A few years ago I joined the community of a small streamer that I liked and found out that every now and then, they play Goose Goose Duck. At the time, I never played Goose Goose Duck or Among Us but I always wanted to. Then one day we did a session and I played my first game. It's a game that I waited years to play so it's hard to believe that it's now been more than two years since I first played it and put more than 200 hours into it.

A part of me is disappointed that Goose Goose Duck never became as big as Among Us. On Steam, GGD only has 70,000 ratings compared to Among Us' 600,000 and there's far fewer content on places like YouTube. But GGD is a significantly better game than Among Us.

GRAPHICS: 7/10

For a game like this, there isn't really a need for graphics because it's just a top down deduction game. There isn't much to see other than the map, the characters, and kill animations. There's a ton of detail in each map and there's so many maps to choose from. Some of the maps even have dynamic movement for some stuff like Godzilla in the new map. There's also a ton of cosmetics to choose from and the kill animations are cool. Overall, the game looks very good for what it is.

SOUND: 9/10

Just like with graphics, the game doesn't really need much with sound. There's no voice acting and there's no music during gameplay but there's so much good in this category. Each map has a variety of sound effects and ambience that work so well and there's a bunch of cool music. The theme song that plays when you're in the main menu is cool and each time there's a special event, the song is replaced with a different version of the theme. If you play the draft mode, the song that plays when you're picking your roles gets engraved in your brain after a while.

Last year I was playing an indie golf puzzle game and the draft theme was playing on one of the levels and it drove me crazy because I couldn't figure out where it was from for a while, but that made me realize that the track was pretty popular.

STORY: No

Kill your friends.

ADDICTIVENESS: 10/10

These kinds of social deduction games don't have the same gameplay mechanics as bigger games of other genres, but when you have a group to play with, you can play forever. The gameplay is very simple but the enjoyment of these games comes from being able to play with a dozen other people and the interactions between everybody. Sometimes you get a killing role like a duck, Falcon, or Sheriff and you get enjoyment from murdering your friends and trying to win. But sometimes you get a boring goose role but you'll still get enjoyment from yelling, defending, and putting together the clues.

The number of maps there are to choose from also plays a big role. Each map is very different from the others with different sabotages, tasks, and roles. Your group could spend a whole day on one map and then have completely different experiences when you switch to another. Plus the sheer number of roles and game modes plays a big part as well. That's one of the big reasons that GGD is significantly better than Among Us because you can't get the same level of gameplay in Among Us without using mods.

The core of Among Us is two imposters and a bunch of crew battling it out. Over time, Among Us added some specific imposter and crew roles to the core game, but only a few. All the videos you've seen of people playing with a variety of roles were mods. The vanilla game is very bare bones with just a few roles and two mods. Vanilla Goose Goose Duck includes more than 60 roles, 7 game modes, and roughly a dozen maps. The base game comes with so much, and there's always more being added.

During the two years that I've been playing, 4 maps and 2 game modes were added, with plans for more. As long as you have a group to play with, you're never going to get bored.

DEPTH: 10/10

Don't really need to go over this much. I already explained the sheer number of maps, roles, and game modes. There's also a ton of cosmetics and events. You can spend a hundred hours playing with one group of friends and then start all over with other people. There's so much.

DIFFICULTY: 1

The only thing that makes the game difficult is how much you know about the game and your understanding of the rules when you first start playing. When you start playing for the first time, you need to learn all the roles, the maps, the rules, and the tasks. Once you know how to play, the only thing that stops you from winning is your ability to lie or catch liars. It's an easy game.

OVERALL: 9.2/10

I already said one of the ways that GGD is better than Among Us, because of all the things that the vanilla game comes with. But another reason is that the game is fully free. Among Us is cheap but you can't beat a game that's free. The gameplay is simple and fun, and if you have enough people to play with, the game will be even more fun.