From a distance, Big Walk doesn’t look like the kind of video game that’s out to deliver a big emotional payoff. It’s a chilled out co-op game that mostly tasks you and your friends with solving puzzles scattered around an open-world island environment. Any story here is the one you invent with your friend(s) while goofing around. And yet, the “ending” of Big Walk left me speechless — in both a figurative and literal sense. The remarkable sequence snaps House House’s excellent game in place, elevating a carefree multiplayer adventure into one of the most emotionally affecting experiences I’ve ever had with a video game.

[Ed. note: End spoilers for Big Walk follow from here.]

For the bulk of Big Walk, you follow a clear structure. The island you’re exploring has multiple towers, each of which holds a key locked in place by a mechanism. You can free those keys by collecting red gourds, which are earned by completing puzzles, and placing them in receptacles within the towers. Once you complete every tower, you can open a giant gate on the island and find out what’s hiding off on the horizon.

Everything that leads up to that final moment is important to the finale. Big Walk’s puzzles require you to effectively communicate with your teammates to complete them. Sometimes that means talking it out to figure out a solution, but House House routinely toys with your ability to hear or see one another. Some puzzles drop a soundproof wall between you and your friends, requiring you to get creative in how you........

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