Getting Over it with Bennett Foddy Review

Developer: Bennett Foddy
Release Date: 10/6/17
Platforms: PC
ESRB/PEGI: Everyone
MSRP: $7.99 USD

Written by ALFA Overlord

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy is a rage-based game. You are a man in a pot, and must climb up areas using a sledgehammer. "Oh, we know, we've seen it." Well, there's a bit more to it than what the streamer lets on. When I watched people play "Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy", I first thought, "Man, these people are bad at this game." On the outside, it looks easy. It really does. I was imagining the hardest part being the chimney section, and it would be a cool Winter breeze afterwards. It is not so

The hardest part of "Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy" isn't the climbing; it's getting your character to do what you want. The obstacle isn't the mountain; it's the character. Your objective isn't to get the guy up the mountain, because that'd be too easy. The objective is to fight this man in a pot until you come out victorious past obstacles. He listens to your orders, but only selectively. On top of that, no matter the mouse sensitivity, it is not fast enough. You want him to stick his hammer to the right? If he's falling, you can get him to move it to the right a little bit, but he will not stick it straight out. If he is holding still, you have to rotate the hammer to the correct angle to allow him to move it to the right. This makes quick movements impossible, so it takes a lot of planning and smooth actions to reduce the chance of failure.

Leverage is very strange; you might be trying to pull yourself in, but the character will push himself off. This can be rather frustrating (understatement) when you are on an edge and throw yourself down a couple levels. I spent a long time trying to figure out why this happens, and in all honesty, I did not find a single leading factor to help me on that endeavor. It just seemed he would either choose to pull himself, or choose to throw himself. Your say in it doesn't matter.
           
Physics are, also, way off. You can't propel yourself upward high enough if you throw your mouse downward, but if your hammer gets stuck on a wall, or even hits one, your entire pot-person self gets launched at 103 miles an hour in the complete wrong direction. This, also, gets aggravating. On top of this, Bennett Foddy has plenty of quotes stolen and requoted in the game every time this happens. It happens very often. The quotes are made to anger you, not encourage you. He pretends like he cares, but he made this game to make you mad. It wouldn't be a rage game if the developer was some sympathetic kind-hearted animal-lover.
           
The quotes make you feel beneath him, as if you are some lesser species, and he is an ascended lord that rules over the land you are in. This, mixed with it being a rage-game, makes a very toxic environment that many despise. The game starts off calming, because you have nothing to lose. Once you're up higher, the stress kicks in. If you mess up (even though 99.9% of the time it's the controls messing up), you'll fall and lose progress. You can get kicked down to the beginning of the game; those hours of work you put in erased. The only thing you gained was skill manuevering a near-luck based sledgehammer.
           
There is a rather large difference between a bad game, a rage game, and a hard game. Take Super Meat Boy, for example. The anger doesn't come in the lack of control over your character. It comes from you not being able to do actions you want to do; whether the action is impossible and you don't know, or you aren't skilled enough. That is how a rage game should be (or it should be corny gimicks like Cat Mario, which actually made me laugh.) Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy doesn't have that. It has lagged controls, poor physics (IN A CLIMBING GAME), and a horrible atmosphere of "you can do it" despite him making it luck-based.

I would say I fell for the "Sunk-Cost Fallacy" on this game. I paid $8 for this game. I was -$8 before I played it. I wanted to play the game, and make it worth my $8. It started off as if that was going to happen. I climbed over the beginning obstacles with ease, and got up the chimney (eventually). It was worth about $6, so I wanted to get a little bit farther. I continued on until I noticed I couldn't get up the wall. Taking my time just didn't work. Getting irritated, I did the speedrunner strategy of windmill your hammer. It worked. Rotating the hammer around threw me up the obstacle and got me to the top instantly. This made me furious. I used skill and strategy to try and get to the top and I couldn't. Then I aimlessly throw my hammer around and end up succeeding. This made it worth less than the $6, and I realize I should've quit earlier.
           
Nevertheless, I was set on earning my money back. I get across the bar, and set down next to the grill. I leap over and try to get up that wall. Once more, planning and executing doesn't work, so I windmill, again. I cruise up the wall once more. This got me in a worse mood, and then I launch off the top slide. I accidentally cruise over the box and land perfectly in the cubby. While I should've been happy with my accomplishment, it was completely out of luck, so I didn't feel good about it. It's just a bad experience. I worked and worked to have bugs and flaws, that Bennett full-well knew existed and left in for it to make me rage, throw me back down to the beginning. I can not recommend this game to anybody, except for the people that think it is easy and bash others for doing poorly, despite never trying it. I would know, because I was one of them, and learned my lesson.

The Art
The Quotes
The Lesson the Game Teaches
Bugs/Glitches
Angry/Rage-Inducing Atmosphere
Poor Controls
Bennett Foddy's Ego In-Game

+3
+3
+4
-1
-2
-2
-1

FINAL SCORE: 4