Goat Simulator was made by Coffee Stain Studios in hopes to become the ultimate game in goat simulation. It took off with an infectious display of tomfoolery, hijinks and insanity which spawned countless videos across YouTube. But is it any good?
ROUND-UP:
REVIEW-UP:
With the recent patch to allow for Linux and Mac users to finally play this monumentally important game, it was time to have a look at the world of Goat Simulator and analyse it properly from the basis of real-world goat simulation – which was a seriously neglected genre beforehand. So sit down ladies and gentlemen and say along with me: bleating heck, it’s Goat Simulator time!
You play through the game as a goat. But not just any old billy: you’re basically the best goat to have ever existed. The premise of Goat Simulator is to live out the ordinary life of an ordinary goat which involves wandering around, eating grass, bleating at everything in sight. As well as this, you can headbutt cars and cause a few Michael-Bay-esque explosions; you know, fairly typical stuff as a billy.
You can lick things with your tongue which is stretchy and bendy. It sticks to things like a frogs’ and yes, you can drag things with you using it. There are different in-game objectives such as getting a massive point combos and jumping certain heights and so on. While this is all well and good, you do all of it whilst the title decides to redefine physics for you. The game was created with the intention to simulate goats in the most realistic of ways, so you know some silliness is bound to happen. Some people may see this as a bad sign when you’re are playing (and paying for) titles that are purposefully broken (like goats are), but I disagree here so long as not every developer in the world starts to do this. Although the clones are surely on their way then I’m all for the occasional stupidity of a goat-rampage. After all, I have previously mentioned how I like to break and glitch games, so to experience being a billy – it was a pleasure.
With an expansion that came out for free recently, the musician and goat appreciation society founder Deadmau5 can be found in game. Go looking for him, stop his gig and beat him up a bit and you become another Dead-animal: genius!
The music in Goat Simulator is nothing short of insanity incarnate. To me it’s is brilliant for its insanity, as it’s actually annoyingly fun to listen to. The sound of the goat is nothing short of true-to-life noises. It bleats loudly and proudly, displaying its ferocity in a way that you wouldn’t believe unless you saw and yes, it’s a thing of beauty. It even scares people off with incredibly normal names such as ‘Line’.
The graphics are really pretty good, even though the game will sometimes make you fall through the world. Ignoring these little problems, such as being blasted off to oblivion or even sometimes morphing into some crazy unidentifiable mess, you often find yourself in a believable world. That’s important for a simulator, especially for Goat Simulator. I find that if you were intending to play a game to be a reasonable billy you’d reasonably expect a reasonable world to be in!
Goat Simulator addresses some of life’s most pressing issues too. Behold a man, sitting at the end of a crane eating his lunch. Does he even deserve to be there? This title lets you assess your morality in ways you never thought imaginable. Do you head butt him off the crane? Do you lick him to save him from an inevitable fall, or do you leave him?
Your goat can be many variants of itself, sometimes going as far as to change into different animals. It appears the developers of this game have struggled with the concept of a goat. For example, you can become a tall billy which is not a billy at all: it is a giraffe. This is one of many things the title throws at you with the unlockable content – it often forgets what the game is at its core: a simulator for goats! I did not want any giraffes in my simulator but it’s a welcome twist; passable at best as I didn’t really need giraffes in a goat game, however it’s a nice addition.
You might have realised I really didn’t take myself or this review very seriously, because how can you seriously review a game which is seriously not serious? I welcome you to your comments on Goat Simulator and indeed any other fun simulator. Hey, we even did a top ten bears in gaming last week over on GeekOut South-West so trust me: we’re becoming more aware of animal simulation games.
Deadmau5, if you read this, I apologise if this comment offended you deeply: but it’s okay man! Goats don’t mean any harm… usually. If you want to step down as the founding member of the goat appreciation society, that’s your call. Conversely, if you run an actual non-fictional goat appreciation society, get in touch and let me know what you thought about the realism behind Goat Simulator!
RATING-UP:
How did we reach these scores? Click here for a guide to our ratings.
1001-Up.com 