Gamers like myself will spend hundreds, if not thousands, of hours a year playing video games, and while most of that will likely to forgotten to the sands of time, every now and again, a game will appear that will make a lasting impression. And that’s exactly what Big Walk has done.
House House, the makers of Big Walk and the team behind Untitled Goose Game, have outdone themselves with their latest creation, which perfectly captures the modern trend of ‘friendslop’ titles that provide a huge amount of fun with friends, but for a title like Big Walk, that term purely feels insulting.
Not since Astro Bot in 2024 have I played a game that has made so much of an impression on me, and the hours I’ve put into completing Big Walk with a friend have not only provided endless entertainment, but also further solidified that friendship, even if, at times, my co-op partner was left incredibly frustrated by my brainless moments or when I decided to punt a key item off a cliff, purely because I could.
In the end, though, there was a huge amount of laughs, moments where we felt like geniuses for finally solving what we needed to do, and a lot of walking.
Perfectly Crafted Puzzles
The premise of Big Walk is simple. This is a multiplayer title, with a minimum of two players required, but as many as 12 slots available in a session. The more players you have, the higher the carnage increases, but there are certainly occasions where having more players benefits you.
Each puzzle provides a reward, which is required to unlock a new area, or a key piece of assistance, and will put you to the test using voice communication, visual clues, or anything else you can come up with to tell other players what they need to do.
This ranges from describing pictures so they can be placed in the correct order, mirroring poses without any voice communication, to harnessing your inner Celine Dion to perfectly recreate a tune so that the other players can select the right one.
Each puzzle feels unique, and while some are easy to comprehend on the face of it, things can quickly get messy, and you’ll never know when the game is about to throw a curveball at you.
One occasion that stands out is when I entered a room to see what we had to do, only to find the door slam shut behind me. I was stuck; there was soundproof glass preventing me from communicating with my co-op partner, and we quickly had to decipher a way to communicate and complete the puzzle, all without uttering a single word to each other.
The Voice of Reason
While some puzzles restrict voice communication, it remains a key part of the game, with proximity chat vital to get the full Big Walk experience. It is a challenge, however, as it’s easy to get lost, especially when the sun sets and you’re thrust into pitch darkness.
Making it even harder is the fact that nothing in the game is visibly named. Landmarks are identified by colors, but it’s down to you to decide exactly what you’ll refer to them as, and there’s not a quick and easy way to name each puzzle. So, it’s down to coming up with your own names.
At launch, the community will likely settle on an approach, and this is exactly what the developer intended. In early access, however, we didn’t have other players in the community to rely on, so instead, we settled into our own rhythm and created the references ourselves, calling each of the key pillars of the game ‘lighthouses,’ although none of them actually had the full resemblance of them.
Again, it’s all very intentional, and it boosts the immersion. These haphazard descriptions would make little to no sense for anyone else, but it worked for us, and we managed to get by.
A Marathon of Memories
Reaching the end of Big Walk was a bittersweet moment, in truth. There was a real sense of accomplishment for the hours we had put into the game, and the challenges we overcame as a result, but it also marked the end of something truly special.
While Big Walk does have replayability, especially if you vary the number of players, nothing will beat your first playthrough, and I’m incredibly envious of all the players who will get to experience the title for the first time at launch.
It truly is a marvel of the game, and any minor frustrations I had were clearly intentional. All in all, I have no complaints, and Big Walk goes down as an all-time great in my eyes.
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Big Walk
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