Unpopular Opinion about Big Walk - It’s Bad.
I understand I’m going to upset some people when I say this, but Big Walk is horrifically boring and feels so insanely lazy. I had a group of 6 of my close friends, talk with them all the time and play “friendslop” type games frequently. Long discord calls and lifelong buddies (I only clarify this because it I’ve seen other goofballs saying “ooh you need better friends!” on other posts like they’re on to something). Maybe some of you all can help me understand.
I genuinely feel like this game is some kind of industry plant/social experiment on how to make the lamest product and make the most money or something. Here’s a shortlist of my issues:
- The puzzles genuinely feel like they were designed for children or streamers.
- For a game encouraging walking and talking with your friends it punishes you if you get separated by painfully boring mindless roaming, in nice (but utterly desolate outside of maybe a sporadic puzzle) terrain.
- The core mechanics of the game are “raise hand” and “interact with object”
- You cannot be further than 5 feet from someone to actually hear them
- The night segments are a worthless complication that just make already meaningless wandering of the the game harder to enjoy
Now, I’m not one to usually post game reviews, there are countless streamers and people online who do that for a living and it feels like screaming into the void. However, as I was completing that first two or three hours of the game, I just kept saying to myself “this was a waste of money and time” after each little puzzle and each 10 minute walk across the boring landscape to get to some other meaningless monument. I would have had more fun jumping in circles in a Minecraft server, just talking on discord, or hell - even playing a way better game, but similar game (PEAK).
I got a refund and told this to my friends (some agreed, others didn’t), but where I’m so caught up on this is that all the marketing I see for this game makes it out to be the next game of the year. Insane reviews, overwhelmingly positive impressions, etc. and it just feel… fake? Like a psy-op of some kind because I just don’t see this widespread appeal, regardless of whether it was made by the Goose game devs. One of the major things I saw was that it was “cozy” and “cute” and “simple” and that was somehow enough to justify a pretty high price tag for a short game run time. I can appreciate a cozy game and fully understand a desire to take things at a slow pace and chat with your friends, but that doesn’t change the fact that the game feels lazy and hollow.
I don’t feel crazy by pointing all this out, but maybe some of y’all can offer a different perspective? Why not just play any other cozy, higher effort multiplayer game?
TLDR: The hype around this game feels forced and out of place. It’s a boring game, and feels lazy. Maybe it’s just not to my taste, but I don’t see the appeal even after playing it.