// PC GAMER — GAMING
One of Big Walk's puzzles is simple to solve but still gave us an existential crisis
The solution is a snap, but it still almost broke us.
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The island in co-op walking simulator Big Walk is home to lots of puzzles, and those puzzles can't be completed by a single player. This is a co-op game in the truest sense of the word: you can't get anywhere alone.
Some puzzles involve flipping switches in unison, others require communicating over long distances or through sound-proof glass, some need one player to describe a sequence of symbols only they can see to their teammates, who then have to replicate the sequence somewhere else. Solving a puzzle releases a prize, an object that can be used to explore further into the world and access more puzzles.
But the most vexing puzzle in Big Walk isn't really a puzzle, strictly. It's got a prize: you can see it immediately when you find the puzzle. But to solve it, you don't really have to do anything. And that's what's so devious about it.
This puzzle we came across about six hours into Big Walk doesn't look particularly dastardly. It's just a small room with a door, a couple of windows, a couch and a chair, and a table where the prize sits, waiting to be unlocked.
Hanging on the wall is what appears to be a large digital clock, reading: 00:00.
There are three of us (me, Morgan, and Tyler) and three buttons on the wall. We all press the buttons at the same time and the door to the room shuts, trapping us inside. On the wall, the clock sets itself to 05:00 and begins counting down. It's not a clock. It's a timer.
"We're gonna die. We're all gonna die!" I yell. Morgan feigns panic and begins running around with his hands over his head. But Big Walk isn't a game where things explode or you get dropped into a pit of spikes or the room begins filling up with water. This puzzle is a trap, yes, but it won't kill us.
After looking around for other puzzle elements and finding nothing, we slowly realize the grim truth of what this room wants from us, and it's far worse than spikes or drowning.