Coffee Stain Studios - 2014 - PC
I think there are pretty much two camps of people as it pertains to Goat Simulator. Those who think it's absolutely hilarious and those who get bored quickly while playing it and are slightly confused by the relative popularity of this game. I believe I fall in the latter camp. Just go watch some gameplay videos of Goat Simulator and you'll pretty much already know which camp you belong to without even having to play the game. I understand the humor though, and I get why people like the game. But the more I play Goat Simulator, the more I'm sure that I'm not this game's target audience.
Goat Simulator was a product of an internal game jam at Coffee Stain Studios. Some early footage of a demo of Goat Simulator was released on YouTube and the demand for a full game to be produced was very high. Because, you know, it's the internet. A full version of Goat Simulator was then launched on Steam earlier this year on April 1st. No really, it was. It's kind of an interesting game. It's maybe one of the truest sandbox games ever made. There's absolutely no objective. The entire gameplay of Goat Simulator relies on creating emergent humor through its admittedly broken physics engine. Have you ever been killed by a giant in Skyrim and seen this? Or seen the bizarre physics glitches in the FIFA or GTA games? The developers intentionally left these kinds of glitches in the Goat Simulator physics engine for comedic effect. And that's pretty much the game, just messing around with the physics engine in the game world. There is a scoring system similar to ones found in the old Tony Hawk skating games where points are awarded for doing various skating tricks. There's also some mini-missions and subquests, but it's pretty much just Messing Around: The Videogame
The aforementioned physics glitches in the Elder Scrolls, FIFA or GTA games are funny because they are unexpected and bizarre variations on our expectations of how the game should behave. In all of those games, there is (arguably) some semblance of realism or at least the attempt to make physics objects behave as they would in the real world. That's not really the case with Goat Simulator. I feel that the intentionally programmed physics bugs in Goat Simulator lose some of their comedic value because, while they still look ridiculous, they are completely expected by the player. You're not really expecting to headbutt a human NPC and have him just fall over. You expecting him to skyrocket unrealistically off into the horizon. And always having this constant expectation of humor somewhat diminished the comedic impact for me. I was almost disappointed when crazy stuff didn't always constantly happen while I was galavanting around in the game world.
Goat Simulator was a product of an internal game jam at Coffee Stain Studios. Some early footage of a demo of Goat Simulator was released on YouTube and the demand for a full game to be produced was very high. Because, you know, it's the internet. A full version of Goat Simulator was then launched on Steam earlier this year on April 1st. No really, it was. It's kind of an interesting game. It's maybe one of the truest sandbox games ever made. There's absolutely no objective. The entire gameplay of Goat Simulator relies on creating emergent humor through its admittedly broken physics engine. Have you ever been killed by a giant in Skyrim and seen this? Or seen the bizarre physics glitches in the FIFA or GTA games? The developers intentionally left these kinds of glitches in the Goat Simulator physics engine for comedic effect. And that's pretty much the game, just messing around with the physics engine in the game world. There is a scoring system similar to ones found in the old Tony Hawk skating games where points are awarded for doing various skating tricks. There's also some mini-missions and subquests, but it's pretty much just Messing Around: The Videogame
The aforementioned physics glitches in the Elder Scrolls, FIFA or GTA games are funny because they are unexpected and bizarre variations on our expectations of how the game should behave. In all of those games, there is (arguably) some semblance of realism or at least the attempt to make physics objects behave as they would in the real world. That's not really the case with Goat Simulator. I feel that the intentionally programmed physics bugs in Goat Simulator lose some of their comedic value because, while they still look ridiculous, they are completely expected by the player. You're not really expecting to headbutt a human NPC and have him just fall over. You expecting him to skyrocket unrealistically off into the horizon. And always having this constant expectation of humor somewhat diminished the comedic impact for me. I was almost disappointed when crazy stuff didn't always constantly happen while I was galavanting around in the game world.
Summary:
If you're looking for an open ended, goofy sandbox game with ludicrous physics, Goat Simulator is your game. I didn't really enjoy it, but I'm also aware that this kind of game is not for me. It's obviously loved by its fans though, as it has tons of gameplay videos of ridiculous stuff on YouTube. I think a recent patch for the game added a couch co-op mode, which is cool. This is definitely the kind of game you'd want to share with friends.
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