Big Walk Review: Is It Worth Playing With Friends?

Last checked: August 9, 2026 (US region)

This page is a review roundup based on official information, store ratings and published coverage — not a first-hand review. We have not completed our own playthrough yet; when we do, we will add it separately with platform, version, group size and playtime noted.

Short version: Big Walk's early reception is strongly positive — "Very Positive" on Steam and a high user score on the PlayStation Store — and the praise centers on its proximity-chat co-op design. But it is only a good buy if you have friends to play with: there is no single-player mode and no matchmaking.

Big Walk review scores at a glance

Dynamic figures, checked August 9, 2026. Ratings move daily.

Source	What it showed on Aug 9, 2026	How to read it
Steam (English-language reviews)	"Very Positive" — 5,995 positive out of 6,472 reviews (about 93%)	English-language players who reviewed it are strongly positive
Steam (all languages)	7,985 reviews in total	Scale of the player response
PlayStation Store (US)	4.51 / 5 across about 7.6K ratings	PS5 store users rate it highly
Metacritic (as shown on the Steam page)	92	Re-check Metacritic directly for per-platform scores

We deliberately do not average these into one "site score". Store ratings use different scales and audiences, and mashing them together would be misleading.

What Big Walk does well

These points recur across the official hands-on report on the PlayStation Blog, preview coverage such as GameSpot's, and the general shape of player reviews:

Proximity voice is not just a chat feature — it drives puzzles, separations and reunions, and creates moments people remember.
Cooperative challenges reward actually talking, observing and dividing up work, which makes finishing one feel like a shared achievement.
The open world encourages curiosity rather than waypoint-chasing.
Gestures, tools and physics interactions generate unscripted comedy.
Spending unstructured time with the same group of friends is the core pleasure — the game gives it room to happen.

Note on source types: the PlayStation Blog piece is an official hands-on report, GameSpot's article is a pre-release preview, and store ratings are player opinion. None of them is a full scored review of the finished game, and we present them as what they are.

What may frustrate players

The whole experience depends on your group actually communicating and cooperating; a silent or impatient group will bounce off it.
No matchmaking means organizing a fixed group — and, because the host owns the save, getting the same host back online to continue.
Some players and writers find the backtracking during exploration slows the pace.
Two-player runs are fully supported, but a few reviewers found some two-person situations more frustrating than larger groups. That is individual experience, not a rule.
At launch, some players found nearby voices too quiet — see the next section for what happened with that.

Was the voice chat issue fixed?

Mostly, yes — the specific complaint was. PC Gamer reported that early negative Steam reviews called nearby voices too quiet against the game's sound mix. The developers responded quickly, and a patch on August 7, 2026 raised the audibility of quieter voices.

What the patch did not do is extend how far voices carry. The developers said they consider it an important part of the design that you can only hear players who are close to you. So: quiet nearby voices = adjusted; distant players being inaudible = intentional and staying.

Is Big Walk good with two players?

Officially, yes: the host can pick a dedicated 2-player world, and the developers describe the small-group game as a focused co-op experience. Anyone claiming two players "can't" play is wrong. Whether two is better than a bigger group is taste — more players means more chaos, splitting up and surprise; fewer means tighter coordination. There is no official best number, and we will update this section with our own two-player session notes once we have them.

Who should buy Big Walk?

You already have 2–12 friends willing to play the same game across several sessions.
You like co-op puzzles, exploration and games where talking is the mechanic.
You are happy using in-game voice, text, gestures and tools instead of an always-clear Discord call.
You enjoy unscripted, sometimes messy group moments more than efficient progress.

Who should skip or wait?

You mainly play solo — there is no single-player mode.
You rely on matchmaking to find teammates.
Your group cannot reliably get the same host online to continue a save.
You strongly prefer unrestricted external voice chat.
You want a linear, combat-driven or heavily directed game.

If you are on the fence, the gameplay explainer shows how a session actually works, and the price page tracks current discounts — including the launch-window PS Plus offer on PS5.

Sources

This is an unofficial fan site. Facts above come from the official pages listed here; prices, ratings and subscription details are dynamic and were last checked on August 9, 2026.