Untitled Goose Game
PlayStation 4
Before Playing:
I've been aware of this game for several years now. I always thought it looked interesting, but at the same time, I heard that it was really short. Like: you can beat it in one sitting short. Still, I was intrigued by the game and made a point to play it someday if I ever had the opportunity.
Well, that day finally came. I was browsing through a list of child friendly games to play on PlayStation Plus, when I came across this title. I've been trying to get my 5 year old son into gaming for a long time now, and he's rejected nearly everything I've put in front of him. I figured I'd give this game a try. It looked relatively simple and stress free. Plus, I thought the idea of a "naughty goose" would appeal to him.
So I downloaded it, fired it up, and showed it to him. Immediately, he was intrigued and extremely "into" watching me play the game. It wasn't long before I handed him the controller and told him to have at it.
And it was a success. He LOVED this game. I finally found a video game he was interested in. According to my trophy information, I started playing this game approximately ten days ago. He's played the game virtually every day since I downloaded the game. Sometimes, he spends hours at a time playing it. While it may not be a good idea to let your kid play games all day, I could see that it gave him something unique and special to focus on. I've never seen him this deeply invested in something. Plus, his behavior both at home and at school has improved since playing this game. I've noticed his hand eye coordination improving, too. It takes a lot of skill to use the controller to manipulate the goose and drag stuff around the world of the game. See, video games aren't all bad, despite what my parents seemed to believe when I was a kid.
It's been his big introduction to video games, and it has finally gotten him interested in playing them. Since starting this game, he's also sunk some time into the Bluey game (which I tried to show him a few months ago and he didn't care about it). He's beaten that game twice now. He also been spending a lot of time with the Ice Age game for PS4, which he has also beaten.
But enough of this. Let's talk about the game.
Story:
This game doesn't have much of a story. You play as a goose, who wakes up in the bushes after taking a snooze. You walk into a nearby area where there is a man tending his garden. A checklist appears of things that you must do before you can open up the next area. The checklist includes things like "steal the gardener's keys" or "throw the rake in the water." Once you complete all the tasks, you move onto the next area, with its own unique check list. There is no explanation of why you need to do these things, or who is assigning you these lists. You're just doing them because you're a goose that likes to cause trouble.
So yeah. The game does not have much of a story at all. It's just moving from area to area and completing these tasks. There are no cutscenes. No story sequences. Nada. I supposed you can make up names and back stories for the characters in the game. The characters and their personalities are a massive part of the game. The farmer, the nerdy kid, the shop keeper, the bickering neighbors, the doorman at the restaurant, etc. Even though the game has no plot or story sequences, you can't say it doesn't tell a story by painting a small portrait of this little village and its citizens, and the goose that is tormenting them.
Gameplay:
This game is very easy to pick up and play. If my five year old can do it, anyone can. The game takes place from an isometric view. It is a full 3D environment. You use the left stick to move your goose. There's a run button. A button to quack. A button to flap your wings. A button to duck your head to the ground. Standard goose things. You can grab things with your beak with the circle button. You know an item can be grabbed if some squiggly white lines appear above it when you are nearby. This is mainly what you are going to be doing in this game: grabbing things.
Right off the bat, you are going to notice the check list of things to do. One of the things is "get the farmer wet." You have many ways of doing this. One of these ways is by grabbing and twisting the sprinkler nozzle when he's nearby. This gets him drenched, and sends him running towards the sprinkler nozzle to shut it off. This is probably how most people get access to his garden. He flings the gate open to run out, and then he never closes it again. So now you can walk in. Another way to get him wet is to take something from his garden and drag it into the water. He'll chase after you to get it back. This gets him wet, and will check the item off your list if you didn't already get him wet with the sprinkler.
This game is all about having fun and causing trouble. You have two ways of doing things: working on the check list or just messing around and seeing how the various characters react to your antics. Let's say you want to work on the check list. In the first area, you can start grabbing various items on a list and dragging them back to a picnic area to complete a task off your check list. Drag the rake back to the river and drop it in so you can cross another item off your check list. You can sneak up to the farmer when he is bent over tending the garden, and you can take his keys. Another item off the list.
If you aren't interested in completing the list, just cause chaos and see what happens. Cause some havoc in the garden, ripping up carrots and pumpkins and flowers. You can pull his gardening equipment all over the place and make him pick it up. You can turn on his sprinkler. You can lock him out of the garden. You can make him fall down and snatch the hat right off his head. There is so much opportunity for chaos. And it is like that in all the areas of the game. And the good thing about the game is that you can't "lose" or "die." The worst the NPCs will do is chase you off for a few seconds. Then they go back to business as usual.
I had a really fun time playing through this game. I did not expect to like it as much as I did. My kid really liked it too. He would laugh hysterically and bounce up and down watching me play. And it wasn't long before he picked up the controller and dipped his toes into the waters of video gaming himself. Very quickly, he understood the game mechanics and the controls. Like I said, if he can pick this game up and play it, anyone can.
If I had to make any kind of criticism, it would be that the game is short. It took us a few days to beat it, but that was because we were taking our time and not playing super seriously. If I had sat down and dedicated myself to beating it, I could have done it in one or two sittings. My other criticism is that some of the tasks are really obscure to figure out. There were a few I had to look up online, like how to get on TV, or how to put on the red bowtie. I mean, the answers seem easy in retrospect, but I remember looking around for a super long time and not being able to figure them out.
The main thing I'd like to praise about the game: the physics. This may sound silly, but they really nailed the physics of this game world. When you drag heavy objects, it feels real. When you drop things and they fall to the ground, it feels real. When you walk across uneven surfaces, it feels real. It's just so fun to pick things up and walk around and play with them. You can just ignore the check lists and normal game progression and spend hours dicking around. That's a giant part of what made this such a great introduction to video games for my five year old.
Last but not least, I'd like to praise the multiplayer option. You can have two players playing simultaneously, each one as a different goose. It's still the exact same game, but now you have two geese on the screen instead of one. The two player mode really put the game over the top for me. Watching each other play is fun, but my son and I being able to play with each other at the exact same time was amazing. We spent so many hours playing this multiplayer version. Walking around, quacking at people, causing chaos in general. My kid's favorite mischievous activity is using the loud bell to scare the man reading the newspaper. He thinks it is so hilarious. He also likes to mess with the lady in the restaurant. Stealing items, hiding under the tables, breaking glasses, turning on the water faucet, uncorking the barrel, making her chase him all over the place.
After completing the game, my son's main goal shifted to dragging every item in the game and putting it under the bridge leading to the mini village. Why? Because he liked all the question marks.
And that's one of the many reasons this game is so good. You don't have to be an expert gamer. You don't have to focus on beating the game. You can focus on anything you want. Causing chaos, rearranging all the items, messing with the NPCs, anything. There are so many different ways to have fun in this game, and none of them are wrong.
Graphics:
This game has a very simplistic look to it. And that's a good thing. I have a feeling this game is going to age very well. It has that timeless look and feel to it. It is very minimalist. Not much "fine detail" put into things. The characters have no outstanding facial features, for example. It feels almost cell-shaded like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (but not quite as good looking). The animation is smooth and natural. Small things like walking through the tall grass or cruising along the top of the water really makes you feel like a part of the game's world. The village itself has a very quaint and welcoming feel to it.
You don't really play a game like this to be blown away by its graphics, but I have to say that the minimalist look and feel of the game really suits it well. Can you imagine if they tried to make this game realistic and you were controlling a CGI goose the whole time? And the villagers looked like Shenmue characters? It would probably look terrifying. This type of graphical style will hold charm forever.
Sound:
The game's sound design is minimalist as well. And it is perfect. Most of the time you play through the game in silence. Occasionally you will hear some light and whimsical music playing as you get up to no good. The characters don't talk. All their actions are either pantomimed or portrayed through speech bubbles above their head that contain only images and not words.
The sound effects are good, too. Gotta love the quacking, particularly when you are playing with two players. The second goose has a quack that sounds like he's saying "beck!" and my kid and I like to imitate the noise when we are playing. Beck, beck, beck! There's not really much else to say here, so we'll move on.
Overall:
What a pleasant surprise this was. I had a really great time with this game. And it wasn't just because it was a blast watching my son finally become invested in a game after years of trying. I think I would have liked this even if he didn't. But of course, him liking it so much and wanting to play it with me all the time just puts the icing on the cake.
If the game even sounds remotely interesting to you, you should check it out. Particularly if you have a young child. It was my son's perfect introduction to gaming, in addition to being a damn fine game on top of that.
THE GRADE:
A
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