Big Walk Review: The Best Co-op Game in Years According to Gamespot

If you have a group of 2 to 12 people ready to commit to a HUD-free experience, with no quest markers and no safety net, buy Big Walk with your eyes closed, says the Gamespot journalist. If you're looking for Lethal Company-style chaos or sabotage among friends, look elsewhere: this isn't the same game, and more importantly, not the same mindset.

The pitch fits in one line: you and your friends play snowman-like creatures with stretchy limbs, dropped onto a giant island inspired by the Australian Outback. The objective: solve environmental puzzles to recover unnamed MacGuffins, without ever having a tutorial or lore text spell things out for you. After the minimalist tour de force of Untitled Goose Game, House House strikes again with a game that stubbornly refuses to explain anything to you - and that's exactly where its magic lies.

What works

The main strength of Big Walk is its fully diegetic approach: no arrows, no gauges, no on-screen prompts. Everything relies on observation, voice communication via proximity chat, and collective experimentation. The level design, entirely handcrafted (unlike a procedurally generated Peak), is packed with details designed to guide without ever feeling patronizing - from mountain switchbacks pointing toward a distant landmark to radio stations tucked away in the woods.

House House also manages to do a lot with a little: barely six to eight puzzle concepts form the backbone of the entire game, but each one is reworked with an inventiveness that avoids any repetition. The famous blinding helmet, reused later with completely different rules, perfectly illustrates this economy of means serving genuine depth. And the final act, which recombines everything you've learned into a conclusion that's both understated and moving, wraps everything up with rare game design intelligence.

What doesn't work

The game's only real flaw, according to Gamespot, comes down to a mechanic that can be foolishly bypassed: proximity chat. Switching to Discord or an external chat instantly defuses puzzles designed to play with the limits of in-game voice communication. Nothing technically prevents this workaround, but it's like watching a survival-horror game in broad daylight: it works, but you miss out on the essence of the experience.

Also worth noting: Big Walk has a defined ending and clearly isn't designed for infinite replay, even though a new group configuration noticeably changes the journey. Compared to Peak or Lethal Company, Big Walk targets a different audience: less frantic, more contemplative, but just as addictive in a group. If you're looking for a co-op game to play with friends or family, without competition or gratuitous sabotage, this is probably what you've been waiting for for years.