Big Walk simulates the strange, childlike sensation of being unexpectedly separated from your friends

In Big Walk, you can stumble out of range of your friends' hearing simply by accident. On one occasion, gamboling through a wood, a small crag briefly blocked our group's way - an imposition so minor it didn't even interrupt conversation. Unthinkingly, I chose to step left around the rock, while my friends went right. Within seconds, I was enveloped by a silent crowd of trees, and realised my mistake.

Setting out into one of its island zones, you'll routinely happen across mysteries designed to arouse curiosity and delight. In the trough of a valley, a sensory garden that pumps music into the wild - each speaker adding a new textural element, like bells or finger clicks, to the ambiance. On a hilltop, a cannon that fires flares high into the sky. And across the landscape, a bright-blue railway, replete with a tantalisingly stationary train.

Solving a puzzle grants you a doodah - essentially a large Kong, for those familiar with rubber dog toys - and collecting enough doodahs allows you to push the game forward. But backpacks are rare, and you can only pick up one item at a time, which means that doodahs compete with all sorts of other carryable items - including the torches that combat Big Walk's pitch-black nights. Or the walkie-talkies that might otherwise prevent you from getting left behind in the shuffle.

Sound is a recurring element of the environmental puzzles you come across, and employed in a number of imaginative ways. One conundrum requires you to simultaneously pull three levers - each one situated on a separate bluff overlooking the sea. With only the white noise of the waves as accompaniment, my friends and I gesticulated wildly across the water at each other, in clumsy attempts to coordinate.

Another devious scenario locks a single player behind soundproof glass, and asks them to wordlessly direct their peers in pressing a series of nearby buttons in the right order. A third simply gathers you together in a well-furnished sitting room and asks you to spend five minutes in each others' company - chatting, lounging, whatever.

Future ordeals were prevented as we began to pick up on the subtle, telltale hints that can clue you into the location of a distant friend. One is the glow of a player's eyes, which retain their gleam even in the dead of night. They're situated on the side of your penguin-esque head - which means that, by turning 90 degrees, you can signal your presence to any teammates who might be following behind.

Then there are the broadcast stations that sit atop Big Walk's tors and gnolls. Ideally, someone on the team will be carrying a walkie-talkie to capture any transmissions that come down from on high. But if not, you can observe the radio's signal light from afar. Should it turn green, then you know someone's speaking into it, and can pin down precisely where they are.

Information in Big Walk is gathered through trial and error, and every team will develop their own haphazard systems for staying in touch. Some will create a rudimentary morse code that travels via flashlights; others will seek out and cling to the megaphones scattered throughout the land. And before then, every last player will stumble about in the quiet, get into scrapes in the dark, and find their way home only once the sun comes up.

Big Walk is available on Mac, Nintendo Switch 2, PC, and PlayStation 5.