Loddlenaut Review – Ethical Ocean Farming

Loddlenaut is a short adventure game with light survival and farming mechanics set on the ocean floor. Developed by Moon Lagoon and published by Secret Mode, Loddlenaut is a fun and satisfying game about cleaning the ocean. Its satisfying mixture of a colorful ocean setting with a rewarding gameplay loop kept me excitedly playing almost non-stop until the credits rolled, despite the farming mechanics being ancillary. 

Loddlenaut is available now for $19.99 on Steam (PC and Mac compatible).

Story – Pollution and Restoration

Loddlenaut begins at the bottom of the ocean on an alien planet. You work for GUPPI Corporation and must clean up the mess they’ve left on the ocean floor. You move from area to area, cleaning each completely of its bad stuff. In each area you encounter new kinds of trash and also encounter native (adorable) creatures called loddles. Surprisingly, Loddlenaut threads a theme about pollution and corporate greed through its simple premise. The story of the pollution is seen when players encounter polluted and dirty loddles. These cute creatures can be cleaned, nurtured, and given a home by the player. 

A sunken ship from GUPPI Corporation.

Gameplay – Cleaning Simulator

Loddlenaut is an adventure game with survival and farming elements. There is an ending, but the game can be played indefinitely, forever cleaning and raising loddles. What kept me busy through my three and a half hour playthrough was deliberately and systematically ridding sections of the ocean of waste. From sucking up nasty purple ooze to grabbing soda cans and vacuuming microplastics, cleaning the ocean was engaging. Plus, Loddlenaut nails a sense of progression that kept me moving forward. The material and pollutants you collect can be recycled and used for upgrades and new tools. New tools become necessary at almost every new section of the ocean and they always bring a new gameplay mechanic with them. 

Blasting away the ooze is a lot of fun.

Instead of a night/day cycle to draw players back to home base like Minecraft, Loddlenaut gives you a small inventory that can only be offloaded at your home base. Fortunately, almost every venture back home will allow you to recycle your collected trash into something new. Beside the required tools mentioned above, food and toys for loddles can be crafted frequently. Loddle farming is surprisingly deep, but is given little attention in the main objectives. There are many types of loddles and each can have a range of temperaments and feelings. Each type has an evolutionary line and prefers to be fed specific treats. All of the loddle farming is interesting, but it did not capture my attention enough to explore it with much depth. I was content with cleaning the ocean and saving a few loddles along the way.

Graphics – Colorful Gunk

With many ocean games, the deep can be a mysterious and unsettling setting. Loddlenaut mixes the reality of a vast ocean with a hopeful energy that perfectly matches this theme. The ocean of GUP-14 is mostly bright and colorful. This helps the player notice the dark pollution and other trash and urges you to clean it. There is also a really nice depth effect that feels realistic and also acts to push players into exploring. You wonder what you will see past the blurriness of the next 100 meters or so. Entering into a section of the ocean is marvelously done because there is just enough clarity to see the section from end to end.

Exploring a colorful ocean.

Sound – Bubbly Domain

There is pollution, but there is also restoration. Like the graphics, Loddlenaut’s soundtrack perfectly matches its tone. Overall, it has soft synth vibes with strings, woodwinds, and percussion. The tone of those sounds, however, will change according to the cleanliness of the area you find yourself in. Each area has a “Polluted”, “Recovering”, and “Clean” version for their background music. Each version getting lighter and happier until you feel completely at ease in the ocean environment you restored.

You can feed loddles interesting ocean fruit.