Game Review: Untitled Goose Game

Release date: 2019
Version played: Nintendo Switch in 2019

Developed by Australian indie quartet House House, Untitled Goose Game is a 2019 stealth-action puzzle video game. Players take control of a goose and cause absolute havoc in a small English village. The game is set in one large over world, with four smaller sections each with their own objectives, which must be completed to progress. Simple goose controls, such as HONKing, flapping your wings and running, can be mixed together to solve puzzles, or just terrorise the populace.

+ holy moley, I have not had so much fun being such a horrible person (goose?) in a long time. Untying some dweebs shoe and stealing his toy, so he chases the goose and trips, enabling the goose to steal his glasses and then HONK at him from every direction while he runs to hide in a phone booth is pure bliss
+ I loved the visuals and the audio, particularly the various HONKs (for added fun, try getting your goose head stuck in bottles, traffic cones etc. or just honking into a well or sewage pipe). The art style is a sort of ‘flat 2D’ colour scheme on top of cartoonish models, and it is just adorable
+ some of the objectives are difficult, or at least require some real planning. It is not always just a case of ‘pick up object and run’, which made for some tense near-finishes

– the game is very short, and I completed the four levels of the main story, with every objective, in just under two hours. More difficult bonus objectives and a time-trial are unlocked upon completion, but there is no real impetus to completing these

> unless I missed the desired effect, there was never a real need to flap your goose wings, outside of it just being hilarious to run and flap and HONK at everyone

Should you play this game: While I can freely admit the price is a little steep for that length of the game, this is still well worth playing. Adorable characters and animations, a soothing or intense soundtrack (depending on the situation) and a real-world rainy afternoon was the perfect setting for me to get involved in the antics of this absolute jerk of a goose — or maybe it is I that is the jerk, as the goose is just a conduit of my own desires? Nah, the goose is a jerk.