A
s a piece of software
designed to accept
input from your hands
to produce lights and
sounds for your
eyes—in the most utilitarian and
reductive sense—Untitled Goose
Game is fine. Sometimes I want the
goose to move quickly, but the
somewhat awkward control scheme
interprets it as a leisurely waddle.
But overall: Good.
The reason Untitled Goose Game
succeeds to the extent it does—the
reason it is now more meme than
game—is, I think, as much about the
setting as the malevolent goose. It’s a
masterful depiction of English
country idyll as a mask of tranquility
that threatens to crack at any
moment. A boy is playing in the town
square. A man is enjoying a quiet
afternoon in his garden. It’s nice. It’s
peaceful. It’s a lie.
The boy is halfheartedly enacting
the mechanics of play because he
would rather be inside playing
Fortnite or being awful on Reddit. He
has been forced outside by his
parents, who are no doubt the sort of
people who think playing outside is
the thing a boy ought to do.PHIL SAVAGE
THIS MONTH
Honked with careless
abandon.ALSO PLAYED
Destiny 2The man—meticulous and fussy—
is performatively relaxing with the
considerable passive aggression of an
older gentleman who just cannot
with his neighbor. She is artistic and
messy and feminine and other
adjectives that have no place in his
world. The morning has passed in a
blur of thin-lipped pleasantries and
tutting. At one point, inevitably, he
would have muttered the word
‘unbelievable’ under his breath with
exaggerated annunciation and a few
decibels louder than he’d intended.Admiring the accuracy of UNTITLED GOOSE GAME
“They have seen us, and they have
lampooned us good and proper”
THE GOOSE IS A HARBINGER
OF DISORDER, STRIPPING THE
FALSEHOOD OF CIVILITYCONTINUED ADVENTURES IN GAMING
EXTRA LIFE
Honk!