{"id":19757,"date":"2020-01-01T00:01:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-01T00:01:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=19757"},"modified":"2019-12-19T04:51:25","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T04:51:25","slug":"tools-up-ps4-switch-xbox-one-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/01\/tools-up-ps4-switch-xbox-one-pc\/","title":{"rendered":"Tools Up! (PS4, Switch, Xbox One, PC)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Tools Up! is a co-op couch multiplayer game where you must use teamwork to perform home renovations.\u00a0 Paint walls, carpet floors, and clean up before the strict time limit expires.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like Overcooked<\/strong><\/a>, except with construction instead of cooking.\u00a0 It\u2019s available to download on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.\u00a0 Speaking of the review, I\u2019ve got a treat for you today.\u00a0 The folks who played this game for this review all have experience with home renovation.\u00a0 First, there\u2019s me.\u00a0 While I write game reviews on the side, my full time job is working as a sales associate at a major hardware store chain.\u00a0 I don\u2019t do any D.I.Y. projects myself, but I certainly know my way around a hardware store.\u00a0 But my Player Two for this review was my stepfather Jamie, who used to do home renovation projects before he started driving a truck again.\u00a0 So with our combined experience, we should be able to ace this game, right?\u00a0 Well, you\u2019ll just have to find out by reading this review!<\/p>\n

Play control is seemingly easy.\u00a0 Run around with the control stick and press the X button to pick up and put down objects.\u00a0 The circle button makes you throw things.\u00a0 And the square button will perform an action depending on what object you are near.\u00a0 If you are close to debris and it\u2019s highlighted, you\u2019ll pick up the debris.\u00a0 Then a meter above your head will tell you that your hands are full of garbage and you must find a recycling can or dumpster to unload it so you can do actions again.\u00a0 This works with other items, too.\u00a0 Find a paint can and hold down the square button to pick up paint, and go to a highlighted wall to paint it.\u00a0 Same goes with carpeting and tile, but sometimes you must strip the floors or walls, like how you handle garbage, before you can paint or carpet.\u00a0 Mishaps will occur as you tip over paint buckets, break down doors, move furniture, and more!<\/p>\n

The flow of the game goes something like this.\u00a0 You\u2019ll view a few rooms from a top down perspective.\u00a0 Usually you\u2019ll have to clean up some debris first, and then find a blueprint.\u00a0 Pick up the blueprint and read it to find out which walls and floors need to be redecorated. \u00a0Sometimes a delivery man will bring the necessary equipment for you to finish a level, and you must pick it up from him before he leaves. \u00a0Then when you are done, you must take all your tools and trash out of the house to clean up.\u00a0 If you can do all of that before the time expires, you\u2019ll finish with all three stars.\u00a0 Anything less and you\u2019ll get only one or two stars.\u00a0 The more stars you collect, the more playable characters you can unlock.\u00a0 There are two modes of play.\u00a0 Campaign is the main mode where you complete levels in a high rise building.\u00a0 And Party Mode takes select levels from the campaign mode for you to beat as fast as possible to get stars.<\/p>\n

Playing the game by myself, I would be lucky to finish a level with only one star.\u00a0 But this is supposed to be a multiplayer game, so did I fare better with help from my stepfather Jamie?\u00a0 Well, not really.\u00a0 In fact we did even worse.\u00a0 We\u2019d end up getting in each other\u2019s way, and both Jamie and I had a rough time wrestling with the seemingly \u201ceasy\u201d controls and unclear goals and instructions.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been playing games for nearly 40 years and reviewing them for over 20, and I still had to restart every level at least twice to figure out what to do.\u00a0 This game really needed some interactive instructions to show you what needed to be done.<\/p>\n

Case in point.\u00a0 In one level there was a square container with a picture of a red bucket on it.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what it was, but Jamie said it was a bucket of grout (Hey, I work in the plumbing department, not flooring).\u00a0 During one of the loading screens, there was a picture cue that showed someone pouring a container of grout into a bucket and then laying down floors.\u00a0 But we couldn\u2019t figure out how that correlated to how it was used in the game.\u00a0 Did you have to put it in the trash bucket or would another one be delivered?\u00a0 Another time we got a long box that Jamie said was full of floor tiles, but when we went to install them, it had a big red X on the floor and we couldn\u2019t walk on it.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 We don\u2019t know, the time ran out and we couldn\u2019t beat the level.\u00a0 If two guys with some experience in home repair couldn\u2019t figure this game out, I can\u2019t imagine how inexperienced players could do it.\u00a0 And could you fathom doing this with FOUR players?<\/p>\n

It’s a shame, too, because I really liked the concept of the game, Jamie liked tearing things down, and the graphics reminded me of the \u201cMoney for Nothing\u201d music video from the 80s.\u00a0 But unclear goals, inconsistent controls, and piss poor instructions really ruined the game for me.\u00a0 You can\u2019t even rotate the camera unless you are holding the blueprint, so you might miss whole sections of walls or floors that need TLC.\u00a0 This game really could\u2019ve used some interactive tutorials.\u00a0 If any game developers are reading this, please, please, please put GOOD instructions in your games, especially if it\u2019s download only.\u00a0 This is why I really miss the days of physical copies of games and instruction manuals.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can slip and fall on debris and spilled paint, and can destroy property, but that\u2019s as violent as it gets.\u00a0 Reading skill isn\u2019t needed to play, but younger gamers may get frustrated at the high difficulty and unclear goals.\u00a0 Tools Up! is rated E for Everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tools Up! is a co-op couch multiplayer game where you must use teamwork to perform home renovations.\u00a0 Paint walls, carpet floors, and clean up before the strict time limit expires.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like Overcooked, except with construction instead of cooking.\u00a0 It\u2019s available to download on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19757"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19759,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19757\/revisions\/19759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}