30 Birds made me reflect on video games as of late. When wading through the waves of high-quality, visually stunning games that have come out over the last few years, it can be easy to take for granted the fact that we live in a golden age of video games. Small teams from around the world can breathe life into weird ideas in experimental ways with tools that can now keep up with our loftiest dreams.
This Thanksgiving, I sacrifice my turkey to 30 Birds, a wild menagerie of artistic styles, literary influences, gameplay mechanics, and pure imagination, all brought to life in what feels like a living gouache painting. Is it perfect? Nope, but I did get lost in 30 Birds‘ beautifully eclectic world and was hopelessly charmed by its peculiar story.
In 30 Birds players don the questionably fashionable cape of Zig, a young woman journeying to Lantern City to witness the awakening of Simurgh, a bird goddess. However, the festival of awakening takes a dark turn when Simurgh is kidnapped by an evil scientist. Fortunately, Zig is a skilled detective and takes on the case. To rescue Simurgh, Zig must gather 30 of Lantern City’s weirdest birds to perform a magical ritual capable of thwarting the scientist’s dastardly plans.
“…I did get lost in 30 Birds‘ beautifully eclectic world and was hopelessly charmed by its peculiar story.”
It’s a fast-paced, quirky story that weaves its world from a tapestry of legends and cultures. The titular 30 Birds draw inspiration from the 12th-century Sufi poem The Conference of the Birds, which tells the tale of a flock of disparate birds embarking on an epic journey to find their perfect ruler, only to discover it within their own reflection. The poem never mentioned anything about the birds being talk radio hosts, nude models, lawyers, gurus, or ghosts, but, thankfully, 30 Birds rectifies this in its expanded universe.
The story covers a wide array of themes and ideas through a collection of eccentric characters but never dwells on any one of them for very long. The whiplash pace at which characters are introduced and moved on from was jarring at first, but the consistent rhythm of oddball story beats comes together as a dream-like stream of consciousness.
The isometric landscapes of Lantern City draw inspiration from Persian miniatures, an artistic tradition known for its use of vivid colours and strong lines, reimagined here with a modern illustrative flair. The city is explored through a series of 2D planes stitched together across the surface of 3D lanterns. As Zig reaches the edge of an area, the lantern rotates, allowing her to seamlessly transition to a new section of the map—a system reminiscent of 2012’s Fez.
The character designs are both incredible and diverse. Although more painterly and impressionistic, some would feel right at home in a Pen Ward cartoon while others can fall well into Cubist territory. Visually, 30 Birds dives deeply into various eras and styles of art history, emerging as something uniquely captivating and compelling.
“Visually, 30 Birds dives deeply into various eras and styles of art history, emerging as something uniquely captivating and compelling.”
Usually, when a game struggles to commit to a style or theme, the result is often muddy and unfocused. Yet somehow, 30 Birds delivers a comedic detective story framed by an ancient Sufi poem, infused with an irreverent, cartoonish sensibility, and still manages to stick the landing—at least in its framing.
Gameplay is more of a mixed bag. 30 Birds is primarily a narrative adventure, so most quests are fairly straightforward, but some become frustrating due to vague instructions. There’s a variety of different puzzle types, but, with the exception of a recurring tile-smashing game, most are one-offs that don’t always feel intuitive or fully realized enough to be genuinely fun. On a few occasions, I had to abandon problem-solving altogether and resort to button mashing—which, surprisingly, worked just fine.
I adored 30 Birds. Every frame of Lantern City’s vibrant and eclectic landscape was a joy to behold, and the hypnotic beats of the reggae soundtrack are still thumping away in my head. The story is truly unconventional—wonderfully weird, funny, and at times, surprisingly moving. While the gameplay could have been more focused, the occasional lack of clarity in its weaker moments never detracted from an overall excellent experience.
