Big Walk Early Impressions: All the fun of a hike, without any of the blisters

I feel like we need a new word for "friendslop" games. A co-op title where you play as irritating shapes trying to find a bathroom before you ruin your underwear? Yeah, that's slop. Games that feel less like they're jumping on a bandwagon, and more like they were designed to develop a connection between players that goes beyond solving the gimmick of the day? I'm not sure the slop label applies. I thought the same when I played Peak, despite it producing the term "friendslop," and I get the same impressions with Big Walk.

Due to Big Walk being exclusively a co-op game, I couldn't plough on by myself, and so my sessions with the game have been limited to the point that these impressions won't be scored. I will endeavour to play more of it in time, updating this piece when I feel I've got a fuller impression of House House's latest title. Still, I've enjoyed enough of Big Walk's puzzles, open world, and strange, bobbing characters to give some initial thoughts on the game.

Big Walk is a game about a long journey. Your purpose is to to talk with your friends and work as a team. It's literally impossible to complete the challenges without working together, and while you might not always be side-by-side with your pals, you'll want to gather together when you discover a challenge while wandering through the world. Beat a challenge, and you'll get an object that I can only describe as something very similar to a Kong stuffable dog chew toy. These are your keys to unlock new areas, and progress in Big Walk.

House House, the developer of Big Walk, also made Untitled Goose Game, so you can expect similar quirks and levels of whimsy, all by design. It's not difficult to get lost in Big Walk, and the dark can be seriously dark. The blobby characters stick out in the otherwise realistic open world, you can boot objects as far as you like, hold glowing orbs high above your head, and give hand signals to your friends for when they're out of earshot. All the tools available to you are about collaboration. Big Walk relies a lot on the sense that you enjoy the idea of an adventure. Not necessarily an objective to complete, or collectibles to find, but something that's a bit deeper than a simple checklist.

Everything from Big Walk's visual design to its chilled, distant soundtrack tells you it's a game that very much encompasses the idea of the journey being more important than the destination. It doesn't rely on the constant chaos we've seen take over other hit co-op games. You're unlikely to be clip farming from this game, but I've seen few games in recent years capture a sense of wanderlust with your friends like Big Walk does. The map is sprawling, there are plenty of mechanics the tutorial doesn't tell you about, and it's incredibly easy to fall off the trail. At first, it was a little frustrating to realise I'd collected a lot of challenge rewards, but had nowhere to put them. That lack of orientation is one of the issues I've found within Big Walk, but it is also part and parcel of the experience as a whole. It's less a flaw of the game or something that's mismanaged in design, and instead an important cog in the machine.

If Big Walk told you where it wanted you to shove all the dog chew toys, lighting up the map with a big red beacon or something, then the experience of the game would differ greatly. It would be much less about exploration and discovery, and would instead just give the player a checklist. Having them run out of the central point like worker bees, bringing the challenge rewards as quickly as they can find them. Again, Big Walk's overall experience is much less about shortcuts, completing objectives, and rolling credits. It is an experience that I can only compare really to a hike. A real-life big walk. You're bound to get lost, probably get frustrated with your friends, but you'll probably remember the little things you did to get through the journey much more than you're likely to recall the view at the top.

As the TikTokification of co-op games continues, where a lot of friendslop releases push for you to complete the objective as quickly as possible in a roguelite structure, Big Walk's focus on letting you take a breath and move at your own pace is incredibly refreshing. There's no pressure on having fun in Big Walk. No hunger bar threatening to make you abandon a run, no lava rising up to meet you. Whether you're adventuring with just one other friend or take 11 of your best pals across the land, whether you make use of every tool provided or just sprint off into the wilderness hoping for the best, your journey is your own in Big Walk. Simple pillars, simple challenges, and a simple world don't try and overwhelm you with distractions to keep you moving. You're here for both a good time and a long time in Big Walk, and I'm looking forward to delving deeper into it.