Anatidaephobia is the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck or goose is watching you. It is, perhaps, mildly terrifying to imagine a member of the anatidae family staring at you as you go about your day. But more frightening by far is the prospect of a goose with a to-do list, meticulously planning a series of practical pranks and psy-ops on you and those around you. Untitled Goose Game, by Australian developers House House, is a goose simulator where you do exactly that. Its mission statement says it all: “It is a lovely morning in the village, and you are a horrible goose.”
You play as a goose. You can honk, flap your wings, fit through tight spaces, and pick up and pull objects. Your objective is to execute the schemes on a periodically updated to-do list: Get the groundskeeper wet, trap the boy in the phone booth, make the man spit out his tea, [Put the] rake in the lake.
Most of these are simple and (mostly) harmless pranks that let you revel in the base pleasure of messing with unsuspecting people. The humans in the game treat you as a mere goose; they do not know that you are scheming to throw their slippers in the pond when they are not looking, and then to steal their pipe and spectacles while they try to recover their soggy footwear.
There are many ways to put the rake in the lake without the groundskeeper stopping you. Distraction is key: turn on the sprinklers so he has to turn them off, displace his items or honk in the bushes so that when he goes to investigate, you can steal the rake. The pranks, although initially simple, get progressively difficult. The line-less visual style hearkens back to illustrated children’s books, and the music is by French composer Claude Debussy, programmed to play at a slow tempo when you are scheming, and rising to a crescendo when you are being chased. It is a beautiful game, entertaining enough to play alone, with friends, or even to watch somebody else play.
Untitled Goose Game (5/5) is available on the Epic Games Store for Windows and Mac, and on the Nintendo Switch