Big Walk begins the way all great co-op games should: a few friends in the same space, immediately poking at everything just to see what happens. I was able to bring two friends from the PS Blog team along to my hands-on session with House House’s upcoming cooperative adventure, because this is not just a game you play with friends. It is a game about what happens when you do.

We started in a showroom purpose-built to help us find our Big Walk legs. We ran, jumped, crouched, sat, and generally threw ourselves around until movement felt natural.

The first standout detail was independent arm movement. R2 and L2 raise each individual arm, and R1 and L1 point them forward. It feels instinctive, and while it may sound trivial, all that arm flailing quickly becomes a shared language. Waving, hand-raising, and other erratic gestures start to mirror natural in-person conversation, with plenty of pointing and “look over there!”

From there we graduated to the basics: grabbing and lifting objects (and, critically, each other), pressing buttons, throwing balls, shaking bells. Once we felt in control of our limbs, we headed out for the promised big walk.

The walk begins

Stepping out into the open air, two things became immediately clear.

One: the outside comes with a day/night cycle. We quickly realized we’d need to carry the light sources scattered around the area to stay effective in our exploration after dark. 

Two: proximity chat is the conversational glue that keeps your cooperative crew tight. Drift too far and you’ll lose the conversation, and with it, the shared moment. The result is a gentle push toward staying together, and there was a genuine sense of concern whenever one of our party strayed into the bush without us.

Later, there were times when splitting up and organizing made sense, but Big Walk wants to be a shared experience rather than people operating in parallel. Even when you’re briefly apart, the game nudges you toward staying in contact. It’s easy to imagine that becoming its own challenge once you’re relying on tools and whatever the world gives you to keep connected. During our walk, we found telescopes to watch other players as they solved a puzzle far away, and flares which could be used to reunite with lost companions, so there will no doubt be other options in the final adventure.

Curiosity as a compass

Now that we were outside, we did what players always do in a new world: we followed our natural instincts toward whatever looked interesting. This did not lead us astray. The island seems huge, and a few colourful structures stand out in the distance against the natural landscape. They demand investigation, so we walked.

In fact, the moments between the puzzles were as delightful as the puzzles themselves. The theorising and chatting away are a core part of the fun. Once we reached a structure, we’d circle and examine it from every angle. Someone would point out a detail. Someone else would try an interaction; flick a switch, pull a lever, unlock a door. After a bit of back and forth, it would click. We’d understand what it wanted from us, and the game would open the path forward.

And so we walked again. 

Here for the vibes

Big Walk gave us exactly what we wanted: a space to get lost with friends. Shared joyful moments punctuated by contemplative exploration, friendly chatter, small bursts of dopamine when teamwork paid off, and an undercurrent of playful chaos and mischief. We ruined our own plans. We fixed them together. The island became a playground.

The proximity chat and physical expressiveness offered by developer House House’s design lay the groundwork for connection, while the rules, physics and objects of the world make it a perfect sandbox for high jinks and shenanigans.

We left our preview cackling about our favourite moments, and with a group chat full of plans to return.

Gather your friends. Two to twelve players can go on a whimsical Big Walk together on PS5 when the game launches into PlayStation Plus as a Monthly Game later this year.