Big Walk is the brand-new multiplayer game from developer House House, otherwise known as the team that previously made the wildly popular and addictive Untitled Goose Game.
This time, they are going all in on the multiplayer angle, allowing for up to 12 players in a walkabout game that sees you communicating with your friends to solve puzzles, unlock things on the island, and the game really encourages you to slow down and spend some time talking and exploring with your friends.
Figuring it Out
The game feels very COVID lockdown-esque. I spent my playthrough reconnecting with some friends I haven’t seen in a while. As we walked aimlessly around, throwing lit-up balls at each other to break through the silliness, we talked about life, updated each other on what we had been up to and figured out that our characters could not be too far physically from each other as the audio fades out to nothing.
We made a system of carrying the floating lights and waiting till it got dark (which happens quite often) to be able to find each other.
I absentmindedly lit all of the lights along the way, which didn’t help the situation, so when we figured out what had happened, a Morse code-style light game was created. It was the most creative experience I have had with a game since Minecraft first came out. While you aren’t creating the world here, you are coming up with creative ways to solve puzzles and unlock things across the island.
Communication is Key
Voice chat isn’t the only way to communicate; there is a text chat you can use, but this felt a little like cheating, and after some initial experimentation, we decided to not use it again during our playthrough.
Your character is a completely original creature design; it is an almost bird-like creature that can use its arms to point in each direction and long legs to walk around in large strides. The creature seems to be indestructible; you can jump from tall heights, and you slide down slopes upon landing safely. You can stride out to sea, but unfortunately your character cannot swim, so you can’t really tread water around the island.
So what is the game about? Well, we walked around the island at the start of the game, kicking lights around, painting each other different colours in this paint booth-styled hut. You randomly stumble upon buildings that have some sort of puzzle to solve involving the number of players you have chosen to join the session.
It’s really important here to note that if you set up a game session for 3 people, the puzzles will need all three people to solve them; you can’t have someone drop out or not get involved. You will have to reload the game and adjust the number of people to be able to solve the various challenges.
An Australian Bush You Can Lose Yourself In
Visually, the game is inspired by the Australian bush. It was great to see a lovingly crafted original island that is full of Eucalyptus trees, Blue Gum and the sounds of our local fauna; it adds a level of comfort and familiarity to the experience. While it does look very familiar, it does still gives the game a unique feel; there were areas that we named that reminded us of actual places like the Great Ocean Road Red Bridge (IYKYK!) and the Space Probe from Wonderland (a very VERY deep cut!).
I reviewed this on the Nintendo Switch 2, and while I didn’t experience many issues with online play outside of a few connection stutters (which was my internet, not the game) there was some pop-in in the dense areas of the bush; it wasn’t anything too distracting.
The characters themselves feel like cartoons placed in the real world, giving it that old-school 90s animated/hybrid style of movies like Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam.
One of my favourite things about the game is the connections you create. We would walk around hell-bent on completing a certain puzzle for the evening; we would end up chatting about our day, hearing our dogs bark in the background and commenting on their every move for the next 15 minutes.
The game feels like it was inviting us to slow down, and rather than jumping out of a battle bus and shooting each other or befriending villagers and visiting each other’s islands, we instead took a walk together, solved some puzzles and got to decompress from the outside world for a few hours each night.
Final Thoughts
Big Walk is one of the biggest surprises of 2026; it’s a relatively simple premise that keeps unwrapping layers the more you play.
Having this purely as a multiplayer experience forced me to slow down and really take some quality time with my friends who were seemingly also looking for that same experience through Big Walk.
It has a sense of the joy of discovery as you walk around a bend, or up a hill, and discover something new and then put your heads together to unlock its mysteries. It is truly a game that will stay with me and my friends as that incredible near 20-hour experience we had reconnecting outside of the business of life.
FOUR AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Highlights: Controlled multiplayer, Beautifully rendered Australian bush environments, Intuitive controls and chat functions, Challenging puzzles
Lowlights: None!
Developer: House House
Publisher: Panic
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, PC
Available: Now
Review conducted on Nintendo Switch 2 with a release code provided by the publisher.
The featured header image was also provided by the publisher.
