In this house we love animals, and that means loving the underdogs as well as the actual dogs. When people call pigeons “rats with wings” I laugh at their stupidity, because that sounds lovely. Rats are cuddly and adorable after all, especially the two peeking at me from across the room as I write this. As a youngster I hated spiders but now I own three, because all animals deserve love even if that’s in the form of tasty flies. Seagulls are another pest that deserve respect, and Goeland: Seagull Adventure only makes me more certain of that.
Goeland is essentially a sandbox game, but one where you play as a seagull. As this seaside bird you’re given lots of different tasks to complete, with plenty of different ways to do so. In this (soon to be public) demo there was very little of the main quest to complete, but it seems to revolve around stopping sewage from being pumped into the ocean. The start of the game sees you stuck in an oil slick and injured, which clearly fuels the avian revenge plot.
As a seagull your abilities start fairly limited. You can walk around, make some noise, pick up items, and after a brief tutorial unlock the ability to fly. Much of your time in Goeland will be spent soaring above the people of this world, and searching for secrets from a handy aerial perspective. The environment is so densely packed with things to interact with too, and this’ll bring you down to earth so you can play about with them.
Almost every time you stumble across a new area or item you’ll unlock a new objective or two associated with it, and they’re often pretty straightforward. This helps you learn stuff like how to eat bananas and carry items around, and these are transferable skills you’ll use to solve all sorts of puzzles. There’s always something new to play around with, and more importantly cause chaos with.
I spent my first few moments with Goeland: Seagull Adventure just picking up random items to mess about with the world. I dropped balls from great heights, stole produce from a shop, and then found a surfboard. At first I merely planned on dragging this around for a bit, but as I mashed the grab button I noticed I’d snatched the fin off the board and placed it on my head. With this new fin I was able to swim into the water and scare swimmers, complete with the Jaws theme that sped up as I got closer. This was the first of many delightful interactions with this silly world, and the best was yet to come.
After accomplishing a few more goals I was given some bottle caps, which serve as currency for the local bird merchant. It’s here where you’ll buy new abilities, like a handy dash or the ability to shit on command. Obviously the poo power is the star of the show, and it actually has more functions than you’d expect. For example coating solar panels in faeces can power down electronics, and whoever came up with that particular mechanic deserves an award.
It may sound silly (and it is) but Goeland is a much deeper game than many will give it credit for. When tasked with breaking into the back room of a tool shop I found three ways to do so, and each of them made sense in this universe. The world actually has a lot of logic to it, with things like repairmen who appear in real time to block off holes you create. So much thought has been put into this daft sandbox game, and it almost feels similar to an immersive sim because of it.
The demo of Goeland: Seagull Adventure is short but dense, and it made me confident that the full game will be a squawking good time. This shamelessly silly sandbox is full of so many clever ideas, and playing around with the world and its people is just delightful. It’d be easy to write off Goeland as a daft game with no substance, but you’ll be the fool if you do.
Goeland: Seagull Adventure is coming to PC via Steam in 2026.
