The Holy Gosh Darn is one of the rarest things in gaming – an actually funny game. That it is also a lot of fun to play, with one of the best uses of time-loops that I’ve played, only adds to the glorious splendor of Perfectly Paranormal’s third title in this ongoing – yet not directly related – series after Manual Samuel and Helheim Hassle – and it’s their best work yet.
Much like the prior titles, religion features (and is torn to pieces) heavily. We play as angel Cassiel of Celerity, who we find hanging out at the gates of Heaven playing a guessing game with Puriel of Purity on which dog is next up from Earth. It turns out they haven’t had much else to do for the last several thousand years, and this game is getting a tad old. After a bit of small talk Puriel gets a warning on her Soul Perificator that an influx of Phantoms are coming – and once they reach the gates, well, Heaven explodes and existence is ended.

Azriel – the returning hilarious Death – is to blame, and asks for Cassiel’s help in undoing his ‘tiny’ mistake. We do this by accepting a watch that can rewind time by 6 hours, and so must do so repeatedly in order to solve various puzzles and save Heaven.
The Holy Gosh Darn plays in a similar fashion to a point and click title, albeit we have full control of Cassiel’s movement. We traverse Heaven (and eventually other locales) in order to find key items, then rewind time with our new knowledge and try to solve the same puzzles quicker in order to progress. For example, we might need to know a secret about a character that they will only tell us as Heaven explodes, but once we learn it we can simply say it to them earlier to prove we’re from the future, thereby getting their help much sooner.
It’s an incredibly simple but effective way of puzzle solving, only enhanced by Cassiel actively remembering and acknowledging new info in subsequent time loops. As we only have 6 hours in game (about 20 minutes IRL) to make progress, we must determine when to listen to conversations, when to tell them to hurry it along, or when to be flat out rude to stop a chat before it even starts. It’s not as binary as this might seem though, as tell someone to shut or hurry up at the wrong points and they will stop talking to us. Should this happen, it’s a rewind time affair and try again, but even here Cassiel will often remember the conversations and be more light with her words.

One early example is janitor – and previous Guardian of the Throne – BEC. He has vital info early on, but once we learn it we can (and must) tell him to shut up as we run past him at the start of every loop. Initially we felt bad, but after a few goes it became a small joy to tell him to shut it as we sprinted out the door behind him. Later characters get similar treatment, and by the time we’re skipping a game of Florble to get cash to buy a phone to give to…well, that’s enough to hopefully get the gist across.
It can feel a bit gutting at times to skip to conversations though as the writing and performances here are excellent. PP make brilliant use of in-jokes from the previous titles as well as brand new gags, and there’s a very light-hearted tone to the whole affair even as some of the more vulgar stuff starts coming out. If you like the comedy of South Park or Kevin Smith’s work (Mallrats, Dogma etc) then you’ll be right at home here.
The Holy Gosh Darn is an incredibly clever title, and it never failed to impress me with its use of the time loop, from the scenarios we find ourselves in to the witty commentary and ingenious puzzles the mechanic affords. What could have devolved into over-complicated hassles remains at just the right difficulty level, with restarts available at any point in time to avoid us butting heads with a solution.
Conclusion
The Holy Gosh Darn has utterly won me over with an excellent time loop mechanic paired with an engaging, humorous story and clever puzzles. It’s been an absolute joy to play, and comes recommended as one of my favourite games this year.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
Badger Commander
This is on the list of games to play now. Goddamnit
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