Big Walk is more than just talk: July 29-August 4 news and game recs

Hey, readers!

This issue will be slightly different—its main focus will be a sort-of review of Big Walk, a new cooperative puzzle game. I’ve been playing it through a pre-release review code, and I have a lot of reasons for recommending it.

In the spirit of Autofill, I’ll start with a more informational and explanatory section before delving into my personal thoughts and experiences with the game. After the review, the issue will get into our usual news headlines and new game releases.

Enjoy!

Big Walk is a cooperative game for 2 to 12 players, and the gist is that you team up to solve puzzles around an open-world island. It comes from Australian studio House House, the makers of Untitled Goose Game, and publisher Panic.

It’s available on PC, Mac, Switch 2, and PlayStation 5—I’ve personally been playing the Switch 2 version. It costs $19.99, but an introductory sale on Steam and Switch 2 has it at $14.99 until August 18. PlayStation Plus subscribers can claim the PS5 version at no extra cost until August 31.

I hesitate to describe any specific puzzles in the game, because doing so feels like spoiling the experience. But basically, you’ll be solving puzzles that require communication—not just through voice chat, but through non-verbal communication techniques like pointing and other gestures. In many scenarios, some players will have information that the other ones are lacking, and they’ll have to convey that info through creative means.

Puzzles can also involve timing, coordination, and motor skills in general. Teamwork is an absolute must in Big Walk. Think of some of the puzzles as team-building exercises or mini escape rooms. And for accessibility purposes, an option allows for puzzles to be skipped if need be. The game’s puzzles adjust depending on whether you have a two-player session, three-player session, or four- or more-player session.

Let’s set aside the fact that I loathe the “friendslop” moniker for games like Peak, Lethal Company, and Meccha Chameleon. While it has a few things in common with those games, Big Walk has a lot more in common with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild than with Lethal Company.

Like some of the aforementioned games, Big Walk utilizes proximity chat, essentially meaning that you can only hear other players that are physically close to your character. Yes, the game centers on social interaction and has relatively simple character models, and yes, you can get up to silly things together. But I see “friendslop” as being associated with chaos, and Big Walk is a much more chill and wholesome time, from my experience.

The main reason I compare it to Breath of the Wild is that navigating the open world and the topography feels like its own macro puzzle. You’ll have to figure out your own routes and problem-solve to traverse hills, mountains, cliffs, and such. It’s somewhat comparable to Peak in that regard, but there’s no climbing functionality like in Peak or Breath of the Wild.

But unlike those games, Big Walk isn’t very punishing. There’s no health or stamina, and all you have to lose is time if you mess something up. There are also no emotes or anything of the like—just your base movement and gestures. But that’s still enough to get silly with it.

I believe that we as video game players are naturally curious people, and Big Walk is specifically designed to satiate that sense of curiosity. When you start a session of Big Walk, you’re directed into a large room, ostensibly the “tutorial room.” But instead of holding your hand and guiding you through a linear path, it’s an open space, where you can look at the instructions (in wall poster form) at your leisure and in any order you’d like. There are doodads like cowbells and spherical lights to play with, and it becomes clear that this tutorial room is a microcosm of the larger world awaiting you.

Once you reach the great outdoors, it feels like the world is your oyster, and you can let your curiosity be your guide. As you traverse and run into puzzles and challenges, you realize that your character’s physical limitations—how much they can carry, for instance—and the nature of proximity chat are your largest obstacles.

You can point, raise your hands, crouch, sit down, jump, and even punt objects that you’re holding. And the game never tells you what these objects are or how they work; it’s up to you to experiment and play around with them. Your limited set of actions ultimately serves as your primary language, and as you get into puzzles that restrict your verbal communication or require you to convey information across long distances, you’ll have to start building your own languages and systems to interface with each other.

And that’s ultimately the source of the joy that I found in playing Big Walk. I’ve been playing with my fiancé, and it’s a marvel to watch us come up with our own shorthand on the spot, leading to those “aha!” moments of triumph once you feel like you’ve outsmarted a puzzle.

The one real-life challenge we’ve had is trying to comply with how Big Walk is designed to be played—because much of the game depends on players having limitations to their communications, you’re not supposed to be in the same room or Discord voice call while playing. As a result, we’ve come up with a set-up that has my fiancé in the living room and myself upstairs in the bedroom. A bit of a hassle, but worth it to get that pure experience.

We’ve gotten to the point where Big Walk really opens up. I’m told by various peers who have played the game all the way through that it took 15-16 hours to roll credits, and about 24 hours to see a true 100% ending. There’s still a good portion left for me to discover, but I’ve seen enough to know that I’m eager to get to the end.

For some, Big Walk might be too big. It can get overwhelming when you realize how much there is to do on the island. I imagine that for many players, that volume of cooperative puzzle content is a big plus—but for others, that might be a complete turn-off.

Another mechanical gripe I have is how limited and heavy the jump function feels. Big Walk is certainly not a platformer, and I wouldn’t expect ascending rocky hills would be easy in real life. But some areas don’t really give you alternate traversal options, and several upward paths look correct but feel wrong as you struggle to jump onto stone steps, sometimes getting stuck between them and floating midair momentarily.

Finally, I can’t speak for the PC, Mac, or PS5 versions, but the Switch 2 version running at 30 FPS and with a massive amount of pop-in was disappointing. It’s not totally surprising, seeing how the game has a massive open world that has to render environments from far distances, but this might detract from the experience for some players.

Hell yeah, I do. Big Walk reminds you of the purest essence of a video game: Play. I know it sounds cheesy, but it’s the perfect sandbox to place people in and approach problems in the best ways that suit them. Big Walk allows you to create your own systems, routines, and languages, making for experiences that are wholly unique to you.

Big Walk is especially a wonderful way to connect with friends and family from long distances, and it lovingly recreates the experience of going on a little outdoor adventure together. Video games can make for stimulating and pleasant social interactions, believe it or not!

Thanks for reading, as always. Before wrapping up, I just wanted to point readers to this bundle of games on Itch.io supporting game workers who have been laid off. You can pay a minimum of $10 to get $127 indie video games, which is more than an excellent deal!

Happy August,
Chris Compendio