It takes more than just a little confidence for a game as silly as Goat Simulator to casually jump from the first episode all the way to a second sequel. As such, it is safe to conclude the non-existent Goat Simulator 2 were indeed all the friends we licked along the way. Still we are looking forward to it Goat Simulator 3that’s, as the name suggests, all about goats – and the crazy things they do when they get gravity jets and a license to chill.
I got a chance to play for 30 minutes Goat Simulator 3 alongside the game’s creative director, Santiago Ferrero, who had a lot to say about the upcoming game, including the fact that this new map is expected to be more than 18 times the size of the original game. That’s a lot of room to fill with goat-related antics.
Farmyard chaos
Just like the original, Goat Simulator 3 is an open-world sandbox filled with lots of stuff (and people!) to break, but it commits to a little more than most other sandboxes. You can generally do whatever you want. If you see it, you can probably manipulate it with your gravity-defying tongue, smear it with oil, and then shoot it with an automatic gumball cannon to propel it into the air at 100 kilometers per hour. That’s just one of the many new ways to assert your dominance as a goat, and they probably had it coming anyway.
The imprecisely titled threequel is a bit more directed than the original was. As you stroll around the map, you might encounter special NPCs or wander into special inner zones, like a mini Mount Doom I discovered after flying in a random direction away from the farm area where I spawned. Exploring is supposedly an even bigger deal here than in the original, and this time and as mentioned before, this map is about the size of the map of the original plus all the DLCs released before the original.
This world is full of collectible trinkets and interactive challenges that can unlock all sorts of unique outfit pieces and rear-mounted devices, such as a jetpack or a miniature Sauron whispering dark secrets to Pilgor’s ears as you play. As in the original Goat Simulator, you can lick and headbutt devices to interact with them, but the real chaos comes when you completely disrupt this world and its inhabitants and stop everyone from doing what they were doing before you arrived. There are plenty of NPCs scattered around the world, although I haven’t come across any particularly unique or memorable. Other previewers claim to have discovered things like vehicles and vehicle-based mini-games. Apparently there’s even a granny character who throws balls of yarn and guards a dungeon full of grannies, after which you can unlock a back-mounted granny who will throw balls of yarn on your behalf.
That sounds crazy, but my story had more spice. Not in the RPG sense…I mean like Tony Hawk.
pro skater
Little Pilgor can now grind along the rails like a skateboarder, and that also allows for a secondary form of fast travel: flying. I probably spent a total of 10 minutes climbing various ramps, stairs and ladders to grind the power cables and then ducking away in a random direction. This gave me a good idea of the often visually appealing world of Goat Simulator 3, which is covered with mountains and greenery contrasting with a gleaming blue ocean. But more importantly, it gave me a good position from which to spread my wings and fly.
To increase the dramatic effect of traveling this way, I even outfitted an outfit that turned Pilgor into a pig instead of a goat. Grinding unfortunately only works on certain types of rails and power lines, but if you manage to do it well enough, you can do some fun moves and cover quite a distance while you’re at it… or you can land face first on the ground and hit the nearest object. Both are at least quite entertaining.
It sounds like Goat Simulator 3 will have some kind of beginning and an end. Anyone who wants to play it with the intention of collecting every trophy and completing all the content rather than living in a wild physics sandbox indefinitely can expect to finish everything in about 20 hours, but that probably isn’t the best way to play a video game built around absolute unhinged nonsense like Goat Simulator 3 is. Instead, you’re strongly encouraged to get three of your friends together for a four-player co-op session (although Ferrero confirms players can’t play locally and online at the same time), in which you can all lick, manipulate, and effectively smash the world together for a good time.
Goat Simulator 3 releases on November 17 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S and X, and PC, where it’s exclusive to the Epic Games Store.
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