TL;DR – Big Walk is a game that has somehow captured charm and inserted it into every single framework, from the game mechanics to the design, and most importantly, the interactions.   

Big Walk Review Introduction

Today we are looking at the latest entry from Australian video game studio House House. They have a history of creating quirky and engaging games, so I was very interested to see how their next work would play out. That interest was only heightened when I discovered it was a cooperative adventure puzzle game, which felt like the perfect medium for shenanigans. Now, before jump into the review proper, I should be clear that at the time of writing I am about halfway through the game [The Blue Tower], but given what we will talk about below, I feel that I have seen enough of the game to cement my feeling on it.

So, to set the scene, you open in on a tutorial room where you can quickly run through all the controls under the leaves of a eucalyptus tree. Once your team is ready, you can dive out into a coastal valley below. Along the river valley leading out into the sea, you can spot different structures sticking out from the bush landscape. Each of these structures has a puzzle that you and your friends (also possibly family members, acquaintances, frenemies, co-workers, or heated rivals) have to work together to release a red item that my group ended up calling a gourd, which you insert into a machine to unlock a key that gives you access to the next location. While this starts quite small and manageable, it soon expands in scope.