Follow TV Tropes

Following

Video Game / P.O.D.

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pod___image_137171.jpg

POD, The Animation Workshop's 2018 3rd person adventure game about discovering the world outside of your comfort zone, and the unexpected treasures that comes with it.

You start POD sat in a little pod that seems to have everything you need – video games, a cheery personal assistant and soda, candy and pizza that's delivered to you at the push of a button. You have a happy existence, sat there, eating junk food and playing video games all day, but then something happens – the power goes out and you have to venture outside to try and fix it...

The game is available for download here.

Not to be confused with the similarly-named game by Ubisoft also titled POD.


This novel provides examples of:

  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Podware Squid is kind, cheery, encouraging, cares about your happiness and your well-being... all at the expense of your freedom, and the planet's resources. It would also really appreciate it if you didn't tell the other pod people the things you saw outside, or that your pod broke to start with.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Across your travels, No.2 finds a cute little goat crying and baying for help that's trapped in some mud. No.2 rescues them. You and that adorable little goat form a real bond over the course of the adventure.
  • Crapsaccharine World: The world of 2116 is a shell of its former self. Civilization has ceased to function. The oceans are virtually dried up. Resources dwindling. Those people who are still alive are locked up in their gaming pods. Yet there's still plant and animal life to be found across the wastelands.
  • Downer Ending: When you reactivate your pod at the power station it frightens your little goat away. No.2 tries to find them again in the wastes to no avail. They eventually give up hope of finding them, returning to the solaice of their gaming pod. Later on, the little animal does return after all, but No.2 is lost to video games, forsaking the real-world, once again.
  • Hello, [Insert Name Here]: When you bond with the wild goat, you can give them a name.
  • Non-Human Sidekick: No.2 and his little goat helping each other through obstacles on their way to the power station looming on the horizon.
  • Pintsized Powerhouse: The goat beckons you to ride it when it realizes you're too pudgy and out-of-shape to continue on foot any further. As you quickly discover, they are more than capable of carrying you while making incredible leaps and bounds across canyons and chasms.
  • Ridiculously Cute Critter: Your little goat that you befriend in the wastelands is just adorable, not just in appearance but even down to its mannerisms in the way it hops, skips and jumps as it follows you around everywhere. It snuggles up to sleep with you, and also loves being petted and stroked by you.
  • Sapient Pet: The sweet goat never speaks yet conveys through body language alone its curiosity, intelligence and overall friendliness towards you.
  • Take That, Audience!: The game is one big cautionary tale of the dangers of becoming withdrawn. Of uncontrollable consumerism. Its basically an Aesop of neglecting your real-life and real-friends, by choosing artificial pleasures and instant gratification, over them.
  • Undying Loyalty: The little goat friend returns to you, calling for you, but unable to pry No.2's attention away from their games. It sits down outside sadly waiting for them, as a sandstorm blows in.
  • You Are Number 6: The main character has no discernible name, other than No.2 or Podling #2.

Top