I am a creature of the early internet, which is to say, to me “trolling” is a hobby I used to tremendously enjoy before it meant hanging out on a -chan and “Saying a bunch of Nazi stuff because you actually are a Nazi.” Trolling used to be acting deliberately stupid or obtuse to push someone’s buttons and get them to melt down because they took you seriously or, even better, they knew you were being an idiot but were literally unable to stop themselves from correcting or arguing with you.
Unittled Goose Game
Developer: House House
Price: $20
Platform: PC (Epic Games Store), Nintendo Switch
MonsterVine was supplied with Epic Games Store code for review
Which is to say: Untitled Goose Game is a game made for me. It’s not a game like GTA about beating up hookers or shooting the cops. It’s not one of those edgelord games where you commit a mass shooting to own the libs. It’s about being satisfyingly annoying and tormenting people who probably don’t deserve it, but it’s hilarious. You are, as all the materials say, a horrible goose tormenting a village of innocents.
Just as there was tremendous satisfaction in using a one-liner to generate a Navy SEAL Copypasta-level angry response, there’s a tremendous satisfaction in baiting the gardener into going to retrieve his boot, then turning the sprinkler on to soak him. It’s less “mayhem” and more “shenanigans” and “antics.” Harassing a kid until he drops his glasses, then tossing them in the lake, then honking and flapping your wings in celebration is satisfying in a way few games can match.
The horrible goose arrives fully-formed from a bush. You emerge and learn to honk. You putter around a back area learning to interact with the world-grabbing things with your beak, pulling them, figuring out how to open gates-and then head out to ruin everyone’s day. That’s the tutorial. The game itself is similarly understated. There are gentle nudges like a to-do list popup, but there’s no flashing arrow to guide you on your way.
The simplicity of the game is its brilliance. “Put the sandwich on the blanket” doesn’t require a flashing quest arrow or a teammate goose yelling at you which way to go. You wander around, find a sandwich, and attempt to steal it. Sometimes someone objects, in which case you have to engage in tomfoolery like distracting them or honking at them. There’s a handful of controls like a crouch, switching from walking to running, but there are also commands to HONK and flap your wings that are mostly there for the joy of it. (Honking can also be used from hiding as a distraction, turning an ordinary Untitled Goose Game into Hitman, But You Are A Goose, And Also You’re Not Killing Anyone, Just Annoying The Hell Out Of Them).
A neat flourish is the music: There’s not a lot of it and when something shows up, it’s as a cue that something’s happening. You stole something, you got caught, someone’s chasing you, all these merit a little flourish of the soundtrack. Otherwise, it’s all ambient sounds and, of course, triumphant honking.
The Final Word
Untitled Goose Game is one of those quiet little games that come along and shake everything up, the kind of hit a major publisher would kill for. It doesn’t have big names or a giant paid hype campaign. It’s a game that does one thing–be a horrible goose–and does it extremely well. It helps you find the horrible goose within and unleash it on an unsuspecting world. Honk honk.
– MonsterVine Review Score: 5 out of 5 – Excellent
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