Developer: Coffee Stain Studios
Publisher: Coffee Stain Studios
Platform: PC, PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Android, iOS, Mac, SteamOS, Linux
Tested on: PS4
Goat Simulator (PS4) – Review
In the past, we’ve already talked about the weird creature that calls itself Goat Simulator. Back then, 3rd-strike awarded the game with a whopping 10.9 out of 10! Admittedly, that review didn’t really have the purpose of giving the game a true score, but it was all good banter. Now, with the overhaul to PlayStation 4 and other consoles, let’s see how the goat holds its own between other titles.
Story
Well, if you were expecting an incredible epic tale about a goat conquering the world with an army of flying goats who can shoot laser guns, you might be a tad disappointed with what Goat Simulator has to offer. There’s no real storyline as the game just simply drops you in a map of choice and then it’s completely up to you to form a tale, as wicked as you’d like. Knock yourself out!
Graphics
For such a technical mess (the game is purposely cluttered with bugs and glitches), Goat Simulator doesn’t actually look all that bad. Sure, the game is nowhere near the level of triple A titles, but it’s not like you’ll be disgusted by what you’re seeing. The maps you play in look well enough with a lot of diversity in ‘special’ places. Expect to find a cemetery clouded in a purple fog, an amusement park to play in, a skate ramp, windmills, an amateurishly made Stonehenge and so on. If you are very strict concerning the graphics in a game, you might not like the more cartoonish and not that spectacular look of Goat Simulator but if you can look past that, the game is actually quite an enjoyable one to look at in terms of variation and colorfulness.
Sound
If you arrive in the main menus, the game already greets you with some happy tunes and this immediately sets the tone for the whole title. The best way to handle Goat Simulator is just by letting the silliness come over you like a comedy show. Although the music is certainly enjoyable for a short amount of time, some more songs would’ve been welcome to keep the player from getting bored with the audio all too soon. If you plan to play the game for longer game sessions, you might actually end up muting the sound as it’s possible to become a tad irritated by the same songs playing in a loop.
The sound effects in the game are actually pretty impressive. As good as anything in the game world has its very own sound and that makes it much more enjoyable to mess with all the world objects in a level. Trampolines, fences, cars (both moving and stationary ones), gas canisters, barrels, fuel tanks,… everything in the world will create a decent sound effect and in a game where there’s really not all that much to do, this is certainly a big plus.
Gameplay
As the name might leave you pondering about what it is that you actually do in Goat Simulator besides walking around as a simple goat, probably grazing in the meadow, well, there’s actually a bunch of stuff you can do, but then again, there’s actually not all that much going on in the game. Let me explain this for a second.
There are two maps to choose from in the main menus and choosing the one or the other won’t result in much of a different gameplay experience. You eventually end up doing the same stuff, just in a new setting. As a goat, you can bump into everything that crosses your path (including humans and other goats), you can break almost anything you see or go for a swim if that’s more your thing. These are probably the first few things a player will do once entering the game world as instinctively, you just start to mash some buttons and hope for a funny outcome. However, the real fun begins when you start to think a bit more creative than that.
There’s so much possible in Goat Simulator that it becomes a bit ridiculous. For example, you can lick a rollercoaster to experience the ride of a lifetime, people can look upon you as a riding bull like you often see in a more western setting, flying around with a jetpack is also no problem. If you want to get really serious, you might just as well open the gates to hell by sacrificing four goats and a human. Yes, those are some of the activities you can fill your time with in Goatville and although they are really fun to do the first time, there’s really no reason to do the same things over and over again so that’s why I say a lot of stuff can be done in the game, but there’s just not much to do eventually.
Handholding is not present in Goat Simulator so any secrets scattered around in the game world are yours to uncover. What is present though, is some kind of trick list thanks to which the player can try to fulfill as much challenges as possible, but that becomes quite boring after a while. If you really want to have a good time, be sure to visit the trophy list as following that will bring you to places you’d otherwise probably never stumble upon.
As said before, the game is cluttered with bugs and glitches but that’s actually the whole point of the game. It’s hard to call Goat Simulator a bad game because getting stuck in objects, clipping through walls, invisible walls and other weird occurrences are what make this title such a blast to play through. However, just like the activities, the bugs eventually wear out of being funny and then it’s time to switch over to a ‘real’ game. Luckily, there’s a local splitscreen option for you and your friends to mess around together and that can prolong the amusement quite a bit.
Conclusion
Goat Simulator is quite hard to review as it will certainly provide you with a ton of fun depending on how you approach the game but it won’t take long before the silliness of the title becomes old and boring. The graphics are certainly bearable and the fact that each world object has its own sounds when interacting with it truly makes you appreciate the game more, but eventually it is and stays a joke as a real game. A big plus is the local splitscreen option which might add some hours to the longevity of the game but all and all, Goat Simulator stays a simple snack which gets dull pretty fast.
Goat Simulator (PS4) - Review,
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