In the Defense of Walking Simulators

You're potentially familiar with the genre of games named 'Walking Simulators.' If you're not, then it may be slightly tricky to define them. The more basic definition is that they are a genre of game that does what it says on the tin. You can walk around in some virtual setting and that's it. Some expansions might have some form of quest or otherwise, but the basic form is that you are walking and that you are playing a simulation.

This implies, inherently, that they are boring. After all, there is little to do. Where is the game? Where is the fun? You are only walking.

What the name of the genre lacks, however, is the vast variety that is possible for Walking Simulators. Or that the genre can be combined with others. In fact, as might be obvious, most of my favorite games are Walking Simulators.

For the start of my defense, I'll go to the base style that the genre could possibly have. You are set in a virtual universe with no game or puzzle aspect. You simply get to walk.

A lot can be done with this.

What can you do?

Can you run? Jump? Climb? Maybe even fly?

What are the bounds you work in? Is it open world or a set scene?

Where are you? A place on earth or somewhere far away?

All of these variables account for whether the basic Walking Simulator is interesting for each person who plays.

Take Caves RD. The genre of Walking Simulator is decently basic throughout all of the works of this creator and are pretty much in line with most player's expectations of Walking Simulator. The only difference is some simulations include game-like components. The draw is what then?

Well, each game is masterfully crafted to look like the real world. Oftentimes based on detailed real-world pictures and then brought to life in a digital form. At a height of a pandemic, when travel is at the very least difficult, these little glimpses at picturesque places are an amazing feat like no other.

But what else can a Walking Simulator be? Caves RD includes some game-like elements (albeit often limited and never atmosphere breaking), but the genre expansion is not exclusively limited to games such as these.

Take Feather by Samurai Punk, a game which I found on Steam ages ago due to browsing through random recommended games. The premise is that you're a bird, flying across an island. The island can change via portals and the bird you fly as can also change via the same system. Your aim is to collect 'em all, if you ever aim for that at all. It's different, yet very similar to Cave RD's works. It allows the player to experience a virtual experience. Less hyper-realistic, sure, but it adds a different element - flying and semi-questing - to an otherwise simple concept.

Most players of games, particularly open world, often find Walking Simulator-like aspects in their games. The difference being they don't often get nit-picked on because there are other gaming aspects that surround that particular facet. But what about Walking Simulators that genre-bend?

Walking Simulators can, of course, genre-bend. When that occurs, you either end up with some gaming aspect to a previously scene-exclusive journey or you end up learning something when a teaching aspect is added. The complaint for Walking Simulators is that they are 'boring,' 'slow,' and 'uninteresting.' By combining genres, the game ends up appealing, or trying to appeal, to two crowds. Examples then would be Abzu and Journey, by Giant Squid and ThatGameCompany respectively.

There really are only a few key differences between the spectrum of Walking Simulators between those two games and Cave RD's games and that is an aspect of collection and a story. Even then, many Walking Simulators incorporate a collection anyway, whatever example you might care to cite. The difference then, is the story. The genre bending starts when the player experiences a story of some kind, rather than first-personing it through the whole game. A story also offers, at some point, a moment of tension, which traveling through a scene might not necessarily offer at any point.

So what do Walking Simulators bring to the table? Are they really as boring as suggested?

The short answer is no. They do and have also appealed to a particular audience. I have always liked Walking Simulator and Walking Simulator-adjacent games due to there primarily peaceful gameplay as well as the fact that you don't have to be 'good' to play them. Walking Simulators are not a game genre that is for everyone, but that's because not everyone is in a headspace to wonder a beach of another country, trying to unlock the secret outlook point by taking pictures of seemingly random pathways. They offer an escape to me, however. And that seems to primarily be the point. Like all other game genres, Walking Simulators are an escape from reality. They often even provide a more convincing first-person perspective compared to rogue-lites or shooters or platformers. They offer a piece of the real world or even another world. They aren't required to be first-person, they aren't required to be slow, they aren't required to have you walk, or have no game play. But Walking Simulators give a sliver of peace to a person who needs to have it. Because of that, I'll always defend there right to be included as a good genre of games, because they offer the same wonderful fulfilment of any other game to the people who need them.