Carto

 Xbox One
Carto Image
Metascore
  1. First Review
  2. Second Review
  3. Third Review
  4. Fourth Review

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User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 15 Ratings

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  • Summary: Carto is a chill adventure game wrapped around a unique, world-shifting puzzle mechanic. Use this power to explore mysterious lands, help a quirky cast of new friends, and guide Carto on her journey home.

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. Game Informer
    Nov 12, 2020
    80
    Carto’s humorous cast and heartwarming tale about finding your way while bringing people together inject the game with heart. When the going got tough, the narrative always put a smile back on my face. Even with a few mismatched elements, Carto fits its pieces into a largely enjoyable whole.
  2. Xbox Tavern
    Nov 13, 2020
    71
    Carto is a great and cute puzzle game with charming characters and a slightly disturbing storyline, but it’s still a fun adventure none the less. The gameplay is great fun with the map manipulation to solve the puzzles and it is a nice change of pace if you need to relax with a game. I was definitely enjoying my journey with the game until I hit the game stopping bug. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the game into the desert section, but I will have to wait until the game is patched.
  3. TheXboxHub
    Nov 5, 2020
    70
    Carto on Xbox One is one for the younger gamer, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing at all. It has the right vibe and presentation of a children’s book coming to life, and the whole setup of using puzzle pieces to bring a map together makes for an intuitive and engaging gameplay mechanic. While the game world and exploration within is a bit on the simplistic side, the puzzle design is still effective in what it achieves, both in the game design and in driving a meaningful narrative.

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Nastix
    Mar 20, 2021
    9
    Fresh gameplay mechanics, very kind heartwarming stories, adorable art direction! Enjoyed immensely, want more!
  2. LordOsyrys
    Feb 25, 2021
    9
    A very interesting story and an excellent and unique game mechanic really make this game worth playing if you like puzzles. Some of them areA very interesting story and an excellent and unique game mechanic really make this game worth playing if you like puzzles. Some of them are pretty challenging, but most of them are rather simple to figure out, but they are quite engaging. The characters are very bright and colorful. If you are looking for a low-stress, unique puzzle game, then you won't find one better!… Expand
  4. Skurttish
    Dec 16, 2020
    8
    A cute, happy little game with an interesting mechanic that works and is very entertaining.

    The atmosphere of this game is like Animal    A cute, happy little game with an interesting mechanic that works and is very entertaining.

    The atmosphere of this game is like Animal Crossing in that there are no enemies and nothing stressful at all, no time limits, etc. Everyone in the story is most worried about being together and being friends. Some folks will find this really boring, but I didn’t mind it because I liked the puzzles.

    The base mechanic of the game works perfectly, and every level mixes things up a little bit. But this game could use a built-in hint system or a marker on the HUD that describes what your current goal is. There were points where I didn’t know what to do and didn’t know how to know what to do.

    The art was fine, I liked it but it didn’t blow me away. The music was good—I enjoyed it.

    The price, on Game Pass, was well worth it. Recommended.    … Expand
  5. Xbox_Alive
    Nov 14, 2020
    8
    Carto is a charming adventure game wrapped around a unique, world-altering puzzle mechanic based system.. You utilize this power to exploreCarto is a charming adventure game wrapped around a unique, world-altering puzzle mechanic based system.. You utilize this power to explore mysterious lands, help a quirky cast of characters, and guide Carto on her journey back to her family. It's this core mechanic that allows players to completely reshape the map that they traverse in order to discover new locations or track down items and characters that are key pieces to the msin story. Carto is fortunate enough to live in a picture perfect world from s glance it’s a place everyone would want to live in. Each region is warm and inviting, dotted with settlements of strangers with their own cultures, relationships, and problems to poke thru and involve yourself in. Carto is simply fun to play and worth playing so it does the core things we look for in a game really well. It’s well fun anf it values your time as a gamer and with Carto Humble kept the fun factor in mind and appears to never lose site of what they set out to accomplish. The price of admission is also on point so I defintely give my recommendation to carve some time out give it the time it deserves on your Xbox One.… Expand
  6. memus
    Sep 20, 2021
    5
    Disclaimer: I'm not a big fan of puzzle games, so take my score and review with a grain of salt.

    Pros: + The art direction is perfect in    Disclaimer: I'm not a big fan of puzzle games, so take my score and review with a grain of salt.

    Pros:
    + The art direction is perfect in its cuteness. Each chapter starts with a comic book-like panel and the further gameplay never struggles to achieve the same level of style, almost like a book for kids. You never see the seams of the tech behind it which is great.
    + The initial concept of readjusting the map to move is super smart. And devs play around with it to create different puzzles.

    Cons:
    - The puzzle themselves were on a simpler and frustrating side for me. Like the games tries to balance the usual point-and-click adventure inventory puzzles with map moving and it succeeds a lot of times. But then fails spectacularly. This problem was exacerbated by me not having patience (again, I'm not big fan of puzzles), but still it's there.
    - And I'm not a fan of the story and empty world here. If adventure game (like Machinarium) can keep me engaged, it does it with a mood and story I want to follow. In Carto the story is super simplistic, almost missing in a way. And characters are vague single-minded ideas at best. Which could be great for kids, but there is nothing for adults here. Don't expect any second layer as with Adventure Time, for example. So after the midpoint, I started to simply skip all dialogue.    … Expand