Untitled Goose Gameis an action-puzzle game developed by House House and published by Panic. It featuressandbox-style gameplay where you play as ahonking goosewho loves causingmischief. Your mission: waddle around a placid British village and ruin everyone’s day. It is an utterly inane game, devoid of even the slightest trace of story. However, it is veryaddictingandfun.
The canvas of gaming is very broad. You have the big-budgeted triple-A franchises and the more intimate titles from indie directors. And then, somewhere far from the spectrum, there are games like the Untitled Goose Game. It is astory-less gamewith aridiculous conceptthat caters to gamers who are needing a brief respite from reality and are looking for a bit ofbrainless fun.
However, that does not say that the game is completely brain-dead. In fact, the developers created a game that is bothmindless and difficult. At its core, Untitled Goose Game is apuzzlegame. You will play the villain—the goose— and must control it to burst chaotically into the humdrum life of the villagers.
The game starts with youpesteringan innocent gardener as he tends to his plants. Your missions will be to steal his vegetables, throw his tools into the pond, trick the poor man into hammering his thumb, and other hilarious hijinks. From there, you will be given newlists of mischiefthat you need to do as you gradually unlock areas in the village. You only need tohit pauseto keep track of the missions.
All the goose’s missions are geared towards ruining the villagers’ day. But that’s not to say that you will spend all your playing time waddling around the town and honking on innocent people. Your progress relies onoutsmartingthose humans. Most missions havemultiple solutions. And though no mission will stump you for hours, there is adepth tothe game and a sense of satisfaction in working out what to do.
You can also opt to put atime limitto your missions to bring more challenges. By doing so, the game will require you to do the planning and, sometimes, changing tactics. The game that is typically relaxed will become a manic speed oftest and improvisation.
Perhaps one of the reasons behind Untitled Goose Game’s continuous success is itssimplicity. Its controls are nice and simple, and it never gets in the way of your missions. You only have tohold one buttonto run, one button to lean down, another one to flap your wings, and one to grab or drop things. As mentioned, you only need to hit the pause menu to see your missions.
There isno handbookfor the game andno tutorial mode you can do anytime. But that’s okay, as the mission menu contains the controls menu. There are really no complicated game mechanics that you need to worry about, either. You are not trying to gain abilities or unlock combos. When you lose, no one dies. At its purest, Untitled Goose Game only forces you tojust go as wild as a goose.
All in all, Untitled Goose Game is the perfect game to play if you are looking for asimple yet fungame. Though story-less, it maintains the level of entertainment throughout the playtime. Sure, the small village gets repetitive for a while, and it iscompletely a singularly small map, but it doesn’t matter. In the end, it lives up to its promise of providing gamers withmindless funand you can keep challenging yourself with self-made missions using the numerous in-game objects you can steal.
