Untitled Goose Game
Year: 2019
Rating: E
Time Played: 2+ hours
The indie breakout hit of the year, Untitled Goose Game, has a lot going for it. The action-synched music, the visual aesthetic, and (most of all) the ability to play as a modern-age dinosaur. While most of the geese I’ve interacted with in my life have been of the Canadian variety, the controls and feel of this British goose are accurate enough for me to become lost in moments of hilarity at the hands of this foul waterfowl. However, for $20, I can’t recommend anyone pay that much for what amounts to a polished tech demo.
Despite all it has going for it, Untitled Goose Game is incredibly short. I was able to play through the four main areas in only a few hours, not bothering to complete the expanded list of tasks as most of them were minor variants of the things I had already done. Additionally, while the game seems open-world at a glance, I found my progress forcibly directed through the checkpoints that the game wanted me to follow. Perhaps the post-game is more open, but I would have liked it all to be accessible from the start, to allow me to choose how to go about terrorizing the villagers.
While I certainly had a few laughs during my play-through of Untitled Goose Game, I’m not sure how replayable it is. I might pick it up to show someone later on, but I felt like I accomplished all I wanted to with it, and now it’ll sit in the data storage of my Switch while I move on to bigger games. Perhaps if the developer of this game releases free updates to expand the game, I’ll come back to it (like was done with Shovel Knight and Hollow Knight). As it is right now, I’d certainly wait for a sale before picking up this little gem.
A bit overpriced for a honking good time, I give Untitled Goose Game 2.5 stars out of 5.
1/2
