There are certain games that just immediately sell the core concept. They tap into an ideal or truth that is universally known and make a fun game from it. House House have managed to accomplish this in Untitled Goose Game.
Known Truth: Geese are Horrible.
Known Truth: Being a Horrible Goose for a few hours is a hilarious exercise.
I have a lot of time for games that just give the player a set of tools, a space to use them in, and a series of unexplained objectives. IO Interactive’s Hitman 2 was one of my favourite games of 2018 through the use of this formula. Untitled Goose Game is a simpler, but no less charming or polished version of that gameplay system.
You play the titular Untitled Goose.
The goose can honk, which attracts attention from the villagers. The goose can grab things in their bill, grabbing low things by crouching. And the goose can run, but not as fast as the villagers can.
That’s your moveset to cause havoc.
It begins fairly simply, in a rather Beatrix Potter style. Go into the garden, steal things. You’re going to complete objectives from a beautifully presented cursive list.
Make the farmer wear his sun hat.
Rake in the Lake.
Have a picnic.
Often clueless, these objectives are designed to encourage observation and learning from the game in the best way. Test the boundaries, apply your skills, repeat.
Effectively, Untitled Goose Game is a series of puzzles with multiple potential solutions to explore.
Where things start getting fun is when House House begin to have fun with the world. Steal a radio and the groundskeeper will immediately chase after the noise. Scatter vegetables and he’ll take a few moments to pick them all up and replace them. This gives you time to drag a rake into a bush while he’s initially distracted.
It’s not just about completing the objective, it’s doing it stylishly or in a particularly fun way. There’s a confidence in the design of the world that is earned through actually playing in it.
Beyond mechanically simple but well designed playgrounds? The game exudes charm. Considering how simple the systems are, this tone is almost all that Untitled Goose Game has to play with. And it plays hard.
Let’s start with the Untitled Goose.
The honk of the Goose is just sharp enough to not stop being funny every time you honk wildly in rage at the villager stopping you stealing. The tail waddle shifts just enough of the body with each step that the Goose seems hefty and real.
Even the comic style lines of strain when carrying something heavy, or when honking help anthropomorphise this bird into a charming anti-hero.
It’s also partly the setting. A parochial pastoral idyll of the storybook English village.
Properly bad things can’t happen there, it would be too jarring. (And this isn’t all the way to Hot Fuzz)
But a Naughty Goose? That’s the kind of thing that would catch the ire of any Local Town Organisation seeking to protect it’s prize winning gardens.
Even the idea that the goose is “naughty” has a very specific charm to it. Very few people actively want to be the bad person all the time. But to behave so childishly? To steal trinkets and trick people and be sneaky? Well. That’s horrible but basically harmless. Fun in fact.
This edge of mischief stops the game becoming too sickly sweet, and the sheer absurdity of the goose stops almost any action seeming too harsh.
The music deserves special mention. Adapting Debussy in a plinking, plonking piano based soundtrack is an inspired choice. The music plods along, shifting like the Goose’s tail. When the action picks up, so does the tempo. It shifts in pace, a shimmering glissando of tinkling ivory that injects every chase with energy.
Even the menus have a certain glib pleasantness about them. The rendering of all objectives in a cursive to-do list fits perfectly with the sunday afternoon adventure tone of the game. The use of British road signs for the options shouldn’t even really fit. But it’s cute and pairs with the overall tone of the setting just well enough to scrape by on charm alone.
Untitled Goose Game took about two hours or so to get through the initial story. There were very few moments in that initial set of challenges that didn’t inspire some sort of smile. Luckily, just as it did begin to wear slightly, it reached a surprisingly effective and well designed finale.
Then the post game opened up fully, ready for further challenge seeking at your leisure.
Untitled Goose Game is well worth both your time, and your money. A charm filled sandbox, precision made to make you smile with a childishly goosy glee.
Currently retailing at a special launch price on the Epic Games Store (£11.99) and Nintendo Switch eShop (£13.49).