piece you want just works, and I took to it instantly. You can also pick up multiple pieces at once just by selecting the ones you want with the right stick. It’s such an elegant way of looking at this part of the game, even if it sometimes chose pieces automatically, which did become slightly annoying at times. You can also swivel the pieces around Wilmot, which makes it even easier to try and figure out where to put them, plus Wilmot can manually push pieces and puzzles around, as long as there is space. And yes, you guessed it, both were very satisfying to engage with.

There was one thing that did surprise me about Wilmot Works it Out, and that was the relationship between him and Sam the postperson. Each time Sam brings a parcel, she always has something to say. This could be on general things that are happening in the world, stuff about her personal life, or what Wilmot has been up to. As the game progressed, I started to get quite emotionally attached to Sam and Wilmot and excited to see this friendship blossom. It gave my playthrough this element I was not expecting from a puzzle game; it spurred me on to completing a puzzle so I could find out what was to be said next. What an achievement from the developers to be able to get this kind of emotional response from me, especially as Wilmot doesn’t speak at all. I was kind of taken aback, and through all that the game offers, it was this that really left a mark on me, so much so that I really wanted to be friends with Wilmot and Sam.

Apart from Sam and Wilmot’s budding friendship, there are a few other things to distract you from puzzling. Once a certain amount of puzzles have been completed, you can move them to another room in Wilmot’s house. Before that happens, you can decorate the room. This is very simple with just choosing a wallpaper and colour scheme and deciding where furniture lives. Once that has been completed, the painting all moves over, and you can arrange them until you’re happy with the layout. When the game has been completed, you unlock marathon mode, in which you get to rebuild puzzles one after the other with no break in between. A welcome addition if that urge to complete puzzles is still hanging around.