The Untitled Goose Is Loose In Resident Evil 2
No one can deny the mischievous charm of HouseHouse's Untitled Goose Game, especially not modders as it turns out. The game's unnamed goose protagonist has become something of a meme, showing up in unexpected places... such as your playthrough of the Resident Evil 2 remake.
Resident Evil 2 modder Alister has taken the liberty of making the game more terrifying than ever by replacing Mr. X, the hulking (yet stylish) antagonist of the game with Untitled Goose Game's titular goose. And we have to say: there's just something particularly unsettling about a crashed helicopter being carelessly tossed aside by a stiff-winged, nine foot tall goose with a fedora. Yes, the fedora was a necessary addition. How else would be differentiate the Mr. X goose from run of the mill water fowl? In the words of Alister, "And yes he's keeping the Fedora because he is just so Fancy like that."
Untitled Goose Chase? #Modding #RE2 #MrX #UntitleGooseGame @panic pic.twitter.com/IZUGLTxDS6
— 🎃 ΛLISTΞR 🎃 (@xZombieAlix) October 19, 2019
Alister's tweet featuring the gif of the terrifying goose facing down an unprepared Claire Redfield went viral, with ten thousand-some retweets and around 25,000 likes. This just goes to show the power of the goose, a simple but ingenious character that has taken the internet by storm. It wouldn't necessarily be out of character for HouseHouse's own goose to harass Leon and Claire around on a — dare we say it — wild goose chase. Light-hearted harassment and mischief is the name of the game when it comes to Untitled Goose Game. It is the goose's mission to cause a little havoc and make a lot of honks.
Speaking of honks: will this Mr. X goose honk? We're asking the real questions here. Alister followed up his initial tweet with the reassurance that, "the final version will include extra HONKS." That's honks in all caps, folks. He means business. Indeed, Alister has something of a history with creating viral Resident Evil mods. Previously he gained a small slice of internet fame after he made the most terrifying version of Mr. X known to man: the Thomas the Tank Engine mod. Sure, other modders have made it so that pop culture killers like Jason Voorhees or Pennywise the Clown are chasing you around the maze of a police station, but there is a unique kind of horror to the idea of a dead-eyed but sentient train from a children's program doggedly pursuing you in the dark. Thomas makes those happy-go-lucky whistles downright spooky.
Alister is still working on the goose mod, promising to post a video once the mod in complete. Hopefully this will include those HONKS he previously alluded to. One of the most popular, and entertaining, Mr. X mods is the addition of DMX's "X Gon' Give It to Ya" to the game. Wherever Mr. X goes, his theme music follows. Faint rap music in the background suddenly becomes ominous because of this mod. We can imagine that a muffled, telltale honk will soon give players the same jolt of horror.
If you think about it, the goose of Untitled Goose Game is something of a Mr. X himself. The goose shows up out of nowhere, scaring and sometimes downright terrorizing the people of its small, sleepy town. One of the key mechanics of the game is to honk at certain times to scare the wits out of unsuspecting victims so that they do something like accidentally hammer their thumb. This goose is something of a sadist. There's one townsperson — a young boy with blonde hair — who is absolutely terrified of the goose. It can go so far as to frighten him into locking himself in a phone booth. We might just have to call this kid Leon from now on.
Alister's Mr. X mod comes at a time when everyone and their grandmother seems to be hooked on the honks of Untitled Goose Game. It's a simple but intensely satisfying game that challenges players to be the best goose they can be, which means being the worst neighbor possible by stealing things, harassing others, and generally being a nuisance. The developers at HouseHouse were originally intending to give the game a name, but their project earned such notoriety and acclaim by the working title that it just stuck. This is just another quirk that puts Untitled Goose Game at the top of our list of favorite games of 2019.
We'll undoubtedly be seeing more Resident Evil 2 mods as time goes on, and hopefully, more mods that stick the now-famous "Untitled Goose" into places he clearly doesn't belong. As we come across mods of either sort, we'll definitely keep you updated.