Dumb Ways To Build is the latest entry in the Dumb Ways To Die series, which is actually a pretty bizarre marketing campaign. Originally a public awareness campaign to inform people about railroad safety, Dumb Ways to Die gained popularity due to its catchy song and music video, which featured creatures known as Beans as they, well, died in dumb ways. Eventually, a series of mobile games was released based on the campaign in 2013, and now 13 years later, Dumb Ways To Build has joined the lineup.
Unlike the minigames before it, Dumb Ways To Build is a first-person, co-op, physics-based party game that allows a group of four players to create their own Bean characters and then attempt to work together to accomplish goals. In addition to the main objectives, Beans can die in dozens of creative ways, with some mimicking the classic song, which can lead to some great laugh-out-loud moments along the way.
For this review, we were provided multiple review keys so we could get the full experience, and I also enlisted the help of my friend Billy, who previously collaborated with us on past reviews such as Green Hell VR. We really appreciate the developers passing along the extra copies, because quite frankly, this is a title you should consider if you have friends to play with. While there is a solo play option, we cannot recommend using it unless you have absolutely no choice. This is a team-based game, and most of the fun comes from who you are playing with.
Dumb Ways to Work Together:
Dumb Ways To Build begins with players being thrown into a small hub area where they can experiment with different tools and the world's physics. Picking up a fork and shoving it into a toaster will kill you instantly, using your nailgun to shoot objects will pin them to the walls or floors, and, of course, you can pick up and throw just about everything you can get your hands on—including your friends. These are the core basics of the entire game, and mastering these skills is required if you want to have any hope of completing your objectives. Items like hammers can be used to break objects that are pinned down, a plunger gun lets you pull objects toward you from afar, and a limited-use grappling hook will pull you onto faraway objects or ledges instead. There are also nailgun customization items, like the banana, and other little upgrades to be found and used, but all of them do in fact need to be "found." While this hub lets you play around and get used to things, the stages themselves do not simply hand them over.
Once acclimated to the general gameplay, players can jump right into the first mission, which is a giant tower. The goal here is to make your way through the city section and then climb to the tower's peak to install a battery. How do you get there, and how do you install the battery? That's up to you to figure out.
Along the way, countless objects can be found, and players will need to decide the best way to use them. One player can pick up and hold a plank of wood in front of the starting wall while a second player uses their nailgun to pin it to the wall, allowing the others to jump up and make it to the other side without doing a thing. Conversely, someone could just throw their friends over the wall, then kill themselves to put them into a balloon state—which other players can then grab ahold of and use CPU to revive them. Both options are possible among many others. While death can be used to get around obstacles, failing to retrieve a player in a balloon before it pops will result in the loss of a life (from a shared pool) and will drop them off at the last port-a-potty checkpoint instead.
When it comes to the objects and reaching your goal, creativity is key. You have to make do with what you can find, and sometimes that means nailing a table to a tightrope for extra support and then using the chairs to create multiple platforms to cross a gap. Or maybe you need to throw mattresses or other bouncy items below a particularly challenging ledge, just so you have something soft to land on when you inevitably fall. There is a lot to consider, and if you run out of objects to use, you'll need to resort to a Plan B instead, or maybe even a Plan Z. In one instance during our own playtime, we ran out of materials while climbing the tower itself and had to begin ripping up everything we could find, simply throwing the pieces up to the team building the platforms. We didn't need access to the lower areas anymore, so we repurposed our old builds. Maybe there was a better way to handle it, but at that moment, we just did the first thing that came to mind. And that's where the replayability comes in.
Multiple Areas and Challenges:
While every stage in Dumb Ways To Build has multiple secret challenges to complete, actually doing them all will require a lot of teamwork and developing more effective ways to build. Speedrun challenges especially ask you to be perfect, so every item and nail used becomes critical, and one slip-up can cost you the achievement. Having more players can make it easier, but that's also assuming everyone can handle their own job and clearly communicate with the team. Fail to do so, and you're not getting far, period.
Sadly, at the time of this review, there are a limited number of areas in the game, but thankfully, each one is unique. Without ruining the latter stage, the second is the opposite of the first and actually requires you to find a way down rather than up. There is a twist at the end that will make you reconsider your actions during the initial playthrough, but that's all part of the learning experience. It is nice to see the game changing things up between areas, but hopefully, the title continues to be updated throughout the years to expand upon them even further. Eventually, it will reach a point where players get bored of doing the same things over and over again, even if they play with different sets of friends.
Don't Work Alone:
The only true downside to the multiplayer in Dumb Ways To Build is the fact that there is no matchmaking. You either have friends to play with, or you're playing solo. Discord groups will be another way to find others to play with, but there's no way in-game to match with random players. For a game like this, that might be for the best, but that type of craziness could've been a lot of fun as well.
For those who are unable to join up with others, there is the option to play solo, but we cannot recommend it.
The lack of at least a second player is "fixed" by allowing players to freeze objects in the air for a few seconds and then move into position to nailgun them to the wall or other objects. You do not have a lot of time to do this, and it can be easy to mess up and nail the object to the wrong thing if you are not careful, which leads to a lot of headaches. Sadly, that sums up the entire experience: where multiplayer mistakes lead to laughs, going solo simply leads to frustration. Your actions are also greatly limited by not being able to throw or pass objects to others, and dying takes you straight to the checkpoints without giving you a balloon. So, while it is possible to complete the content on your own, there are plenty of strategies that become impossible, requiring alternative measures to be deployed instead. If anything, it provides a unique challenge for those who have already played the main multiplayer mode to death, but newcomers might be turned off from the game as a result.
Should you play it?
Dumb Ways To Build is a great game to play with friends. The levels require creativity to achieve your goals, and your progress is directly tied to how well you can work with others. Of course, causing chaos and going against the team can be entertaining as well, but the dumb mistakes and natural slip-ups along the way lead to even more hilarious outcomes than the ones you cause on purpose. While there are multiple unique stages and challenges to work through with your friends, not everyone will want to come back just for those secondary objectives once an area is cleared. Its short runtime is the game's greatest flaw at launch, but hopefully, it continues to see support over time.
Besides the game's limited selection of areas, the lack of built-in matchmaking and a lackluster single-player mode hold it back as well. While it is possible to beat the game on your own, your options are limited, and the challenge feels a lot more annoying than rewarding. This is a game that is at its best when played with a good group of friends, and without them, there is very little reason to dive in. But that is exactly the type of game Dumb Ways To Build advertises itself to be, and having a single-player mode to begin with really is just a bonus.
Overall, Dumb Ways To Build is a fun little title and a great way to kill time with friends. Chaos will surely ensue, and you'll have plenty of laughs along the way, but solo players will be left in the dark. It is easy to recommend to those who have others to play with, but everyone else might want to pass on this one.
VERDICT: Recommended
Reviewed on PC
Review Copy was Provided
Available On: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC
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