Even as some games continue to become more casual and simplistic, one can still be hard-pressed to find a title that feels like a complete experience in only a couple of hours. Indie treasure Untitled Goose Game by House House is just that, however. With its distinct and rather minimalist art style, an addicting but simple loop, and its media transcending lead character, this puzzler, adventure game, and goose simulator is a rare treat.
The player takes on the role of the titular fowl, a mischievous rogue with a history of tomfoolery, as they hide items, snatch away stools, toss things in the river, and generally terrorize the inhabitants of a quaint little town. You’re given control of flapping his wings, honking at your leisure, and grabbing items in his adorable little beak. Then you use your cunning and his goose-tools to finish off his daily terror-chore list as you move around the village. It gives you a lot of freedom to explore each area of the town and experiment with everything. Seeing what you can take, what reactions that can cause, and just generally how much fun it is to be a bird with a love for chaos and bells.
Usually the checklist items will involve stealth and problem-solving. You’re basically a feathered Agent 47 or Solid Snake, pretending to be a statue or hiding in boxes, ducking under porches and sneaking through bushes. It comes down to the usual stealth idea of learning the patterns of the NPCs around the map, and either avoiding or interrupting them as much as possible. Added to that, you will set off chain reactions, overflowing water to get objects floating inside, or using a villager’s fear of the goose as a way to get inside of a business. I want to remain vague since the puzzles are the game, but I can say that the player is constantly rewarded by trial and error, getting varied reactions from the NPCs and even stumbling upon secret checklist items. It’s always fun to see what pecking one thing can do to another, and the gameplay is so simplistic with the setting being so charming, that it is never a burden to have to reset and experiment further.
The art design choices do pop in this title, with the visuals having a very storybook vibe with lots of bright colors snd almost papercraft style. The sound design is incredible as well, with fun mumbly reactions from NPCs, to honking into a glass bottle having a satisfying reverberation, to the soft and yet often comical score, there is a level of attention to the soundscape that drew me in.
When it comes to the full experience, it will not even kill a whole day. It took my wife around four hours to complete, with lots of diversions and playing around, and myself a little over two hours since I had watched her solve a lot of the puzzles. It was not a too-short feeling couple of hours though, as I felt challenged enough but also just found myself enjoying the whole experience. By the time it was done, I’d felt accomplished and I’d gotten a good amount of joy. It was worth every moment, and was like a shot of gaming, satisfying and not at all bloated. Plus, the gameplay lends itself to being thrown on now and again after completion, if just to terrorize the now fully opened up village for laughs. It’s easy to pop on for just a half-hour of hijinks if that’s all you have. Plus there are postgame lists and speedrun lists as well, giving you quite a good amount to do for a budget indie title, even once the credits have rolled.
I can’t recommend Untitled Goose Game enough, for gaming beginners and serious gamers alike who want a charming and unique diversion for a quick bit of fun. It is currently included in the Xbox Game Pass and is $20 elsewhere, so it’s a honking good value no matter how you look at it.