I must begin by saying that if no one tried anything new, video gaming as a hobby would likely not exist.
That said, just because something hasn’t been done before does not mean it should be done, and in the case of Stuffed, it’s very clear why a low-budget clone of Call of Duty zombies with teddy bears and garden gnomes had not been attempted before, and that’s because there just isn’t a market for it.
While the visuals are decent for an indie title, the animations are poor quality, and the map design is horrendous, which is a pity as the concept is rather fun. I could see Stuffed being a great local co-op game if the developers supported local co-op, which they do not.
Image credit Stuffed - Published and developed by Waving Bear Studio.
To me, this is the biggest problem with Stuffed and its developers. The single thing that could have made Stuffed worth playing (local co-op) is not supported, with players instead being required to either play solo (offline) or attempt to find others to play with online, which is unfortunately near impossible, considering the global player base appears to be 50 players or less, with daily peaks on Steam of around ten players.
Even if we ignore Stuffed’s lacklustre visuals, abysmal map design, and minuscule player base, there is no reason to play It, as its gunplay is not that good, and moment-to-moment gameplay is uninspiring.
That being said, weapon design is great; I love how they have created familiar-looking weapons from toys and household items. However, the most important thing about gunplay is how it feels, and I can only describe Stuffed’s gunplay as lacklustre at best.
Image credit Stuffed - Published and developed by Waving Bear Studio.
Thankfully, Stuffed is not entirely without redemptive value; there are many cosmetic items for players to collect just by playing the game, and many are very cute.
However, that being said, due to the lack of local co-op, I cannot imagine many players will have the motivation to unlock them, considering the game is balanced around a squad of players and the unavoidable fact that Stuffed is ultimately, it is a worse version of much better games.
Image credit Stuffed - Published and developed by Waving Bear Studio.
Stuffed is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Waving Bear Studio, it was released on 9 December 2021 and retails for $12.99.
Stuffed is available on the following platforms: PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
As of September 2024, around 50 people play Stuffed on a fairly regular basis.
Stuffed is essentially dead, and finding full lobbies in a reasonable amount of time is difficult in well-populated regions, and next to impossible in less populated regions.
Stuffed supports:
Stuffed offers the following matchmaking options:
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Stuffed is rated PEGI 7+ and contains:
While I commend the developers for making a family-friendly game, Stuffed just feels like a cheap and nasty copy of better games.
Honestly, I am not sure who they are trying to market the game to; while they have copied many mechanics from Call of Duty zombies and similar games, the target demographic for those games is rarely the same as for games where everyone plays as a teddybear and fights garden gnomes with “5-minute craft-esque” weapons across some of the worst maps I have ever had the misfortune to play.
Overall, Stuffed feels like a game made to appeal to a market that doesn’t exist, and considering that its daily peak on PC is less than ten players, that feeling isn’t very far from the truth.
