REVIEW: ‘Untitled Goose Game’: Live out your fantasy of being a goose
The most fun I’ve had with a puzzle game in a while
October 10, 2019
Arguably the most feared and despised avian creature in the western world, the modern goose has made a recent surprise appearance in a medium in which it has been historically underrepresented — video games.
Released on Sept. 20, the “Untitled Goose Game” has taken the internet by storm, being covered by a variety of popular YouTubers and video game websites alike.
The game takes place in a cozy English village, filled with people going about their lives gardening, running shops and hanging out at the local pub. You play as a goose who is hell-bent on ruining these people’s nice afternoon and causing as much mayhem as possible.
That’s it. That’s the whole game.
And while I have to say that the craze over this game might be a little overhyped, I still enjoyed a solid couple of hours coming up with solutions to the quests and honking at a small boy until he eventually locked himself in a phone booth.
At some point during my time of dragging rakes into lakes, smashing the vase of some poor lady and spraying an old man with a sprinkler, I just started laughing at the premise of the game. It is seriously so much fun to just be some asshole goose that has nothing better to do than make all these people upset.
The game just sort of grows on you as you try your best to stealthily disrupt these people’s lives until the point where you might even start feeling bad for the residents of this town; I really hadn’t realized how much I wanted to play as a goose in a video game until I had the option in front of me.
My only real complaint about the game is the price point.
At $20 (currently on sale for $15) I expected to get a bit more content out of it. There’s really only 3 sections to the game, with quests that are possible to blow through fairly easily if you have been paying attention to the patterns.
The development team does make up for this by providing an additional “to-do” list after you complete the game, but it doesn’t feel as rewarding as it would have been if the list had been previously included before beating the game.
Overall, “Untitled Goose Game” is definitely worth a playthrough for the sheer novelty of the premise alone, but I would probably wait until the price inevitably drops on the Epic Games store.