Big Walk [Review]

It is in the simplicity of its premise and the cleverness of its execution that great cooperative games actually shine the brightest. A funny thing – it is exactly what makes great puzzle games as well. Big Walk simply does the obvious by being a cooperative puzzle-solving game, but the journey within is far from dull: filled with brilliantly designed challenges, it is a memorable experience and a great respite to have with friends.

Everything from the very start is endearing and charming, with clear and direct instructions that highlight something important to have in mind almost every time while playing this game: talking, coordinating, and interacting are key to progressing through the game. I've played with two other friends, and after a simple explanation with great environmental storytelling, we were good to go.

It isn't hard at all to find what to do, with the first area being a bit more closed than the rest of the game. Soon, we found that there's a room inside a tower with strange fruit-like recesses that are blocking a key. Oh, look at that: the puzzles reward these same colorful rubber flora, waiting to be returned to these towers. As soon as our first puzzle was solved, the day and night cycle kicked in, and the total darkness of the night quickly became the biggest friction in gameplay so far. The night can be eerie, and getting lost sure is problematic.

We finished the first section drenched in smugness: professional gamers blazing through this kids' game! After a... Big walk, the whole scope of the island opened to us: half a dozen of other similar looking towers, scattered throughout the place and lots of colorful structures here and there holding those damn orange papayas. The proximity voice chat made walking around and communicating something that we would need to keep in mind all the time, and I was pleasantly surprised by how it deepened the gameplay, making talking and walking around, especially in the darker wee hours, something that I actively needed to be aware of.

Suddenly, this whimsical island started putting more in our way than I could ever imagine. And I was loving every moment of it.

More and more, the regions started to have more of a character: some alps over there, jungles in that area, and beaches in another. We had a straightforward approach: one tower at a time, and respecting our limits. Still, chaos sometimes ensued, with one of us getting lost during the night only to appear on the other side of the island. Clever rendezvous points are scattered across the island, though, and with the help of some flares, we could reunite the next morning. Every day was different, and every session was as well – but always fun, because while the puzzles became more complex, they were never truly complicated or hard to understand.

I was really impressed by how balanced this game is. Because there were always more puzzles than what we needed to progress, if something was too cryptic, going to another place was easy and encouraging. We also started trusting and understanding each other more, with the constant dopamine hit of being able to figure out what to do in each location going on all the time. Little by little, we started giving life back to the island, with the always-running modes of transportation being turned on again. It felt as if we had reactivated a theme park. It's like Jurassic Park, but with puzzles instead of dinos.

I've played this game on the PlayStation 5, and overall, the performance was good. The more we progressed through the island, though, it clearly started to drop some frames once in a while, and the game geometry can sometimes be weird, resulting in movement clipping here and there. Fortunately, nothing that hurts the exploration. The island is big, and players don't always need to be together. I experienced one crash, though, but a handy "lost and found" system protected our progression.

The gameplay cycle hides some surprises here and there, with unexpected moments of joy, panic, and fear—sometimes products of the feeling of being lost or misinterpreted. There are no spooky moments whatsoever in this game, but sometimes a butterfly may flutter in one's stomach. The island is quiet, but subtle sounds and different flora make it strikingly its own thing, as the main character in the game.

Even in the wider areas of the game, the next little adventure was always clear. The puzzles themselves were varied on their own, but generally speaking, solving them often boiled down to the way to better explain something to each another in a myriad of different situations. Not everything to be discovered is a puzzle, though, with nice radios playing ambient music in each region of the game. Also, not every puzzle is the same: while one may require quick coordination between us three, another was simply waiting five minutes in a house and talking while resting for a while. Absolutely nothing overstayed its welcome.

Another highlight of the game was the many different items that we could use to assist us during our journey, with flashlights that made progress possible at night and laser pointers to coordinate between one another. Not all puzzles can be solved with items, but most of them can, and sometimes an item can make solving something that much easier. Because equipment space is very limited, using a tool well becomes more relevant than having lots of options. Traversing through the world became easy and as pleasurable as the "plop" sound that our little rubber feet make while strolling.

Big Walk was big fun with two big friends. It is a celebration of puzzle solving and cooperation, and it is strikingly effective in everything that it does, with an emotional and heartfelt gameplay-centric ending. A truly memorable time.

10/10