Untitled Goose Game Review

Game: Untitled Goose Game
Genre: Puzzle
System: Nintendo Switch (also on PC)
Developer|Publisher: House House  (and friends) | Panic
Age Rating: E+(US) |3+ (EU)| G (AU)
Price: $19.99 (US) |€ 19,99| £17.99|$30 (AU)
Release Date: 20th September 2019

I purchased the game myself

Untitled Goose Game is a puzzle game about being a Goose with a to-do list. A to-do list full of mischief.

The Goose Is Loose

This game reminds me of that time my father owned a goose and…..

The goose has fairly simple controls. You can pick things up to carry, lean your neck down to crouch or pick up low things. Run, spread your wings and swim by entering water. Of course there is a dedicated honk button. The movement feels accurate to the two legged bird you are controlling around. You can also zoom your view in and out a little to keep better aware of your surroundings. With these simple tools at your disposal it is time to wreak havoc on the village.

The Garden, The Shops, The Yard, The Pub

There are four areas for you to take part in community life. After checking your list, you will break into the garden to begin. Each area has a few different tasks, then a bonus one appears after a more are done. Eventually you can gain access to the next area. Whenever you pick up an object people tend to notice and try to steal it back from you. Unfortunately you are a normal goose and cannot maintain your hold. Thus your cunning tactics of stealth and distraction are important to implement. Why they can’t appreciate you helping them out in the garden or fetching them new glasses I don’t know.

The stealth is actually easy, as by throwing some jars on the other side I was able to drag the rake all the way through without being noticed. From then on I took my other desired objects through the same path. I never found that any of the requests were too difficult to figure out, and some can be approached in a couple of different ways. Your fellow neighbours have generally simple behaviour patterns.

The only difficult ones were when you have to collect several items in one place. If the humans catch wind of it they would start taking all your objects away faster than you can replace them. Once you’ve beaten the game you are given bonus objectives, as well as a time challenge. If you mess things up too much (such as locking yourself out of the garden) you can reset the area. Any previous checked off goals will still be marked as finished although if you didn’t grab all the objects in a set that will obviously have to be done all again.

Simplicity

The graphics are in a simple style, the humans having hair and noses but not much else. Which perfectly suits the game. They have a few nice expressions to react to your helpful input in their lives. The music is played by a piano, and some   sequences have a more thematic approach. There is also an option to make the to-do list in plain text which is appreciated.

Townsfolk can get caught in glitchy loops but that’s easily fixable by bringing their attention to another object. The game is fairly short, about an hour and a half to get to the credits depending on how smart you are. Then there is some more activities to do, which will add some more game time. So being generous maybe about four hours long.

Overall

Causing mischief as a goose is quite fun. The tricks to meeting your objectives are mostly quite easy. So if you generally don’t play puzzle games like me you won’t have too much to worry about. Being a game I’ve waited on since I played the demo at PAX AUS last year I feel it’s a bit short and I am disappointed by how easy it is. My sister was annoyed that there was no night time, but I don’t think that’s something that’ll bother most.

….The geese he bought were for eating, but one of them broke out and ran away. By ran away I mean literally across the road, near directly opposite the house in the wetlands.