Big Walk Big Good
Been playing not enough Big Walk, and my pesky IRL plans have been getting in the way. I am on the verge of cancelling plans to play Big Walk games. It does feel like an indication of how things are where a night in Big Walk is cheaper and just as fun as a night with friends.
The stated goal of the game is to get friends together, and the island's layout is built to subtly separate people and bring them back togther. Proximity chat has been used in many multiplayer games over the years to add a sense of separation and force players to use in-game things to communicate. But Big Walk makes this the entire thesis of the game. There is no feeling like hearing someone suddenly come onto the radio and answering it and then trying to find them. A mysterious flare comes up and you know that somewhere on the island is someone else.
The puzzles themselves are also based on communcation. In one room we had to talk to each other across a wall to identify symbols. In another we could only leave teapots in a room to indicate data. Through these challenges we develop a secondary language within the puzzle to get through it. The sense of accomplishment is immense, and the world is littered with many of these and also some delightful secrets.
The sound design and level of detail in Big Walk is delightful. If you put your hand into glass it makes a tapping noise, but if you run along the wall or move it while it's on glass it makes a squeaky noise. I recognize the sounds of Austrialian Magpies and Kookaburras. The game's toy like mechanical parts are also well thought out and constructed.
One major critisism of contemporary multiplayer games is that in order to hang out with friends, you have to be proficient at the game. Popular games like Deadlock, LoL, Overwatch 2, Destiny, they all need a significant investment in order to be with your friends. The "Friendslop" genre appeared because the appeal of hanging with friends is still there but the major time and effort investment is not. Big Walk isn't friendslop because it took about 6 years to make, but seems to have refined many of the genre's trappings to be a deeper experience.
The game has it's lineage with The Grannies expeditions into RDR2's out of bounds world. And then later the game Red Desert Render . It feels like a group of people have spent a decade trying to recapture the magic of a moment, and I think they've succeeded. They found something out there, in the out of bounds world, and wanted us to experience it.
I think the one drawback with the game is that one's save file is tied to hosting a game. And it's very possible to miss parts of the game if you only join others, I don't yet know if people would be keen to replay the game for the sake of the host's save file. Once the contours of the island become known and it's harder to get lost will the magic still be there? I hope so.