Goat Simulator Review

Looking for a serious goat simulation game involving a bit of grazing, some goats screaming like humans (YouTube it), and a bit of mild milking chucked in for good measure? First of all, what's wrong with you? Secondly, there's none of that to be found in Goat Simulator. Rather, it's about what would happen if an invincible and inexplicably angry billy goat went on a rampage through a countryside village.

Players are free to explore the small but largely destructible environment with its challenges, collectibles, and quirks at their leisure. There's a lot here, from goat slingshots, to goat sumo wrestling, to a sacrificial offering (that last one was unexpected, right?), and it's great fun to discover what the world has to offer.

If it wasn't abundantly clear, humor is the main focus in Goat Simulator. Whether it's the novelty achievements (congratulating players on being able to jump, for example) the goat's unlockable friends - including the "small goat" (a penguin) and the "tall goat" (giraffe) - or the outlandish ragdoll physics, heaps of time can be lost just messing around.

Ultimately, Goat Simulator isn't so much of a game as it is a big joke. It never takes itself seriously, and that's a good thing insofar as it's not going to last forever. It's very buggy and the frankly awful controls and camera issues can make it a struggle to play at times, to the point when even the task of jumping over a fence is a painfully drawn-out affair.

Developers Coffee Stain Studios joke that the money spent here should be used elsewhere, and although I tend to think Goat Simulator might be too expensive for what it is, that warning can be ignored for those on a quest for some gleeful carnage.