At this point, it feels as if there’s hardly anything left to say about Goat Simulator. If you’ve heard of it, you probably already found a way to either play the game or actively ignore it depending on whether or not your interest was piqued. The game first released on PC. It then eventually made its way to mobile, Xbox systems, and finally, PlayStation systems. Suffice to say, if you have any sort of media device then you can probably play this game if you want. Whether or not you would want to, however, depends entirely on your desire and tolerance for intended stupidity and hilarious glitches. For better or worse, I have a love of both of these things.
For the uninitiated, Goat Simulator is based on a third-person quasi open world. Set in a suburban environment, you play as a goat who causes as much destruction as it can. For every explosion you cause, for every human you send careening across the map, for every house you destroy, your score multiplies exponentially, and it frankly never stops being fun or hilarious. The physics of the game are intentionally glitched, and this works to the game’s strength. Nothing quite lands or falls with any kind of consistency and this makes the world a treat to continue to bash your way through since every interaction winds up a little different no matter how many times you return to it. Those morons having a barbecue behind their house have felt my goat wrath multiple times and it was just as entertaining to crash their party the fifth time as it was the first time.
Surprisingly, there are also plenty of collectibles and hidden goodies to find. What seems like a completely throw-away world built only for destruction is actually a nicely layered series of interesting nooks and crannies to explore. It’s not Grand Theft Auto V‘s Los Santos by any conceivable stretch of the imagination, but it is much more detailed and full of cool things to find than this kind of game would lead you to believe it would be. Unlockables are also a big draw as you can outfit your goat in several hilarious costumes, as well as completely change your goat into another animal such as a penguin or a giraffe. It’s ridiculous stuff, but it is consistently hilarious and fun to play.
It actually may seem odd to give such a glitch mess of a game a high score. Considering the entire concept of this game was started as a silly joke, it’s surprising that it even found the traction that it did. That being said, I believe every game needs to be graded on its own merits and awarded scores based on how well it accomplishes what it sets out to do. Goat Simulator sets out to be nothing more than a hilarious, havoc-wreaking romp through a crazy series of maps, and that’s exactly what it does. I never once tired of jumping off a sky scraper and attaching my tongue to a hang glider. I laughed consistently and had fun every time I played this game and that, to me, makes it a winning formula.
You may very well hate this game because, frankly, it’s barely a game in the traditional sense. It may, however, click with you, and if it does then it will click with you in a big way. There is a seemingly endless amount of fun and hilarity to be had in this title. I am happy that this weird, silly little experiment found its way into our gaming systems.