For about 15 hours and 57 minutes of our 16-hour playthrough of Big Walk, my kids and I laughed as we stumbled down cliffsides, put our heads together to solve dozens of inventive puzzles, and rejoiced whenever we’d finish a task and that small burst of confetti would shoot out, unlocking our all-important “eggy things” we’d need to beat the game. That experience already made Big Walk one of the best co-op games I’ve ever played. But the final three minutes solidified the game as a strong Game of the Year contender, delivering a bittersweet gut punch that felt like peering into the future and seeing my kids as young adults leaving home for the first time.
Waring: Big Walk ending spoilers ahead!
While the last hour or two of the game already provides an amazing twist to the gameplay (in a way I won’t explain here so as not to spoil any more than I already need to), it’s these final minutes that take it even beyond that already unforgettable display. Having hit the credits, which we watched together on a screen set up on the island’s final area, I and my kids, ages 13 and 7, then approached a bridge that awaited us at the very end of the landmass.
On it was a turnstile door much like the many others we’d seen in the game up to that point. But this one was different. No puzzle awaited us on the other side. Instead, a button beside it provided wordless instructions that I probably intuited a moment before them. We were being told to pass through the turnstile one at a time, according to the coded sign that lit up with three circles aligned vertically, matching our silly characters’ color schemes.
With a press of the button, the sign lit up teal, pink, and yellow. My daughter was being called upon first. She passed through the gate. Neither my son nor I could join her. Only one of us at a time could pass through. It was clear then, after so many hours working together and bonding so closely, inseparable and totally reliant on each other’s patience, communication, and puzzle-brained knowhow, that we were being asked to part ways on our own.
