Most game nights put everyone on one couch. Big Walk does the opposite, and it might be the coziest online game you can play with friends who live far away.
Here’s the thing: the game works best when nobody is in the same room.
Why Big Walk works best from separate rooms
House House, the Australian studio behind Untitled Goose Game, made Big Walk in cooperation with the publisher Panic. In its gameplay overview, the studio explains that “it’s mainly about doing two things. Talking and walking.”
Voices fade with distance, echo down corridors and crackle through walkie talkies. Players who prefer typing get a text chat with the same limits.
That is why the studio’s help page says “We even recommend that players avoid sharing the same room, let alone the same screen.”
The game came out on August 4, 2026 for Windows and Mac computers, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2, with crossplay between them. Groups run from 2 to 12 players, and there is no matchmaking with strangers.
The puzzle is talking to each other
Most puzzle games reward the smartest player. Big Walk rewards the whole group.
Nicole Carpenter, who reviewed the game for Imagine Games Network (IGN), puts it neatly: it is a puzzle game, and “the puzzle is communication.”
Some rooms cut your voice entirely. So you describe answers with arm waves, shapes on a board or a blinking light.
The creator behind the yakkocmn channel compares this to charades more than any code. Even the character painter needs a friend, because “Someone else has to hold the brush and paint the colors onto you.”
The best part? One timed room has a sly answer. You just wait. In the words of yakkocmn, “Just be with each other in the same space for five minutes.”
Getting lost is part of the fun
The world runs on a day and night cycle, and the map is big. People wander off.
Carpenter’s group lost a friend at night. Then a flare shot up in the distance, and they walked toward its green glow to find him.
Binoculars, walkie talkies and flares mostly exist to bring strays back to the group. Her group spent nearly 20 hours over several sessions.
But there’s a catch. The save file lives with the host, so friends who play without that person must start a fresh walk.
A game with a real goodbye
Big Walk also has an ending, which is rare for a hangout game. At the finish, friends wave goodbye one by one, and the host leaves last.
Development began during the pandemic, and yakkocmn points out that House House sometimes held team meetings inside the game itself.
The verdict from yakkocmn says it all. Big Walk “might just be the closest a video game has ever gotten to the feeling of spending time with my friends in real life.”
Prefer a game night where everyone does share a couch? Try a Nintendo Switch Sports game night.
Watch: Big Walk with friends
House House tours the talking, walking and tools in its official gameplay overview.
Carpenter’s review covers the puzzles, the dark nights and how hosting works.
The yakkocmn video explains why the design feels so social, from the timed room to the final goodbye.
